Once again, U.S. airlines remain the most common source for outrageous acts and policies that populate this category on the blog — reserved for the irritations and insults of daily life. Today’s subject is USAIR. I am in New Orleans for a speech trying to get home. Travelers to the Northeast have been instructed to call USAIR on their flights in light of Hurricane Sandy. However, I have literally tried for ten hours to try to reach a live USAIR representative. Instead, you are forced to go through various steps before the line is cut off with a message that you should call back later. It may be the worst level of customer support I have ever witnessed by a major airline.
I have spoken with others who have had better luck with other airlines but USAIR appears to have virtually shutdown customer support from accounts from others encountering the same problem. I have tried on both Saturday and Sunday to reach anyone at USAIR, which has clearly decided not to add sufficient personnel to handle the weather situation. You cannot even stay on hold for USAIR. The airline just cut off the line. I have previously complained about USAIR which is widely ridiculed for such low levels of service. However, this situation is truly unbelievable.
However, what again concerns me is the consistent and growing lack of customer support or even concern by airlines. It seems to be an industry that is plummeting in the level of accommodation or responsibility shown to its customers who are treated as a captive audience.
UPDATE: ultimately, US Air cancelled all of the flights today despite the fact that conditions in D.C. were quite mild today according to friends in the area. It seems the airlines were primarily concerned about the location of the planes as opposed to the immediate weather. I was literally on the telephone nearly non-stop for four hours before I spoke to a human being at US Air. The person that I spoke to said that they had so few people that they had hundreds just on hold — and those were the lucky ones who did not get disconnected. The question is the lack of staffing shown by the airline. Once I was on the line, I was told that if the airline sent me to a different city that was nearer to D.C., US Air would charge for the new ticket since it was not in the immediate vicinity of Reagan National. It was a complete and utter mess. We will likely drive back to D.C. in the morning and we would have driven earlier except for the messages from US Air to speak with an agent on a new flight (a process that took some many hours and resulted in an assurance that the airline could not fly us to Washington until Tuesday — subject to further cancellations). I do not blame US Air for the weather or even the cancellations. It is the lack of customer support shown by the airline in every possible way today.
Did you have this trouble with this same airline before? Will you book a flight with them again? Perhaps pay for this counterfeit service with counterfeit money. Or eat a lot of beans while awaiting your flight in the airport and pass gas at the service desk and as you pass the pilot on the way aboard. You cannot pass the gas itself over the phone but you can pass on the sounds once you get someone on the other end. If you want to book a flight they will answer.
While I understand your frustration, in the grand scheme of “things that tick me off”, it seems somewhat trivial. Enjoy extra time in New Orleans!
I used to like USAir. However, I have not flown any of their routes in years, so not able to judge the current level of service. I prefer driving or flying myself to commercial. I will only take a commercial flight if the trip is more than a two or three day drive, that is how much I hate the TSA and lousy airliine service.
Back in the day when fares were regulated, airlines had to compete with improved passenger comfort, amenities, and good customer service. When Ronnie Raygun deregulated the airlines, they dropped prices to almost unsustainable levels and cut out all the things that made flying a fun experience. Then TSA came along and made the experience even more miserable.
FB, no need to hassle the help. The airlines mistreat everyone, from the pilot down to the desk clerks. The place to take complaints and any spare methane is the corporate offices where overpaid executives try to figure out new and creative ways to screw the flying public.
Yikes JT. It might be better to fly more east, then drive in from there.
It looks like it is going to get more and more nasty in the Northeast for a few days.
Take the train.
You have my sympathies which is, sadly, at this time, all I can offer.
I do feel badly for people who are forced to use the airways for travel and have the great misfortune to be stuck with a carrier like US Airways. They have your money but seem to be almost unwilling to provide you with the least bit of service.
this is the URL for their live flight tracker if that helps at all:
http://flightaware.com/live/fleet/AWE
It’s not referred to as USELESSAIR for nothing.
I’ve heard that United flight 1 from New York to Los Angeles full of passangers makes the airline $100.00. Maybe if U.S. Airways doubled their fares the costumer service would improve. You only get what you pay for.
What OS said.
That being said, getting good customer service anywhere from any industry is this country seems to be the exception and not the norm.
I had nothing but bad experiences with US Airways and I refuse to fly with them presently. Even if they are less money it is not worth the risk of problems later.
Alaska Air is my favorite, followed by KLM.
