So after being a little miffed that I didn't get bumped on either segment on my trip DCA-CLT-CHS on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (how am I supposed to pay for my travel without bump vouchers?!?), I check my flights the day before I return to realized that I actually booked a CHS-IAD flight on UAX instead of CHS-DCA flight on USX. No big deal, I'll fly United. It's little more than an hour.

So bumpfest begins on UAX. I stay an extra night and end up with 3 bumps. Well, after bump #3, UAX puts me on DL (UGH!!!). They also suggested to ask around the check-in counters to see if an airline had any open seats where I didn't have to wait 4 more hours. Like a dutiful cockroach, I walk up to the US ticket counter and explain what happened. I spent 3 of the 7 minutes explaining why I couldn't use the kiosk to the gentleman. Then, the attitude began. The GA said to me without checking any availability, "We're full. Go somewhere else and stop using my counter space." I turned around and saw no one waiting in line and 2 open kiosks. I had been quite polite and not even mentioned my GP status. I asked if he could simply check to see if a seat was available on any US flights. He then said to me, "You're not on my airline, so I can't help you" and walked off. I immediately asked to see the station manager, and he said as walked into a back room that he was the manager and he didn't want to see me at the ticket counter again.

I was FURIOUS! I eventually went out on the DL flight, but was still seeting when I woke up this morning. Any suggestions on how I should deal with this? I plan to write a letter to CA. Anythign else I should do?

Call Consumer Affairs. That is completely unacceptable. You should have said you were preferred on US by flashing your card. Even though that should not have mattered. Here is CA's number 866.523.5333 He was not very professional at all

I have to ask.... was the guy wearing a uniform? That "I am the manager" comment kinda cracked me up. If he really was, he won't be for long.

Unbelievable and very very sad. They should view every reaccomodated pax from another airline as a potential new "customer for life".

Believe me, the last two times I was reaccomodated due to US screw ups I was very carefully evaluating DL's and NW's service to see if the grass was any greener on their side of the fence.

Oh, &*#)($%)&*%)(*&)( - absolutely complain. They are in a customer service business. The opportunity to help a customer, whether old or new is an opportunity to build a better relationship with more business with a customer. I had a reservation all messed up decades ago on UA, not sure how it happened and it was during a chaotic time with the airlines. I hadnt flown much, and it might have been my first, or certainly one of my first trips on UA. Finally the CS agent at SFO just said that she couldnt figure out what was wrong but she was just going to force a reservation so we could get home without any additional problems. UA became an airline of choice for me at that moment and Im pushing three quarters of a million miles on them as a result of that. There are a lot of people like that, and the reverse is also true. A lot of people blame the prices for the fact that people arent flying legacy carriers. And while price certainly has a role, I think that the customer service attitude of the LCCs is equally or more important. The legacy carriers are just unable to accept the reality that the LCCs do, ON AVERAGE, provide a better customer service experience than they do, at least to non-elite FFers.. Pay less and get treated better, talk about a no brainer.

Assuming the story happened as you explained that person should be immediately sacked. That is totally unacceptable in that type of business.

Just to clarify. Where you traveling on a RT ticket issued by US? The ticket number beginning with 037?

How did you get bumped three times on the way back by UA? Did the UA agents check for availability on US at all? If there is a seat, UA should have been able to put you on a US flight without going to the US desk.

Just to clarify. Where you traveling on a RT ticket issued by US? The ticket number beginning with 037?

How did you get bumped three times on the way back by UA? Did the UA agents check for availability on US at all? If there is a seat, UA should have been able to put you on a US flight without going to the US desk.


It was a 037 ticket. I bought the ticket DCA-CLT-CHS and returning CHS-IAD. When I bought the ticket, I wasn't paying attention and I thought I bought CHS-DCA.

The UAX flights were awful full and oversold for every flight. I took one bump on Sunday and 2 on Monday. The UAX staff was pretty clueless. I knew more about the policies than they did and in fact told the station manager how to issue travel credits rather than a free ticket. They did check US, but didn't see anything. It was them who suggested to ask at the US desk before taking the paper ticket (that took them 20 minutes to print out) over to DL.

