lifeisart

I am an US Airways Chairman (and AA Executive Platinum). I have flown over 130K miles this year. I have never once complained to US Airways customer service before this. This is the single worst flight I have taken this year (and probably in the past few years.)

I took a flight with a connection. The connecting leg experienced many problems:
1. 1+ hour boarding delay
2. sat 2+ hours on the tarmac, no snacks or drinks were given
3. finally, we were cleared for departure, but we needed to return to the gate to refuel, but the flight attendant promised we would leave in 5-10 minutes. But after 5-10 minutes, the completely full flight was cancelled.

I got on standby for the next flight, but experienced these issues:
4. a gate agent who could not/would not put me on standby, I just went to another agent
5. 2+ hour boarding delay

I landed over 6 hours late. A 4pm landing time became after 10pm.

The reason I took the flight was to go to the kick off for the Depeche Mode tour, an event I have been looking forward to for months. Needless to say, I missed the concert.

I wrote to US Airways voicing my displeasure. I was not expecting compensation, but their response was something to the effect of "since it's air traffic control, we are not going to offer anything."

The actual words: "Since this was not a situation that we could have prevented, I will be unable to offer you compensation, but I’m again sorry for the inconvenience it caused you."

This is well within their right. But it leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. My brother is 1K with United and whenever he experiences a problem, United will give him a token as an apology. To me, this says they do not have good customer service at all. Moving forward, it makes me very weary of how US Airways would handle a real emergency. And for my family members with no status, I wonder how they would be treated.