SpaceBass

First, I'll admit that I am pretty upset at the moment so maybe calling Tempe isn't the best idea... but, I just cannot get over how poorly my lost luggage situation has been handled.

I'm on the middle of a multi city trip and had some rerouting around Chicago yesterday...no biggie, got me back on us metal.

I understand lost bags, and as a CP should have known better and at least not traveled in jeans....and honestly I'm not that upset about the bag being lost.

What I am ticked about is the customer service situation. Last night I said to the supervisor in BOS, in a very calm manor: "I understand that it has been a hard day, and that you did not personally lose my bag, but I am wondering if you have any suggestions for a CP who has an early morning meeting?"

She was dumbstruck "Sir, what would you like me to do?"..."well, is there anything you can suggest? I fly with your airline quite a bit and I have to lead a customer meeting at 8:00am and cannot show up in jeans, since you encounter this more often that I, I was hoping you could suggest something"

At that point she got really rude, I'm sure the result of a long day of angry passengers and said "what do you want, me to make it magically appear?" to which I said, "I've got my answer, thank you"

I tried the baggage service center this morning and they still have no idea where it is. Its clearly no on its way to my hotel so I have no choice but to go out and buy clothing. I asked if I could speak to a manager but he would not budge. I again asked "well, do you have any ideas for helping a CP and valued customer?" ... that line clearly isn't working and I got a bit snippy and said "look, I spend a lot of money to fly 150 flights a year with your company, do you think you could grab a supervisor?"...no dice

I'm sure most of us are in the same boat, wallmart clothing probably isn't going to cut it this week for me so I'm probably going to cancel the meeting. At the very least I cannot bill my ticket to the customer anymore ($1,140.00). So now I have to go spend personal cash on clothing that I'll never get reimbursed for.

So what I need is a number of someone in customer service. Not a fax number or email address... I want someone to hear me when I comment on the service of their front line employees.

Thanks for letting me rant FT...cannot wait for my status match to CO, looking forward to posting nice things again

p.s. did I mention my 2nd laptop was in the bag...oh yeah

belynch

I hate to say it, but US doesn't care about their customers.

Write to [email protected] if you want, you'll get a form letter reply with a voucher and a half-hearted apology which may or may not vaguely address your concerns. And it will make you even more aggrivated than you already are as you'll get the feeling that you just wasted an hour of your life trying to affect positive change in an organization that is so resistant to it.

Calling their 800 number (download their contract of carriage, it's in there) will just make you more frustrated.

The "new" USAirways fails at customer service in every conceivable way.

I hope I'm wrong, I hope they've changed. But I doubt it.

StuckInRow23Middle

Hey SpaceBass

I'm sorry to hear about your lost luggage situation. But, for some reason, I really don't feel any sympathy. As a 150+ flight/year Chairman's Pref., you should have known never to check your luggage on bad weather days. Perhaps the supervisor was rude, but I don't think there was anything that she could have said that would have made you feel better. What did you want her to do, call over a team of sales agents from Saks and have them open up shop in the Club?

vysean

I'm sorry, but I completely disagree. So we can't check luggage on US on a bad weather day? Hell, we probably shouldn't be flying US on a bad weather day, let alone adding a bag or bags to the mix. They offer checked baggage service - they should be able to get your bag from A to B with you, or at the very least, communicate an accurate status of a missing bag. If they can't, they shouldn't offer the service.

If this were any other airline, would you have given a similar response?

I think it's clear the OP was simply looking for a response along the lines of, "Sir please go and purchase whatever you need for your meeting - hold on to your receipts and fax them to XXX-XXX-XXXX. I'll note in your PNR that we had this discussion, and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience." It doesn't matter if the employee cares or not - they can easily say this with some feigned interest. The position is, after all, a customer service one - not customer dis-service.

USPhilly

This may seem like an obvious answer but what about calling the CP # and send an email to the CP desk? It seems to me, being only gold prefered, that obviously their CS is much much better. This may be your best bet since they should be more willing to help.

Hope this helps...good luck!

belynch

The CP desk makes it very clear they don't offer anywhere near the level of service as, say, 1Kall. They handle reservations only and will not intervene with petty things like baggage, customer service, or customer retention.

Regarding the CP email, it's hit or miss, but generally just results in your mail being "forwarded to the appropriate department" which is US speak for - black hole.

Edited to add - while I'm not going to speak for the OP, I think they're pretty well versed in what US does and doesn't do for their customers. And it wasn't so much that US couldn't produce his second laptop (which, for the record, you HAVE to check) on demand but it was how they responded to his requests. Sometimes a simple "Mr. US1" I understand that this bag is very important to you and I will do my best to follow-up with operations. Can I take down your cell phone number that way if there's any updates I'll be sure to keep you informed? I appreciate your understanding of the situation we value your business."

That's a LOT better customer service than the magic comment, imho, and costs US nothing.

