scottsam66

Well, since this is a US rant thread, I suppose he chose this thread to post his displeasure with US, and not any of the other legacy airlines.

Cheers!

akelkar

Not really mad, just a tad bit amused because my travel plans didn't get too affected and I'd also just gotten upgraded:

Flying out of SEA-PHX, the US Air system got defeated by a broken fax machine in Pittsburgh. Apparently the proper fuel paperwork hadn't been sent through, so we had to wait 2 hours while the good folks in Pittsburgh tried to send us the documents. The fax machine then broke and they spent the rest of the time trying to scan and send it as a pdf. Ontop of that, PHX had a dust storm so we had to load some more fuel in case we had to circle.

Oh and the pillow:
It's from KLM, I don't even know how.

sunnyjl

I don't need to research facts. This is based on my experience. All the other legacy airline I've flown on have newer, cleaner planes. In fact I was just on a United flight recently on a brand new one. How often do you fly Useless Air? I have been chairman or platinum for the 9 of the last 10 years, and only recently gold...

LowlyDLsilver

Wait for the Merger, the Super 80 will give a new perspective on AAncient!

bkafrick

Lets see, I have 60 segments so far, buddy... And I've been on plenty of brand new ones as well here on US.

Google is your friend. You'll find out that in fact, on average, United has older planes that US Airways.

I'll give you some help, because you seem to be opposed to research:
Delta - 16.8 years
American - 14.7 years
United - 13.6 years
US Airways - 12.6 years

So, remind me again how all the legacy airlines have newer planes than US Airways?

source: http://www.airfleets.net

Paulchili

Caveat:
Newer does not necessarily equal cleaner nor in better shape.

bkafrick

True, but this guy said "newer and cleaner"... United is definitely not newer.

sunnyjl

I find this very hard to believe just based on my experience. And I have a lot more than you.

MOC991

I find average age of fleet to be a misleading measurement. Since you aren't specifying which types, it excludes the express carriers, and it is only based on the airframe, it doesn't really give you an idea about anything. US Airways cabins look like they were mostly updated 10 years ago. I think that the BBB rating of F versus AA being under review because of bankruptcy and Delta with an A+ should be telling enough. US Airways does not care about customers and that shows in their cabins. They are more rundown regardless of the average age of their airframes. Also the other legacy carriers mostly have larger fleets so that skews the results more. It is a publicly owned company so go read their annual report. It is all about cutting costs and other sources of revenue like charging for snacks. US Airways is trying to be a discount carrier with a higher price. It isn't working, but it is killing their customer service and quality.

F on BBB
Last for overall customer satisfaction, Consumer Reports 2011
6 of 19 most hated companies in America, ACSI 2011

If AA hadn't declared bankruptcy, United didn't have the merger issues, and Spirit wasn't trying so hard to be crappy, they probably would still be holding these prestigious titles. Now that the former two are recovering and the latter is just cutting, it is starting to show.

bkafrick

Yes, your "experience" vs hard data is surely a scientific comparison

MOC991

I guess this would be another followup to my issues with getting through to book a flight. I spent 11 hours of cell phone minutes over a 20 hour period trying to get through to book an open jaw off peak mileage reward which can only booked through the phone and which immediately was unavailable after I did get through and book it just in time.

I called today to try to see if I could get row 6 on the 757-200 on flight 799 AMS-PHL. I thought maybe that would be a reasonable compromise considering the amount of trouble I went through and the fees you pay for award bookings that should really just be taxes. I put my phone on speakerphone since it was probably close to a 15 minute wait. When she began speaking, it was "US Airways (1/2 second pause) HELLO HELLLOOO!!!!!!" I was reaching for the phone, but a few seconds was apparently a long time to her versus my 15 minute wait. They said you can't book exit rows until the day of the flight. Considering she said this in a very angry way, I decided to forego any further confrontation and hung up.

Lo and behold I log on to US Airways to look at the seating available. My seats were changed from 14 E,F to the last row 31 A,B! I couldn't believe that she intentionally changed my seats. I know it would never put me in the last row automatically with every seat available.

I called back figuring I could discuss this issue with a supervisor which seems reasonable to me. I said I would like to speak to a supervisor and explained why. The lady responded, "I'm confused so anyway you wanna change your seat." She didn't put me through to a supervisor and just restated what the previous person did although she did actually mention you could get it if you were preferred. I was silver last year, but didn't have any flights on US Airways so it was pretty useless. I mentioned this prior to her completely ignoring everything I slowly explained. Please don't tell me to send a message to customer service. They have already told me they will do nothing and they ignored a BBB complaint. Just thought people should know the customer service and care they will get especially with a delayed or cancelled flight.

scottsam66

Thanks for sharing, and please don't be dissuaded by those who may inquire as to what you did wrong in the process.

ibrandsguest

I despise the phone system if you're not calling from your registered phone number!

I lost my phone, and when I call from another phone, it says, "we see you're calling from a cell phone and whenever possible we'll use your phone number to locate information"--but then it doesn't give you the chance to enter your registered phone number.

I now say "Agent" to be directed to the Preferred desk, but I have to then say my DM#--I am not permitted to just type it in. It took about 6 tries today; if the phone line doesn't recognize your DM# when you say it, it directs you to the regular reservations line, and so I have to hang up and start over.

So, US Airways: PLEASE allow me to just type in information rather than using the shaky voice recognition system. I can't stand it!

bkafrick

My USDM "number" has letters in it, as does all of the legacy USDM numbers from pre-merger. This is why they use a voice recognition system.

P.s. did you try to key in your number? Often times systems say you have to speak into the IVR, but you can key in your number and it recognizes tones.

ibrandsguest

Yes, I tried to key in the number but it didn't work. Oddly, after multiple attempts to tell the system what I was calling about, it switched to a "press 1 for..." system rather than a voice-recognition system just for that one thing.