ghhoughton

Hi,

Anyone have some solid advice for how to deal with US poor customer service? They changed my itinerary w/o prior notice for a nov flight. Originally, I was scheduled for a SEA-PHL-BTV flight on Nov 22, where I would meet my girlfriend in PHL and fly on to BTV at 7:35am.

US changed the itinerary to an impossible flight, so I pointed it out and now im departing from PHL at 10:10am instead of 7:35am. They are unwilling to accomidate any requests to get me to PHL sooner, or want $100 to switch my girlfriends flight.

Any ideas or tips? Anyone else have difficulties?

SP - 29k miles w/ 4 pending tickets, yet when I stated I was fed up w/ US, they didn't care and wished me luck. Haha

PHL

What kind of routing did they give you, then? There doesn't appear to be any red-eye from SEA-PHL on 11/22 at all. Your only options for getting to PHL are a 705am and 1115am flight, both arriving mid or late day.

Since your girlfriend's ticket didn't change, there's no reason they should change hers for no fee. She'd be advised to just get to BTV and be done with it and meet you there.

But since you have been inconvenienced by more than a few hours with an involuntary schedule change, they are obligated (to a degree) to be flexible with you to find a good flight, and the most direct routing, to BTV. If this means putting you on the codeshare SEA-ORD-BTV that goes through ORD, then do it. As a Silver you can request E+ since those are UA flights.

And, frankly, at that time of year you should be focused on getting to your destination rather than making a rendezvous in PHL for a 1 hr flight with a significant other. Just meet up w/her in BTV.

EileenSRN

[QUOTE=ghhoughton]Hi,

They changed my itinerary w/o prior notice for a nov flight. Originally,


Today is August 27th. The flight is in November. Isn't THAT a lot of prior notice?

Looking

No protection on OA due to schedule change is permitted.
You can always take the earlier flight to PHL, overnight and then continue on the morning flight PHL-BTV.

Looking

ghhoughton

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It sounds like I'm just going to have to suck it up and fly on w/ out the girlfriend. You make a good poing PHL on just trying to make in home!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm not off to a good start already (smile).

I think a lot of my frustration came from a constant battle w/ US Air or partners lately. I've spent hours on the phone having 9k pref. miles credited to my account, booking a hotel through US Airways hotels and dining only to have travelweb.com (US's web partner, who's license is revoked by BBB) not be flexible w/ date changes despite their claim on the website, and always having flights changed without being informed.

Sometimes I wonder if this carrier is for me - Thanks for letting me vent. Ha!!

ghhoughton

And the saga continues... they've changed my itinerary again! This is the second time they have changed my original Nov 22nd flight from SEA to BTV. Any advice from expert FT'ers on how to figure out what's going on and why my itinerary keeps changing?

Thanks in advanced! I get flustered when plans fall though because I don't experience change well... haha.

__________________________________________________ ____
10:45P Depart Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA) 22 Nov 05 US Airways flight 518 13C
6:21A Arrive Charlotte, NC (CLT) 23 Nov 05


:??? Depart Charlotte, NC (CLT) 23 Nov 05 US Airways flight 434 Check in at Airport
:??? Arrive Philadelphia, PA (PHL)


:??? Depart Philadelphia, PA (PHL) 23 Nov 05 US Airways flight 2772 Check in at Airport
:??? Arrive Burlington, VT (BTV)


:??? Depart Burlington, VT (BTV) 27 Nov 05 US Airways flight 1611 Check in at Airport
:??? Arrive Philadelphia, PA (PHL)

:??? Depart Philadelphia, PA (PHL) 27 Nov 05 US Airways flight 703 Check in at Airport
:??? Arrive Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA)

US AIRWAYS FAN

With the current US/HP merger coming up soon I think we all are going to see a lot of schedule changes. Not much can be done about this. Airlines do this all the time. It's not just limited to US Airways. It could even change again before your November date.

sts603

He's right - it's par for the course. I had a PHL-YVR/ANC-PHL ticket on UA in 2002 that I swear got changed a dozen times. And be happy US at least booked you something reasonable - UA on one of these changes left me a 2 minute connection in ORD and the first agent at UA told me that well if the computer did it then it's legal. Haha.

But seriously, in this market, airlines must change their schedules constantly to align with the market. No way around it.

deelmakur

Two issues here. As mentioned, sked changes, particularly that far out, are the norm. Also, with the common 319/320/321 cockpit, any Airbus narrow body pilot can fly all of them, which enables aircraft switches to reflect demand, anytime. You haven't lived until they pop a 319 in place of a 321, and 14 First Class seats vanish. You can hear the screams all the way to INT without a phone. As for customer service, it never was much. I've heard the act of making such calls compared to urinating up a rope. The ease with which you can get through on the toll free number, these days, tells you most folks have given up.

ghhoughton

Some really good points from you all. Thanks!

Most of the time, I wouldn't really care about a schedule change since I'm im leisure travel and can afford a change and often am excited about the extra miles for the same price (smile). This time around, it's just really frustrating because they won't budge on switching my flight to an option that would place me in PHL for the original 7am fight cause my suggestion includes a US flight codeshared on UA metal.

I agree that in order to remain competitive, airlines should have the flexiblity to change schedules, as long as they're not too outlandish. Also, I am thankful (especially two days before turkey day) that I am even on a flight. It just sucks that US Airways isn't sympathetic to the cause of trying to get me on a flight in PHL w/ my companion who is fearful of flying cause of the changed itinerary.

Thanks all for the comments. I appreciate your perspective.

Dieuwer

Same story here. US changed my schedule twice as well. I bet this is not the way to keep customers happy...

EnvoyBoy

This is not uncommon at all: schedules change seasonally. They have forever and a day. Any FTer should know that if you book far in advance that you need to monitor your itineraries accordingly.

I know I'm not the only one here who has a system of regular itinerary monitoring as others have said they do the same thing. If you fly enough, you know this going to happen. As a matter of fact, it's the next thing I'm going to do: every other Sunday night I check all my upcoming trips for changes.

And this is not unique to US by any means, and is not US trying or not trying to keep customers happy.


p.s. Same answer I have to your other thread titled "Schedule changes". I'm not going to waste reader time with double posting.

shell nyc

Just every other Sunday? You're not nearly as anal as some...

Seriously though...check your initerary often, and take advantage of INVOL flexibility to fine tune your trip.

EnvoyBoy

Excellent point(s)!

If you go in with the right attitude (I was noticing vs. You screwed me) and a clear idea of what you want (this flight at this time vs. something "better"), I've found the agents are very flexible. I've improved many an itinerary that way.

shellnyc: I make CP by miles, not segments. Ergo, not as many flights to keep track of, thankfully!

SS255

In my experience, US notifies me by e-mail when the schedule changes, and UA does not. Perhaps that's because I book my UA flights with my DM#. US is also much better at keeping original seat assignments for schedule changes than UA. UA tends to kick you out of your original E+ seat for even the most minor change with no change of aircraft, like a flight time. I therefore tend to monitor my UA itineraries much more closely than my US itins.