It seems there is this want on behalf of many businesses to shunt customers to online / automated services. While this has advantages for both sides it is not a panacea. Nor is the replacement of professional employees with cheap warm body type labor.
Just be mindful they don’t cancel your reservation altogether. Continental did that to me and my daughters the Christmas of the blizzard. They offered to sell us a flight 5 days later but refused to honor the tickets they canceled. I’ve never flown with them since.
Sorry you are in a fix…but customer service has become sucky everywhere. Cell phone service rots….anything tecnical is a crap shoot. Deregulation + profit taking has gutted quality service in the US. While air travel is especially creepy to encounter not-enough-help as it is almost guaranteed to increase flight anxiety, the lack of professional response in many fields can put people at risk. Good Luck ! (flying into the storm at Halloween sounds a tad …mmm, cool….)
Bruce is right about the price / service issue. If the airline had higher margins it would improve things. I don’t know how much the airline would be able to encourage customers to be willing to pay more when people have been conditioned into being very price sensitive with air fares, especially when the emphasis is placed on flights as a commodity such as cheapflights . com or expedia . com. so price becomes the most important consideration for many consumers.
Personally, I dislike flying commercial if it is longer than 4 hours but where I tend to travel this is not pragmatic. Airlines can do much to alleviate the boredom which for me is the worst part of flying. I always take a window seat to help, but if the airline brought the passengers something every half hour such as a snack, meal, or a pop to drink. A few intercontinental flights I was on started offering on demand music / movies and games to play with other passengers and that was a godsend. I would have paid $50.00 extra for that option just to maintain my sanity. Things like that might help the bottom line.
Too bad someone doesn’t form an airline named “Sedation Airways” where all passengers are unconscious during the flight. They could pack us in like cattle and nobodfy would care. Their theme song; “I wanna be sedated” by the Ramones.
More passengers, higher revenue. But there might be too much competition from Versed Air who’s motto is (with Brooklyn Accent) “Forget about it”
Not a bad idea, Darren. But I submit this alternative for your consideration . . .
My sympathies. If a company can put a mild mannered law professor on the verge of going postal then it must be the Yugo of airlines. I’ve not flown them for probably 20 years. Looks like I’ll put THEM on my Do Not Fly List. We citizens can make our own lists ya know.
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“White girl’s desk – $75 (clifton park)”
I know this is off topic but I had to laugh when I saw this ad in Craigslist while trying to find a desk to buy.
I am quite sure the ad heading was inadvertently written.
The desk, in fact, is white and I am sure it would be be sold to anyone regardless of their color.
OS,
It wasn’t Ronnie Raygun that deregulated the airline industry…
He had his hands full screwing the Air Traffic Controllers.
It was the gentleman from Georgia that deregulated..
Jimmy Carter on the advice of Alfred Kahn head of the CAB.
The year was 1978.
Professor,
If you think it’s bad now, just wait until US Air merges with
or buys out American….
I suggest you take your complaints to the top:
douglas.parker@usairways.com
I have found that to be an excellent way to get some customer service. It doesn’t always work and sometimes it only goes so far but it usually gets some results.
Bud,
Funny how memory plays tricks. We must not forget that Delta is headquartered in Atlanta. And Atlanta Hartsfield Airport is a major hub for most important airlines that provide service to the US. Would it be too cynical of me to speculate on some favors?
Plains, Georgia is not all that far from Atlanta. Just a short drive for an airline executive in a limousine.
You guys keep curing my longings to visit my folks over the holidays. If it is not one reason then it is another.
Traveling is one problem, surviving is another.
Apparently Washington, DC NW is still a white refuge, but other parts there are death zones. Is it true that Capitol Hill employees ride guarded tram-trolleys to their parked cars?
Since when does 75 mph sustained winds make a hurricane. Sounds like hysteria Chicken Little trying to cover the end of the campaign with a distraction. Has your beer gone stale waiting for the Romney investment in Ohio voting machines to pay off? Ach-ach, ja! as we say here.
BTW, that was not a racist slur. A Washingtonian of good repute said that “Trayvon Martin would not survive 10 minutes in the NW section”.
I would not naturally know.
We are all white here in Sweden, no matter what your skin color is.
So why do you fly an airline that you have had multiple bad experiences with?
Well, now, Mr. Turley, let’s take a different peek at this:
Flight delays all over the Northeast costing the airlines millions, and beleaguered cities/counties billions.
