Originally Posted by
man on the street
USAir is notorious for poor customer service
Welcome to Flyertalk.
This may be true, but US Airways is not a bank and they do not issue credit cards. The misunderstanding of the features of the card is between you and Barclay's Bank.
...due to new Federal Rules, they were not allowed to upgrade my account at this time...
This is true, but you could cancel the card that you have now and apply for the one that you meant to apply for the first time and (probably) receive a prorated refund of the annual fee on the standard card.
incredibly high interest rate.
If you do not carry a balance this rate is irrelevant. If you do carry a balance I suggest that you look for a card with the lowest interest rate and forget rewards cards. There are threads here discussing low rate cards (typically issued by credit unions), but Flyertalk is really not the best place to research that topic. Typically, rewards cards are only a good deal if you pay your balance in full each and every month.