There are some good one's and bad one's. You can write or call CA, who knows if they will issue you any kind of voucher. It will be next to impossible probably to track down whom you spoke too. Nobody is going to jump up and say "yeah, I said that/did that," etc. Even if they find out "who did it," there version will probably be markedly different than yours. For example, maybe they will say you were "demanding" to be put on an oversold US flight and "yelling" and after calmly talking to you they finally asked you to leave the ticket counter. You have no proof of what was said, and neither do they. No agent at that counter even electronically touched or put their fingerprint on your record.

They will log the complaint against the station though for whatever that is worth.

But this can happen on any airline. You will have experiences if you fly a lot where they really help you and where you really get the shaft. Hopefully the former will beat out the ladder from a pure numbers game.

It might make you feel better to fly someone else, but the experience you had, could happen at any of the major airlines just as easily. You might go fly DL and feel good for 2.5 years, and then something like this will happen with you at DL, and then you'll run back to US for a while. Nothing wrong with those cycles, but just realize it up front.


conversely you see a phenominon on a lot of the boards (namely I would say this one and DL) where the pax say overall the employees of "my airline" are "best" "tops," etc. I would submit it is more if you fly any airline enough to be a US1/US2 or maybe even 3 you will get to know and be familiar with people, and I don't know that one is really so much better. I have flown a lot with CO, DL, US, and somewhat less with NW, UA. With all of them I could site numerous examples of both above and beyond customer service, and getting the shaft. Unless we start collecting numbers and doing some kind of analytics I don't know that we can say with much certainty with which carrier you are more likely to be better off, and it also probably depends on the stations you use.

Good luck though, and let us know what if anything comes out of it. It would be perfectly normal too now for you to feel a special afinity with UA since they gave you numerous free vouchers in one weekend, and it sounded like their agents were more helpful e.g. they gave you what we might think of an "insider" tip to go shop your document around the different counters.
(I will now step down from playing psychologist) :)

jetsetter, I think everything you said is true. However, I think the fact that the expectation that this will happen is partially responsible for the fact that it does happen. Or maybe not the expectation that it will happen but the expectation that if it does nothing will come of it. As long as that attitude prevails at the legacy carriers they will continue to bleed money to the LCCs who set higher expectations for customer service overall.

In response to jetsetter, I want to say that I'm really not looking to "get" anything out of US. If I get a voucher, it's much more than I expect. I love flying US, and I want to see them succeed. I have flown numerous other airlines and I continue to fly US because I consistantly get better service with them. This is definitely the exception, as opposed to the rule. I just want US to be aware of what the attitude of some of their employees has been. I had also thought that the my word versus their word fact, and I don't expect that their version of the story would be the same even they fess up to it. The point of posting this story here was to get ideas other than writing a letter to the general CA of how to make sure that this gets up to the highest level possible.

The UAX flights were awful full and oversold for every flight. I took one bump on Sunday and 2 on Monday.

So on Sunday night, after the first bump, they accomodated you on a Monday morning flight and THEN you took another voluntary bump?

After the first monday bump, they reaccomodated you again and on that flight you took another voluntary bump?

I emphasize voluntary because there is a difference between it and involuntary denied boarding.

It was voluntary

Sounds like you got greedy OR I am just envious. ;)




It was voluntary

Number of bumps doesn't make a difference. All that matters is the bump from the last flight. If it wasn't the original poster, it would have been someone else.

Jeff

I wrote an email to Consumer Affairs explaining what happened. I also said that I wasn't seeking anything, but I wanted to inform them of the behavior of one of their employees. Here was the response:

Dear Mr. kreeft:

On behalf of US Airways, I apologize for the discourteous behavior of our
employee in Charleston recently. Thank you for bringing the matter to our
attention.

The impressions we leave with customers are essential in maintaining customer
loyalty. The actions and attitudes you described are not acceptable, nor do
they represent the high standards of customer service we have set. I am
sharing a copy of your e-mail with the station manager at Charleston so that
corrective action can be taken. The Charleston station manager is located in
Myrtle Beach, so the agent you were speaking with was not the station manager,
but could have been a lower manager level.

Mr. kreeft, your comments are valuable and will help us improve our service. We
look forward to welcoming you aboard another flight soon.

Sincerely,
Robin A. Dingess
Executive Staff
US Airways Office of Consumer Affairs



I personally enjoy the part about the station manager. :)