Airport ground-staff; EMS, cops & buses, food providers, hospitals, construction sites, schools & a presidential election – ALL affected to the max, by an event over which they had no control.
At least 5 dozen poor folks dead; 8,000 injured.
And you say, “What again concerns me is the consistent and growing lack of customer support or even concern by airlines.”
Or maybe at the moment they’re focused on keeping their planes from crashing?
I’m guessing that in the time you’ve invested in complaining, you probably could have driven home.
So here’s a thought: While the storm of the decade is still killing people and destroying neighborhoods, lets not dwell on your inconvenience.
This storm has been brewing for a week. So I’m guessing that you – a pretty bright fellow in your own right – probably knew the storm was headed in the direction of your home airport, well before you left.
I submit we all channel our inner-Amish, and stop blaming everybody else for the end result of our own decisions.
P.S. I do hope by now you’re already home, safe, warm & well-fed.
Hurricane strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale:
Cat. 1: 74-95 mph
Cat. 2: 96-110 mph
Cat. 3: 111-129 mph
Cat. 4 130-156 mph
Cat 5: 157 mph or higher
Category 1 & 2 can cause widespread wind damage and flooding. They are serious and can cause significant damage and loss of life under the right conditions.
Category 3, 4 & 5 are classified as “Major Hurricanes” and cause extensive severe damage and flooding.
The maximum crosswind capability of most tricycle gear airplanes is about 45 mph (39 kt.) and I am here to tell you that is pushing the safety limit to the max with no margin for error. Conventional tailwheel airplanes have very low crosswind capability.
JT, I worked for US Airways in the international division at the main office here in Tempe. I worked for them for five years, and when the financial crisis started to bite (about four years ago) they layed off 10% of the workforce nation wide. I was among the lucky to be layed off. We had monthly meetings where issues about ticketing, baggage fees (this was just as they started these fees), and passenger complaints were aired and discussed. Doug Parker (the CEO) attended many of these meetings and I can tell you that the ‘powers that be’ don’t give a damn about the service or the passengers complaints. Even though I worked for US Airways,and had non-rev priveliges, I always tried to fly Southwest. Yes, I had to pay for the ticket, but at least I was treated with respect.
http://gethuman.com/phone-number/US-Airways/
Good luck professor. My daughter is stuck in the outer banks because her flight back to chicago scheduled for tomorrow has been rescheduled for Wednesday! Roads are being closed so they may not be able to drive out either. Crazy storm!
Patric w/ some tough love!! I can think of many worse cities in which to be stranded. Laissez bons temp roulez.
Rafflaw,
Which outer banks? NC? Where? She should get back to the mainland if she is there. But don’t know where storm center is now.
Vous parlez bien francais mon cher Nicois
I would not fly into the ‘Biggest Storm to Ever Hit the United States’…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/28/us-storm-sandy-hurricane-idUSBRE89N16J20121028
Safe Home….
I’m with W=^..^
Discretion seems the better part of valor in this instance.
Gene contributed:
“Not a bad idea, Darren. But I submit this alternative for your consideration . . .”
Interesting song. But with regard to the airlines, maybe they’re claiming to seduce their passengers with sweet nothings when they are really screwing them. Guess it’s just a matter of perspective. Dog eat dog world out there.
The wind strength is barely hurricane velocity.
The curent wind at Cape Hatteras is 32 mph.
—————-
“Tonight Tropical storm conditions expected. Showers. Low around 58. North wind 35 to 45 mph, with gusts as high as 65 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.”
But it has been mentioned that the picture is complicated by a polar weather waiting over New Encland which can give snow effects and loss of electricity.
It is not helping Obama, who will go back to Washington to steer symbolically the ship of state, while Romny can continue Ohio may be the key.
Are you on standard time or summertime there. It is 23:26 here.
Getting back to airlines, will drop this idea on you:
I am not a capitalist, nor an investor but I figured this out recently. It may help others or may be disproven.
We mostly focus on the company execs who we believe
are the overpaid drones who do terrible things to the detriment of the employees and yes even customers. Well we are right so far.
But there are other layers of control of the company:
Board of Directors appointed by…
Major owners ie investors and….
The market composed of large but not major invesrors: finance, insurance and in Europe pension funds.
Now all ot these look at one indicator: ROI Return on Investment.
If the company has bad ROI, then the money leaves, the stock price goes down, and the major owners take a hit, board members get fired, and so do executives.
So who steers the company? The market.
