Random_Flyer

Flight 465 - SFO-LAS


This isn't a typical trip report as it doesn't really cover what happened in the air (that part of the trip was rather uneventful). It was what happened at the gate at SFO that really left a lasting impression of poor customer service.

As conventional wisdom goes, the best way to tell how a company performs is to see what its employees do when things go to ..... If my first experience with US Airways is any indication, the company needs help.


-90 minutes to scheduled flight time:

I was booked on a flight from SFO to the East Coast, connecting in Vegas. Get to SFO with plenty of time to check in for the flight, mostly because the travel agency didn't get my UA MP number into the record and because I didn't have a seat assignment. Figured taking care if it in person would be easier than doing OLCI. This was also my first experience with US Airways, so I'm not familiar with all the quirks.

Check in went well, though the flight was packed to the gills so an aisle seat was out of the question. I was given a window in the back, though the friendly agent at the ticket counter suggested that I check at the gate for an aisle or exit row seat. The first time she printed by BPs, the UA MP number wasn't reflected so I asked if she got it into the system. She responded that it was there, but said she'd reprint them anyway just to make sure there wasn't a problem. The new BPs had my FF (as well as my UA elite level which suprised me) so I went over to the gate, hoping to score a better seat.


-60 minutes to scheduled flight time:

Over at the gate there was already a short line of people gathered, mostly from two Continental and Alaska flights that had gotten delayed. The PAX were sent over to US to be re-accomodated. Supposedly the original agents had called over and gotten approval, but the US GA didn't know anything about it. She started working on that problem (as the sole GA) as a large line slowly formed behind us.


-30 hmintues to scheduled flight time:

I finally got to the front of the line only to find that the flight to Vegas was a turn. The inbound plane was coming from Vegas and had *just* taken off. Given an 80-90 minute flight time, our scheduled departure was pushed out an hour. This was going to cause me to miss my connection, but I wasn't too worried straight away as Vegas is a US hub, and SFO has both UA and AC flights that left later that night.

Just as I start talking to the GA her supervisor comes over and decides to announce that connecting PAX will be rebooked BY CITY. Not by the order in which they were waiting in line. It should be noted that the line had been very orderly up to that point. This new "city order" didn't go over well with the PAX, especially when it became obvious that the GA had missed some connections. Thankfully I had already started the first GA on my rebooking.


-10 minutes to original flight time / -70 mintues to rescheduled flight time:

The US agent checks *all* flights to my connecting city and tells me there is nothing available. The UA flights are completely booked up and US has no other connection options. I called UA directly and was told that the redeye to ORD was overbooked and I wouldn't get on it. The US agent did find an open AA seat in first class, but her supervisor refused to approve the ticket transfer. She said if I wanted the AA flight I'd have to pay for the FC ticket myself. I found this to be pretty poor customer service, not because I cared about the upgrade, but because I wanted to get to my destination. Last time a similar situation happened on UA they happily rebooked me on a FC ticket on another airline since it was the only thing available at the time.

At this point, the passengers were getting annoyed because there were approx 15 total PAX heading to my destination city. The supervisor announced that she wasn't rebooking any of us because she was told that they would "probably hold the connecting flight in Vegas" until we arrived. Probably wasn't good enough for me so I called up Travelocity.


+10 minutes from original flight time / -50 minutes to rescheduled flight time:

I'm talking to a travel agent who is checking routings for me. She confirmed that UA was booked solid, but found a single seat via US's East Coast hub, CLT. Given that the US agents were rebooking everyone to SFO-LAS-CLT-<wherever they were going> she immediately put a hold on a seat for me and volunteered to wait on the line until the US GA got done with the current customer (I never went far from the counter).


+25 minutes from original flight time / -35 minutes to rescheduled flight time:

The GA finshed up with her customer so I spoke up and told her that I had a routing to my destination on US, but there was only one seat available and I was holding it. Could she please reissue the ticket for me before the seat was lost? I gave her the record locator and she brought it up. Meanwhile the very nice Travelocity agent said she'd wait until I had new BPs in hand and the ticket was resolved.