SpaceBass

First let me say that your point is well taken. Its easy for me to get caught up in the bad vibes going around and I'll admit that I was having a bit of a whine party when I first posted.

As a matter of clarification, I was on the 2nd part of a multi city trip and had too many clothes (including snow gear from my trip to MN) to carry on. It was not like I looked out the window and saw the weather on the East Coast and thought I'd check anyway. To that point, isn't it dangerous to allow them to set a precedent that checking bags is at one's own risk? And what does weather have to do with baggage anyway? With the TSA all but saying outright no to carry on baggage and the airlines refusing to take responsibility, its only a matter of time before people really get fed up and stop traveling.

vysean nailed the sentiment. If the supervisor had at least offered some sympathy at all I would have left feeling good. In the end, I bought some cheap clothes and will salvage my trip tomorrow, but the idea that US Air doesn't care about a situation that they are (at the least) jointly responsible for is what gets under my skin...

I watched several passengers in PHL literally yell at customer service agents. Its clear that they were not frequent travelers...we've all learned that when they say its weather, complaining isn't going to fix it...just sit down and wait it out. So when my bad didn't come off I was determined not to be rude, derogatory or even accusatory, I just wanted to some customer service...someone to say "we do in fact value you and let me prove it".

Anyway, I do want to reiterate that your comment gave me reason to pause and consider that perhaps I was being a bit "bratty".

StuckInRow23Middle

Hello again, SpaceBass!

Personally, I think you're handling the situation like a true gentleman. If you're still in BOS, my best advice is to talk to the ladies at the Shuttle gates. I know that they'll lend a friendly ear.

19103_aa

This was not always the case. In the good 'ol days, I experienced the PHL factor first hand when they lost my bags from HVN-PHL. Note that for that day, there was only one flight leaving HVN at all. It was USAirways, and it was going to PHL. I still cannot figure out how they lost my bag.

Anyway, I was getting no joy with PHL baggage. The national baggage number was helpless. Frantic, I called the CP line for some help. The agent (clearly from Winston-Salem), used some back-room phone numbers to call both HVN and PHL and finally found my bag, and also got me the # of the van service assigned to deliver it to me.

They used to go the extra mile for their customers when necessary. No longer.

penncare

Good luck SpaceBass! You can try and e-mail [email protected] or [email protected] although I don't know how good that will do. I suspect they would just forward the e-mail to Executive Services. I don't know how many cities you are traveling to but what I do when I have these trips is to overnight my clothes to various cities (include a return box in the original shipment box). When I am done with a particular city or going from snow to a non-snow city, just pack up the box and send it back home/office. This way you are free to keep a carry-on. As for the 2nd laptop, I don't recommend using DHL/Fedex/UPS for this but given what happened, it might be the lesser of two evils. Good luck with getting your bags back.

SS255

I am 90% sure that this is what they will do. But it's certainly worth a shot.

wahooflyer

Does US still have an interim expense reimbursement policy? Some airlines still do, though a quick Google search for "us airways baggage reimubsement" didn't turn up anything current.

The standard used to be something like $25 per day for clothes and toiletries for each day after the first 24 hours your bag was delayed, with receipts required and a $150 maximum (no reimbursement for anything if your bag gets to you less than 24 hours after your flight arrived). I have no idea whether this is still in effect for the "new" US Airways, however.

SpaceBass

Indeed, its $25 and you have to save receipts and send them in to get reimbursed...and as you said, its after the first 24 hours. The do give you a pretty cheap little toiletries bag that contains EXACTLY everything that comes in any hotel room (shampoo, conditioner, etc).

I do have good news to report, my bag showed up at the hotel after dinner tonight!

Thanks everyone for the great PMs and the discorse here...as always, I'm reminded why FT is such a great resource!

sbtinme

Sad, but largely true. However, this is a tremendous shift away from what had always been the case until HP took over this airline. The old gals in Winston-Salem were called "angels" for a reason -- they were EMPOWERED to do a lot of stuff behind the scenes to make CPs happy.

I can recall attending a family funeral in Georgia many years ago and landing in ATL to learn that my bags hadn't made the trip from PHL (big surprise). A quick call to the CP desk put me at ease. I was placed on hold for about 60 seconds while the CP agent called both the PHL and the ATL luggage ops folks she told them both what kind of bag I had and that it needed to be in ATL pronto. She came back on the line, told me she'd do her best to keep me posted on my cell phone. Within about 15 minutes, she called me back to tell me that she could confirm that the bag had just been placed on the next ATL outbound from PHL and that it would driven out to my location outside of ATL within an hour of landing. Indeed it was.

That was .....................sigh........................ the OLD USAIRWAYS.

micfly

I'm sure this is a lesson learned for you, but NEVER have I checked suits, socks, shoes that I need the next day for an important meeting. Weather, delays and mis-connects are always forefront in my mind when I travel and enters into any decision on what I will or will not check. I always have my laptop and at least a day or two of business attire in a suit bag. The previous poster was correct, there really was nothing other than understanding the agent could do.