I found this article this morning about airline complaints. I thought the timing uncanny seeing as how I had the worst experience flying on my recent trip to California. Check this out:
Airline Passenger Complaint Soaring
I find it odd that airlines are complaining about not making enough money and fuel prices being high while at the same time lowering their quality of customer service and care. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep customers happy in able to ensure that they'll keep flying and thus, keep money coming into the companies? I'm not saying that they should offer first class services to coach class passengers but they shouldn't leave people behind in the terminals, arrive to the gate half an hour late or more, and take off an hour late or more (personal experience from my trip). Because of one bad experience, I will never fly with U.S. Airways again. I really wish this article had come out before I bought my tickets because I may have made the decision to fly with another airline since U.S. Air has so many customer complaints, "The biggest change was in the rate of consumer complaints, up 60 percent overall. The rate more than doubled at US Airways...". Tickets aren't cheap and I expect more for my money.
Showing posts with label US Airways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Airways. Show all posts
Monday, April 07, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
I'm Home Again
I arrived home early this morning, around 2 am EDT. I had the flight from hell on the way home and on the way there, it was worse. Here's the story.
My departure flight was scheduled for 5:50 am. We got to the airport at 5:20 which was cutting it close, I know, but we didn't realize the airport was clear out in the middle of fricking nowhere. I go to the ticket counter and it's closed. The Jacksonville airport is so teeny that US Airways has one person to do everything. The person that does the ticketing also does boarding so as a result, they close the ticket counter 30 minutes prior to take off so that the airline person can do boarding. I've never seen an airport do this, so I had no idea and as a result, I missed my flight...me and five other people. Because of scheduling, I didn't leave Jacksonville until 1 something. In that time, I saw two other US Airways flights depart and they left passengers behind on both of them because of their policy.
THEN, on my return flight, I get out of LAX okay and I arrive in Charlotte 20 minutes early only to sit on the taxiway for half an hour because there was another plane at our gate that was delayed because of backups in New York. Ugh! THEN, on my flight from Charlotte to Jacksonville, we boarded the plane at 9:50 pm and we didn't take off until 11:20!!!! Our plane had indicator lights come on so we sat on the freaking hot plane for an hour and a half. And I'm sick and when I get hot, I start to have uncontrollable coughing fits. I coughed for like 20 minutes until the flight attendant finally brought out water for everyone to drink. I wanted to die.
My whole flight experience was the worst. I've flown many, many times and this was, by far, the most nightmarish and it was also the only time I've flown with US Airways. The only time because I won't be flying with them again. They also advertise their credit card in flight as well. I've never seen an airline do this before. How cheesy.
Anyway, my last night in San Diego was fun. I took Jennifer to Forever Fondue because her birthday is on Sunday. The food was awesome and I had two cosmos that came in full glasses with actual alcohol in them. Fondue restaurants are fun if you've never tried one.
My entire time in California was the best. I can't think of anything that I wanted to do that we didn't do. When we went to Balboa Park in San Diego, we also went to Petco Park which was under construction when we moved, and we drove to Miramar and our old base housing which was neat. I miss our old life there sometimes. Oh. And gas was $3.46 on base whereas it was $3.61 - $3.75 out in town depending on where you are. Here, gas is sometimes one or two cents more on base than out in town which is irritating, but whatever.
All in all, it was a wonderful, fabulous time and I took home tons of great memories. Seeing Jennifer and her kids after almost seven years was the best part. How many people do you know will have you in their home and then drive you all over creation while you act like an insane tourist? We're both hoping that it won't be another 7 years before we see each other again. I'll have pictures up in the next day or two. I'm still jet lagged, not feeling well, and I need to get them uploaded and edited first.
My departure flight was scheduled for 5:50 am. We got to the airport at 5:20 which was cutting it close, I know, but we didn't realize the airport was clear out in the middle of fricking nowhere. I go to the ticket counter and it's closed. The Jacksonville airport is so teeny that US Airways has one person to do everything. The person that does the ticketing also does boarding so as a result, they close the ticket counter 30 minutes prior to take off so that the airline person can do boarding. I've never seen an airport do this, so I had no idea and as a result, I missed my flight...me and five other people. Because of scheduling, I didn't leave Jacksonville until 1 something. In that time, I saw two other US Airways flights depart and they left passengers behind on both of them because of their policy.
THEN, on my return flight, I get out of LAX okay and I arrive in Charlotte 20 minutes early only to sit on the taxiway for half an hour because there was another plane at our gate that was delayed because of backups in New York. Ugh! THEN, on my flight from Charlotte to Jacksonville, we boarded the plane at 9:50 pm and we didn't take off until 11:20!!!! Our plane had indicator lights come on so we sat on the freaking hot plane for an hour and a half. And I'm sick and when I get hot, I start to have uncontrollable coughing fits. I coughed for like 20 minutes until the flight attendant finally brought out water for everyone to drink. I wanted to die.
My whole flight experience was the worst. I've flown many, many times and this was, by far, the most nightmarish and it was also the only time I've flown with US Airways. The only time because I won't be flying with them again. They also advertise their credit card in flight as well. I've never seen an airline do this before. How cheesy.
Anyway, my last night in San Diego was fun. I took Jennifer to Forever Fondue because her birthday is on Sunday. The food was awesome and I had two cosmos that came in full glasses with actual alcohol in them. Fondue restaurants are fun if you've never tried one.
My entire time in California was the best. I can't think of anything that I wanted to do that we didn't do. When we went to Balboa Park in San Diego, we also went to Petco Park which was under construction when we moved, and we drove to Miramar and our old base housing which was neat. I miss our old life there sometimes. Oh. And gas was $3.46 on base whereas it was $3.61 - $3.75 out in town depending on where you are. Here, gas is sometimes one or two cents more on base than out in town which is irritating, but whatever.
All in all, it was a wonderful, fabulous time and I took home tons of great memories. Seeing Jennifer and her kids after almost seven years was the best part. How many people do you know will have you in their home and then drive you all over creation while you act like an insane tourist? We're both hoping that it won't be another 7 years before we see each other again. I'll have pictures up in the next day or two. I'm still jet lagged, not feeling well, and I need to get them uploaded and edited first.
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