+40 minutes from original flight time / -20 minutes to rescheduled flight time:

The GA finally managed to completely the reroute on my ticket (went from a 2 segment to a 3 segment) and printed the BPs. Once I had the BPs in hand, the Travelocity agent verified everything in her computer (to make sure the return ticket hadn't been screwed up) and said I should be good to go. I thanked her and she disconnected the line. My only complaint there is that I forgot to get her name as she really went over and above to make sure I was taken care of. I wish I could sent in a complimentary letter to her for her help.

After I got my tickets the inbound flight landed and was deboarding. About the same time the supervisor at the gate announced that she had received "CONFIRMATION" that the connecting flight from LAS to my destination city "would be HELD" and that all PAX for that city should get on the plane once boarding started. I thought "wow, that's pretty impressive that they pulled it off, but I'll believe it when I see it. I kept my rerouted ticket close at hand."


+60 minutes from original flight time / 0 minuites to rescheduled flight time:

As everyone lined up for boarding the supervisor once again came on the PA and announced that the connecting flight from LAS to my destination in fact "WOULD NOT BE HELD" and those PAX should "NOT GET ON THE PLANE." Needless to say I was pretty thrilled to have rebooked, but the PAX who listed to the GAs were LESS than pleased.


+80 minutes from original flight time / +20 minutes from rescheduled flight time:

Most PAX are onboard the plane and empty seats are everywhere. What was originally a completely full Airbus ended up going out half-empty. Good for PAX on the plane, bad for PAX stranded at the gate in SFO.


+90 minutes from original flight time / +30 minutes from rescheduled flight time:

Another delay hits because the paperwork doesn't match the actual PAX count on the plane. The FA's recount the PAX by hand three times and wait for the GA to reissue new paperwork before we can push back.

Finally, the paperwork comes and we are cleared for takeoff. With two hours to the connecting flight to CLT it'll be close, but flight time looks good to LAS.



NOTE: It should be said the FA's on said flight were great. The problems were NOT with the air crew, but with how the ground staff totally dropped the ball on the situation.

I'm writing this as we sit on the ground in LAS. It's currently 11:50 (scheduled take off time) and even though the flight monitors list it as an ON-TIME departure at 11:50 boarding has just started.

Walking up to the gate, the agent tells me that my ticket isn't valid as issued. I'm getting ready to be even more annoyed, when he calmly says his super is coming up (yes we know how great the super in SFO was) and she can take care of it.

The nice lady said there was supposed to be another part to my BP and asked how I got it. I told her it was issued in SFO as a reroute since the delayed flight caused me to miss my original connection.

At that she just shrugged and said something to the effect of "those agents at the small stations always have trouble with this" and quickly typed away. In less than a minute I had my new, corrected BPs and was getting on the plane. While it was nice to have this speed bump quickly resolved it was yet another problem that should have never happened.

I'd like to keep an open mind about US as an option, but if the return flight next week is just as problematic I think it's going to earn a spot on my "avoid it" list, much like the old America West.

No airline is perfect, but at least when things went south on UA, there was usually some attempt at customer service (well, unless you were in IAD, then all bets are off).

cedric

I have learned to live with having things go "wrong" on US. Why do I stick with them? As far as I'm concerned, they're the best in the business at making things right. Whether it's generous compensation or pre-emptive re-routing, the desire of the marjority of US agents that I've dealt with to help in a friendly and professional manner has more than made up for the operational and systems shortcoming of the airline. As long as you are prepared, and willing to expect the worst, you will generally be pleasantly surprised with US.

Good show by the Travelocity agent, although I'm sure calling the US call centre would have resulted in a similar rerouting.

