US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - An Open Thank You

On June 19th my Girlfriend and her 3 Children game to visit me in NJ. She and I met in GRR and have been dating for 2 years now. This was the first time they had flown anyplace together. I used my miles for the tickets. It was wonderful time and some thank yous are in order.

CP Desk - Made sure that all of the seats were together! WITHOUT ME ASKING! That is true customer service. I think the lady that did it was Toni. In any event thanks.

F/A's - by all reports were polite, professional and attentive. The kids had a blast! They did have one complaint. No pretzels on the return flights. They asked me why, I don't know.

Chris Chiames - We had opportunity to exchange e-mails on another item and I mentioned that my G/F and kids were flying. He sent several sets of wings and pencils to my G/F's address within days of my contact.

I ride Chris pretty hard over issues that are important to me and he gets after me when he feels that I have crossed the line or made factual errors in my posts. I don't always agree with Chris but he has my total respect as he has been true to his word on EVERY occassion I have had to enter into a dialog with him. He is one of the reasons that I have hope for the future of US Airways. He seems to be one of the "Good Guys" Some of his associates I question but not him.

GRR Staff - As always polote professional. Even though PHL lost her bag and had to deliver it to her home 50 miles away, they called and kept her informed and told her when to expect it. Things go wrong in any business but the way in which a mistake is handled is often the difference. So to Priemi, Bill, the 2 Cheryl's or whomever helped I appreciate it very much.

This is why I fly US Airways. This is why I recommend US to my family and co workers. The front line people and some of the execs never lose sight of the fact that in the end this is a people business. Does US get it right every time? Nope! Do they try openly and actively to get it right? YES! And that in my experience is far more than other carriers can say.

So thanks to all of you for making 3 childrens first flight memorable in a positive way. They went home with memories of the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and having a chance to dip their toes in a real live salt water ocean! I found out that last item is a very big deal when you're 9 and lived near Lake Michigan your whole life.

Thanks so much
PineyBob

Many of us frequent long time flyers of US have similar stories. By and large, I don't think I can count on one hand problems experienced on the airline, or in my 15 years of flying in and out of PHL. But let's not confuse bad experiences with Pet Peeves..... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Your post was great and I hope you wrote a letter to Consumer Affairs and even Dave's office.

Are the CP liasons encouraged (or discouraged) from forming personal connections with us?

I have found a lot of variance between the quality of service I receive from different agents. Sometimes it is stellar, other times mediocre. I would much rather get to know one agent and touch bases with them rather than take the next agent in line.

By the way, I seem to end up scoring a Gold agent about 30%-40% of the time. Call answer times are definitely worse than they have ever been for me.

I just had something happen that made my evening. I was connecting in CLT to and Express back to RDU and we arrived early so I wandered down to the E gates and find out that the flight is delayed. (always check the boards which I always do except this time) The line at the podium is too long to ask questions so I wander back to find a board and see the mainline RDU flight is delayed and leaves in 25 minutes.

I go back to C to the gate and there is a huge line boarding but I hang around and almost give up when I notice the Express now is delayed 2 hours. So I wait more and the agent comes back to the counter and tells 2 in front of me wanting to standby that the flight is full unless you are a Gold or Silver to get on because you have to be in FC. They are turned away due to no status. I get up there and he says must be Gold or Silver so I say how about Chairmen's. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif He says no problem and 45 seconds later I have my FC BP and get on arriving earlier than my original planned time. Service like this and the nice service by the FAs even on the short hop reflects the front line commitment and also the benefits of being a CP. This is why I like the airline despite BBB.