IAir_CS

It's nice to hear about your good experiences flying with IndyAir.


Has anyone here called them up? How was your experience with the agents?

tribe01

Here is a letter my friend sent to Independence Air concerning her travel experience.


To Whom It May Concern:

On a recent flight with your airline my luggage was lost. I was extremely
dissatisfied with the way that the situation was handled and I would like
some sort of recourse to be taken.

I was delighted when you began your services out of Dulles airport and
decided to try out your airline for a recent trip to Buffalo, NY for a
family reunion. I was really excited to find such a great deal. As I was
boarding the plane I was told by one of your employees that they would have
to check my bag because there wasn't much room in the plane, she gave me a
valet number and said I could pick up my bag plane side. It seemed simple
enough, I mean how can a piece of luggage get lost on a 45 min direct
flight?

When we arrived in Buffalo 30 minutes late we deboarded the plane via a
jetway. I waited around the gate to see if my bag would be brought up
there since I couldn't pick it up planeside. There were no employees
around to ask about the bag so after a while I decided to go down to the
baggage claim to see if it would come out down there. After waiting 20
minutes I approached an airport employee and asked him to help locate my
bag. He was extremely helpful and spent 30 mintues looking all over the
airport, baggage claim, jetway and planeside but to no avail. He then
escorted my to the Independence Air ticket counter and explained what the
next step would be. At no point did the Independence employee offer to
help (there were NO other customers in line) in fact, he barely
acknowledged that I was standing there. I filled out the paperwork and
left feeling less than secure that it would be handled properly by your
employees.

That evening I still had heard nothing from any of the representatives from
your company so I tried dialing 1-800-FLY-FLYI. I was on hold for nearly 2
hours and never even got to speak to a representative. One of my relatives
took me back by the airport to check for my bag again. This time there was
a different employee at the counter but she was not much more helpful. She
assured me that the suitcase would be found and that they would call me.
By coincidence, my brother happened to be flying on your airline out of
Dulles the following day so my father checked for my baggage there, again
he was not given very helpful assistance and the bag was nowhere to be
found.

Being out of town for several days, I had to purchase clothes and
toiletries, and expense I had not thought I would need to include in my
budget. I returned home several days later with still no communication
from your company. Each day I tried to call your 800 number but never could
get through to a live person in customer service. Finally I called the
reservations line, finally got someone on the line and then we were cut
off.

It wasn't until Thursday, August 5 that my suitcase turned up. My mother
received a phone call saying it was at Dulles but your airline would not
deliver it. I live in Richmond, VA and driving to Dulles to pick up my
suitcase was hard to arrange. Luckily my mother was able to drive up there
to pick it up for me, but again that was another expense of time and money
that I don't think should have occurred.

I travel extensively for both business and pleasure and I've had some
mishaps. I understand that these things happen (although on a direct flight
I think it is kind of ridiculous) however what upsets me most is how your
company handled the situation. Being a "new" guy on the block you would
think that you would try to excel when it comes to customer service and
that certainly was not the case. Any other time that my luggage has been
lost, it has been delivered to me and it typically only took 1-2 days to
locate it.

I have attached the receipts for the expenses I incurred due to this error
on your part. Of course there is no way to tally the time that was wasted
at the airport and on the phone trying to track down information that your
employees could not even provide and don't forget the inconvenience of
being out of town with none of your belongings or daily neccessities.

Annandaler

Well, you asked. What is your response to the above?

whlinder

I flew DH IAD-SAV-IAD over the weekend, returned yesterday. On the return I was scheduled on the 12:25 departure from SAV, but got to the airport very early, about 10:00am. The plane arriving for the 10:15 departure was late incoming, with a new arrival time of 10:11. However, the 10:15 schedule departure still showed "ontime". I asked if we could get on the earlier flight and was told no because the luggage we were checking would not be able to make it to the plane in time, because they were going to turn the plane fast. I don't know how long it takes to get luggage from the check in desk to the gate, especially at a very small airport like SAV, but I didn't push. I asked if we could lug our bags through security and then gate check them, and she said no because security wouldn't let us through with more than 2 carry-on sized bags, saying it was an airport policy. So we just checked out bags for our original flight and ate lunch in the airport and relaxed. The 10:15 departure that continued to show "ontime" much later than 10:15 went wheels up at 11. But thats ok because we had the exit row on our original flight.