Heinrich

Unfortunately your experience is a pretty good summary of some of my recent flights in the last month. There was a nightmare afternoon in SWF a few weeks ago due to high winds. The 11:40 Dash-8 was sitting on the ground at 1:30pm as the 2pm Air Wisconsin flight rolls up to the gate and parks in the Jet Blue spot. The GA are furiously working to move people around/rebook, one person they put on Airtran to Atlanta, and at the same time radioing luggage requests to the ramp, when up comes the Jetblue plane early and can't get to the gate at the same time the pilot of the Dash gets clearance and needs to go ASAP. I thought the GA were going to just collapse and the entire station started yelling at each other under the rebooking/get out of here now/pull luggage for those they'd put on Aitran and American.

I was rebooked from the 2pm to the 11:40 and while I got home early I became invisible on my connection and did not get my upgrade nor did my miles post.

If you EVER see "FLT COUPON REQUIRED" on your boarding pass, what you essentially have is a paper ticket. Sometimes during the rush the GA don't notice this and don't give you your FLT COUPON. FLT COUPON REQUIRED = something stapled to the BP that looks like a receipt.

The good news is that when I went through SWF this week, everyone was smiling and very helpful AND said that US IT was working through many issues, had made much progress, and that they as employees had gotten much more comfortable with the system.

DCAorBust

^

This is the real lesson. Although you can definitely find good, competent GAs on US, even the best can be quickly overwhelmed in situations like this (particularly when, as in this case, there appears to be inconsistent direction from above).

Consequently, when problems arise it is miserable to fly US unless (a) you have status (and can get on the phone with a preferred desk), or (b) you've used an excellent travel agent. It is truly a shame that you didn't get her name (I've forgotten too and felt terrible for not being able to show my gratitude later).

At least you had the wherewithal to get yourself out of there. Those poor PAX that stayed behind. Frankly, I'd have tried boarding even without a confirmed connection in LAS. I'd much rather get the heck out of the US terminal at SFO. What a miserable wasteland of a place to be stuck. It's been a while, but the last time I flew to SFO on US, the only amenity was a hot dog stand that didn't even serve beer. Is that still the case?

kudzu

Thanks for the trip report, Random_Flyer. Sorry to hear your first trip on US had not gone well on the ground. Those of us who still fly US frequently well understand the difficult situation the frontline folks find themselves in (referring to QIK/SHARES), and do what we can during irregular ops to help them help us more efficiently (by calling our Preferred line, or in your case, the helpful agents at Travelocity).

I only fly UA when I have to, having had a number of disappointing experiences with them. Probably your Elite status with UA helps when flying UA - I know mine does when flying US. Like other posters on this board, I've been re-routed to FC on other airlines during irregular ops because that was the only option to get me there - now, whether it's done routinely for US Preferreds, I don't know, but I've never had trouble before.

Here's hoping for an "uneventful" return flight

sbtinme

Well, maybe. In my experience, I've seen airline inventories come and go in a nanosecond -- likely you have, too. I've been midway through a complex booking only to have the seats vanish because someone was half a step ahead of me. It's altogther likely that was more the culprit here. We'll never know.

As frustrating as SHARES is for the front line agents, the folks in LAS have worked this system now for a long time and I'm not willing to blame SHARES in this case. If there was just one or two open seats on that CLT flight, my strong guess is that someone else either misconnected or upgraded at the last gasp and those seats opened up. I've seen it hundreds of times -- and, occasionally, like the OP, it helps me get out of a tight spot.

kudzu

Re-reading the OP, I think LAS was where the supervisor actually "fixed" the Flight Coupon Required problem that originated in SFO....aahhh, the benefits of expertise/familiarity with SHARES those LAS agents have!

BTW, the LAS Club agents are superb ^

jerseyfinn

Glad to hear that a "random" act of kindness by the Travelocity agent helps to keep you on track.

As I read your post, my legs start to ache as I try to imagine all of these folks queued up for lengthy periods of time only to end up with zilch. I guess if you travel enough, you're gonna run into a day like this one. I make mental notes of posts like yours in the event that I'm ever unlucky enough to be in such a situation and need to think outside of the bubble.