Just recently Bill Clinton was linked here from an interview on Fox News. One of the first things he mentioned was that upon becoming President that he found out that the USA was in bad money shape, and he did not have room for the things he had promised and hoped to do. He had to fix the money problems first or the ship might start sinking.
So it works all the way up. All are competing on the same ROI market. Go to it execs, beat the slaves.
Stop listening to customer complaints.
Now TonyC will come in as he has done before and show how he as a CEO would do it better.
Welcome TonyC. Take us for a nice airplane ride.
Thinking of JTs: “things that tick me off: USAIR”—-for example.
Professor Turley,
please don’t take this wrong, but i hope the attorneys for u.s. airways send you a nasty letter telling of the dire consequences if you don’t immediately take down your blog posting.
i like fireworks
Stuck in New Orleans? You poor, poor, professor. Next time take a train. It’s like heaven.
“It’s like heaven.”
Other than the food and moody architecture? Not so much.
Signed,
A Former Long Time Resident of New Orleans
I have traveled for my job for 40 years now and it has become ridiculously inconvenient in the last 15 years. When I started a RT ticket to San Fransisco cost me $300, there was a lot of leg room, service was marvelous, there was food and soft drinks the crew made very good money with nice benefits and the airlines were making money even though they were regulated.
I just had to pay $800 for a ticket to Las Vegas and SF would be nearly $1000 (inflation adjusted 300 would be between 6-700). I will waste a day between security and crappy service. The planes are dirty and cramped the crews increasingly poorly paid and the airlines whine endlessly they are losing money despite being “freed from thee burden of regulation”.
We never fly for vacation any more, its just not worth the hassle and it is cheaper, even calculating in hotels and meals, than flying.
USAir—I’ve been trying to avoid them for years although my few recent experiences were less bad than say Delta. In general, airlines are canceling flights going into DC and other east coast hubs. Stuck in the OBX—should have left days ago.
OS,
You hit the nail on the head…..customer service is a thing of the past for American travelers…. Now take virgin air or basically any Saudi airline…..it’s a totally different story…..
Regarding the storm. A bit of advice:
ID, Merci beaucoup, mon frere’.
A modest proposal. Socialize means of publc transportation. Take the profit motive out of it and let their service be subject to public wrath. Of course it’s Jonathan Swift I’m thinking of………………Or am I?
My wife is in Hawaii right now on vacation. I am not with her. Reason: I simply will not fly. Not afraid, simply unwilling to endure the misery perpetrated by TSA and by the airline industry.
With rising gas prices, fuel efficiency in vehicles has become more important than ever. While many hybrid cars offer fuel efficiency ratings over 40 mpg, only a select few reach 61 mpg. Cars with over 60 mpg fuel efficiency are some of the most fuel-efficient cars on the market, including models by Ford, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen.
With the figures which Frankly offered above, there is an obvious answer. They are lying about there results, someone is siphoning off the profits, or there are costs not seen by us, the complainers.
The figure given earlier about 100 profit on a full flight to the West Coast is ridiculous, as a business model.. Headwinds would leave them with a large deficit on that flight.
Cautions on sociallistic solutions. It did not work in the three participating Scandinavian countries.
Firet run by a savvy businessman, and then by bureaucrats, the palace they built for the expanding “management” was soon taken away and they sit in a hovel, counting the days until the next personnel cut.
Many studies and books have been written about the airline business. So any links? Where lies the problem(s)?
From what I’ve seen if you leave it up to government to fix a problem, the problem usually gets worse.
Even worse, Bruce. If you have a problem and you go to the government to provide the help it’s supposed to provide to solve the problem, it gets MUCH WORSE.
My motto at work was always “Never ask for permission.”
Only once I did, because they forced me to do so. I got a budget of 200 KSEKs. Spent 1,5 million. The greatest show the CEO had ever seen, he said.
For those interested in traveling and the storm.
This shows how dependable the trains are. Explanations?
“The storm was also impacting travel by air, train, and bus. In addition to the MBTA shutdown this afternoon, Amtrak canceled Northeast Corridor service at 7 p.m. Sunday. It announced today that it was canceling all service south from Boston to Raleigh, N.C., and from the East Coast to Chicago, New Orleans, and Florida through Tuesday. At Logan International Airport, 900 flights were canceled, or about 90 percent of those scheduled.
Now is it the storm or WTF with this nation? Where is the postman, through whatever. And we are a modern nation?