Everybody seemed to be very nice and caring on our flights. ^ We'll definitely fly DH again.

IAir_CS

It's really unfortunate that his friend lost her luggage. This is not the first or the last incident of Indy Air loosing baggage. They definitely have to do something about it.

I'm really interested to know how phone agents are doing. Being placed on hold for 2 hours without getting through to somebody is something that should never happen in any customer service center. I hope they find a way the make it up to his friend. That email was a good step. Keep following it up. They did say they would be challenging the status quo.

dcpremex

Just a continuation of the poor service and attitude that was exhibited when they were a UA regional carrier. Does not seem to be any change.

vatraveler

I have noticed a change. Plus, the UAE replacement carriers are awful (except Chatuaqua - or however you spell it).

StSebastian

I sent in three emails late last night (1am) to three different departments from the Contact Us page on the website. While I got an auto-responder that I would get an answer in 72 hours I wasn't too sure that would actually happen.

This morning (11am) I got up to two responses which were obviously written as responses to my original notes, and not a form letter. The third response arrived this afternoon. Three responses from three different departments in under 16 hours -- I'm surprised.

All the people I dealt with at the airport were great, and as a last-minute walkup managed to allow me onto a flight that should have already stopped selling tickets. The people in the corporate office were less useful when I was there, but I'd guess they're not quite used to customers in that office. I had stopped by there with an employee that morning, and was going to purchase the ticket before heading over to the airport if possible.

RightD

Only experience I have had with CS so far was very positive...

I had booked a flight to Nashville over Thanksgiving (with the intention of driving to HSV) but after they announced plans for HSV service I called CS and they promptly re-booked us and gave us a credit for the fare difference. The rep was pleasant and it took all of 5 minutes. I was impressed.

- RightD

mtullos

I wanted to let air travelers know of the awful experience we had with the Independence Air ground crew at Washington Dulles on 4/21/05.

First, we left JFK late on Thursday and the crew there were concerned that we would make our connection in Dulles that was the last of the evening. The crew indicated that there were delays all day between JFK and Dulles. Our JFK flight had at least 7 persons bound for a 9pm connecting flight to Las Vegas. That flight was the last one for the day.

After more delays due to runway congestion in JFK, we took off and as we got closer, the flight attendant said that they were trying to hold the flight for us. As we approached the gate, the flight attendant told us that the plane had not left and we would have to hurry from concourse B to C to make the flight. She even gave us the courtesy of telling us exactly how to get from B to C in graphic detail. No one in my party or those we spoke to had anything but high regard for the flight attendant.

So as we gathered bags planeside, we all made a made dash. Upon arriving at the Las Vegas departure gate, the crew informed us that the plane had left. We arrived at the gate at 9:12 and the flight left the gate at 9:10.
Someone on the ground knew that there were passengers delayed, landed and en route and let that jet leave without us. No one at the gate would say who held the plane for 10 minutes and then let it go.

They also called for a head supervisor who never arrived and who we later found, had left. There were no flights left to put us on and the airline would not try to find another Las Vegas bound flight out of Dulles to transfer us to. The clincher was that the airline decided to let the flight go out already delayed and keep us in Dulles. And the airline would make us pay for their mistakes. We had to pay for our own rooms. By not getting to Las Vegas Thur night, our rooms were non-refundable and we had to pay again in the Dulles area.

The funny thing was that 3 weeks ago, I flew on a real airline and waited for 20-30 minutes on the tarmac for roughly 3 passengers that were delayed making their connections. The flight crew told us that the captain/ground crew were going to hold as they were en route. I don't recall anyone complaining on board as the flight was the last of the evening, much like the Vegas connection and we all knew we'd leave shortly.