One does has to wonder how much this US SHARES crapola contributes to the task of sorting through chaos to move pax along to their destinations. I'm already told by the FAs that they no longer get a printed roster of who's on the flight because of the new system. I don't know if this contributes to the boarding problem you speak of.

Hopefully your future travels will be smooth and trouble-free.

Barry

hscottm

Random_flyer: Pretty much everything in res systems gets documented and stamped. I'd guess that its possible that the travelocity computer will show something.

I'd write the letter to travelocity, and explain it to them, and hopefully they can figure it out. Hopefully they can, but in the meantime at least maybe you can feel better about writing it.

Random_Flyer

That was the big suprise for me. The GA's didn't bother to help out PAX by line or elite level (which would be understandable) but by a very arbitrary random city order. If I were a top tier elite and saw a GA pass me over for a GM like that I'd be quite annoyed.

As for the terminal, it's a bit better now but still not up to par with the UA/AA terminal.

I'm not familiar with the US reservation system quirks, but the SFO agents were obviously having issues with it because all of the rebookings were taking much longer than I would have expected. I thought that going to the agent with a held alternate itinerary would have been a simple ticket matter, but she had a lot of troulbe converting a 2 segment trip into a 3 segment trip.

Given that the LAS agent had no trouble fixing the ticket and her comment about the problems with smaller stations I'm inclined to rack this one up to a lack of proper training for the SFO agents on US's part.

As for the return, I'll be sure to post a follow-up. I've gotten a poor first impression, but haven't sworn them off completely just yet.

The LAS-CLT flight was originally wide open. It only filled up because (as I found out later) LAS-CLT was the only viable re-route option for the majority of PAX on the flight from SFO-LAS. The US GA's were rebooking everyone on LAS-CLT and then CLT-<final destination>. My travel agent could see the inventory decreasing on the LAS-CLT flight and held me a seat because she didn't want me to lose the chance to get it. The problem was that:

1) This was not communicated at all to the waiting PAX
2) The method they choose to allocate seats (by city destination) meant that unless you rerouted yourself you were getting left in SFO. This would have included any US elites in the gate area.

I've actually thought about that. I'm probably going to try calling into customer service again and seeing if an agent can help me figure out who I should address my letter to in order to ensure proper credit is given.

SCruzFlyer

I have found that as a group the GAs in SF are among the worst I have ever encountered. When redeeming an award to Europe recently I was told that since US did not serve the city I was booked to (Florence, IT) US could not issue the ticket.

Never mind the fact that it was a US Reward ticket on UA and LH... Never mind that it had been booked on the phone with a US agent... Never mind that I was informed by the phone agent that I MUST have a paper ticket with travel on LH... She had no idea how to do this... Or how to get me my ticket.

She did say I had to have a paper ticket it was that US could not issue it. So I asked her who could? She was not sure.

I asked for asked for the Station Manager. 45 mins later and after being pushed to the end of the line three times because the US - HP systems were still not in sync, a Supervisor finally arrived.

Again, another excuse about not being able to issue the ticket. I finally asked about calling the DM desk to find out what should be done.

They explained to both the Agent and the Supervisor what should be done but this took almost an hour itself.

This entire operation took about 2 1/2 hours, an operation that has taken me only about 10 mins. on the phone even with DL, the King of Bad Service.






It took over

ackpfft

SFO is not a good place to get stranded though there are some decent food options now. Get to LAS or PHX by any means necessary.

CPMaverick

Maybe for you, but NOT for someone without US status.

The US ICC is as bad or worse than the UA one.

hr8473

I guess you are traveling this flight on Friday night. I was actually waiting for the flight back to PHL at that time. If you saw a guy reading flyertalk at the airport then that must be me.

Yes, I know exactly what you are saying. The supervisor kept changing his word during the night (would hold / would not hold connecting customer) which made people mad. I really hate that guy because he was rude to me that morning when I requested a standby flight back to PHL that morning.

This is one of the main reason I ditch US. The customer service at SFO is horrible.