3Cforme

Severe weather flight suspensions and yesterday's weight restrictions are reasonably called Force Majeur events, and US declares no obligation to book travelers on another carrier.

DOT's IDB rules speak to oversells specifically and have no relevance here.

From the C of C:

In the event of a Force Majeure Event, US Airways, without notice, may cancel, terminate, divert, postpone, or delay any flight, right of carriage, or reservations (whether or not confirmed) without liability on the part of
US Airways . US Airways also reserves the right to determine if any departure or landing should be made without liability on the part of US Airways . US Airways may reschedule the customer on another available US Airways flight or refund any unused portions of the ticket in the form of a travel certificate.

bkafrick

Untrue. Weight restrictions only apply to planes with 60 seats or less. See the customer service plan:
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/about...viceplan2.html
.
Now, in this case, it appears that the weight restriction is due to weather, but what you posted above is incorrect.

BoeingBoy

However, the customer service plan is just that - a plan and not a contract. The contract of carriage provides the particulars of what passengers are to be provided with.

Jim

tommyleo

Don't be shocked. I have called US on behalf of not-as-savvy friends' bookings several times and had no problem getting info. Of course, if a change needed to made, the friend would have to call.

GNVFlyer

Not to defend, but since these restrictions are likely due to heat,so US is treating this like an IRROP from a winter storm in PHL which means it is going to be hard to book offline....still stinks

bkafrick

US needs some lessons in privacy then...

Often1

1. Neither the customer service plan nor the COC matter here. It's the DOT rules. They do apply to weight restrictions on aircraft with +60 seats.

2. But a series of msisteps by OP here. One and only one person should be dealing with the carrier. Completely gums up the system to do otherwise.

3. Forget IDB for the moment and focus on the problem at hand which is service recovery. OP can seek the IDB (or obtain an order through DOT) when he's back from his trip. Getting in fights with low-level US personnel over policy is a waste of time.

4. Has anyone considered simply cancelling and purchasing a new ticket? Would that cost more? Has anyone calculated?

formeraa

The weight/balance issues are definitely due to weather (dangerously hot temps yesterday). However, the question is whether the DOT weight and balance rule trumps the weather rule.

I think it's past time for the government to require a certain minimum level of service during service disruptions, similar to the EU. However, with Congressional gridlock, it's unlikely that any consumer-friendly plan would be passed.

AirShuttle6162

FWIW, just was talking to a friend of mine who is a gate agent at PHX for PDT. She said yesterdays cx flights were coded as wx cancels. That may be why corporate is pushing hard for no compensation as it is considered a weather delay. I'd have to look at my old manuals for the CRJ but I *believe* the max takeoff temp is ISA+35C, which is roughly about a degree or two under what yesterdays temperature was.

burlax

The weight / balance rule is created with respect to normal operating conditions and is intended to take care of the pax who are victims of insufficient planning by the airline with respect to baggage / cargo / pax - that is to prevent bad planning by the airline.

Here, the weight restrictions were significantly changed due to extreme weather - something US couldn't plan for - so that rule wouldn't apply, and the usual WX rules would apply.

aztimm

They said on the local news that the max temp for CRJ's to takeoff is 117F. They also said that if the temp is close, they may need to restrict loads on it to make sure they can lift properly.
It looked like the newsperson was just reading from a script, and not sure where they got that info.

dml105

I think I'm missing something about the OP. Is he complaining that US is rebooking him on another RJ and he doesn't want an RJ? Why the complaint about NON-RJ?

No so sure I agree. When I'm travelling, I want my secretary or company travel agent to be able to call the airline and deal with irregularities on my behalf.

bkafrick

Anyone claiming to be your secretary would then have access to your personal information. Is that what you'd like?

dml105

I think that's an unnecessary leap. Anyone claiming to be my secretary must also have some pretty important information to verify that she is actually who she claims to be, most notably my PNR. My actual secretary would already know that. Posers wouldn't.

Sorry for the off topic post.

NickP 1K

Cousin left this AM on an A320 (two days later than planned) PHX-PVR. RJ ops are still problematic today; had others travelling out of PHX reporting restrictions and rebooks on fully booked flights flying later today

Clarification: RJ ops were known to be an issue this weekend and my point was there were options US had to fly people on other carriers that were NOT RJ operations - with the other carriers confirming they HAD seats and would be able to accept a US ticket if US made the changes... EG; United was still operating their mainline aircraft out of PHX with NO restrictions. It seemed RJ's on Sat were payload restricting due to weather - no issue with that, just US seemed to want people to wait 2 days vs. putting people on other non US carrier options. Yet, they said in local Phoenix media "no one will be left here in PHX overnight"... right

My cousin asked for PHX-IAH-PVR and was told "No we won't do it"... I called as he was still dealing with the in airport agents and I got the same response.

BTW: I've called for co-worker changes when they are enroute and NEVER on any airline have I had an issue. My admin does the same for me. Where is all this privacy concern coming from. I get asked for more info on occasion (booking source/payment type, etc) but never told to have the pax call back.