I guess I want some real explanation as to why this all took place the ground crew was helpless at explaining the reasons why we were stuck there and why we had to pay for the rooms. Nothing made any sense and Independence Air has made no effort to rectify this to my satisfaction. In fact, it takes a week to get a response to their complaints email.

vatraveler

Not to diminish your situation, but I am of the opinion that flights should never be held for connecting passengers. It's not fair to those who are planed and ready to go.

StSebastian

If you were connecting from a JFK flight (RJ) to a LAS flight (A319) then that would be from concourse A to B, which is not a trivial run down the hall, up the escalator, over the bridge segment, down the escalator and then down the hall, probably to B34 or B36.

If the flight left the gate at 9:10 (meaning when you walked up the plane had already been pushed back) then the door was probably closed by 9:00, meaning you were 12-15 minutes after the last possible boarding time to get on that flight for departure. It might look like you "just missed it" when really it's been a long longer than it first appears.

It was likely a crew duty limit issue. The FAA says that various flight crew can only work for a certain number of hours per day, and then must have a certain amount of uninterrupted rest time. It is possible that waiting any longer would have put the crew over their allotted time and they would have expired, preventing them from flying the plane at all and stranding all of the passengers in Dulles. Then the plane would have also not been in Vegas to pick up those passengers and return them to Dulles, causing even more people to be out of place and delayed.

Many ground crew do not undertand how flight crew operations work and don't understand why a call has to be made to send a plane, even if people are currently running down the hall to get on the plane. Waiting for those people will delay the flight at least 10-15 minutes on departure for boarding and seating, which counts against the flight crew available duty time.

BigBeerBelly

Very good explanations StSebastian!

BBB

redraider

My son just flew BNA-PWM. His flight out of BNA was delayed, seems they're in the queue and the pilot pulls them out and annouces that they"forgot some paperwork?" they sit on the tarmac for about 45 minutes before a mechanic drives across the tarmac and either signs some paperwork or performs some maintenace.
Ok so they're about an hour late getting out of BNA whcich means they're running tight for connections at IAD. They identify about 15 pax and basically tell them to disemark asap and hustle to the flight they are holding. OK he make his flight. Everything was held up for another 45 minutes as a Virgin Atlantic 747 blew one of his tires on takeoff and the runway had to be cleared So he makes his flight but unfortunalety his bags dont. OK no big deal as it's just wrinkled clothes that he can wait for. But because he flew on the Glide pass and we waited too long for convenient flights out of MHT or BOS he flew into PWM which is about 90 miles away. no problem for us we just drove a bit more than we wanted, but for most sane people they don't drive from Massachussetts to portland me to fly. Anyway the courier never looked at the MA address and just assumed that the town was in ME. Yesterday afternoon we get a call from a PO'd courier who can't find our street. He's driving abour 300 miles away in Maine . Things get real qiuet once we explain his mistake???
We get a call last night around 10pm indicating the luggeage would be dropped at our back porch between 2-4AM.
When we got up-- it was there.
Moral of the story- Indy is trying and we'll keep using them

David10225

Took my daughter with me to Walt Disney World out of Dulles over Memorial Day weekend. Full flight both ways (on the 50 passenger jet). Great cabin service, even considering one FA..."Would you like a refill on your drink sir?"...
Flight crew came into the cabin before the flight to wish a newlywed couple best wishes. Flight left early and arrived early...everyone appears to be working sooooo hard to make you feel special....what more can anyone ask for?? Luggage was coming off the carousel in MCO before we made it down there....a little slow in Dulles.....I booked my very picky inlaws on FLYI to come down for graduation...now I'm not worried at all..

I look forward to seeing the May passenger figueres..I hope they hit new highs.....come on guy...stick it out..I want to go to Vegas in the Fall on FLYI..!

David