U.S. Airways Really Knows How to Tick Off a Frequent Flyer
Those who know me know that one of my pet peeves is the atrocious customer service that most airlines seem to serve up most of the time even though similarly qualified and compensated customer service people who work for hotels seem to serve up great customer service most of the time. Why the airlines can't or won't figure out how to deliver customer service while their travel industry siblings did long ago is beyond me.
Want some examples? Well, too bad. Here they are:
- I traveled to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada this summer with my family. My wife, kids, and I spent a few days at my parents' cabin and then my wife and I had a few days to ourselves in Winnipeg. We stayed in the Hampton Inn in downtown Winnipeg. We've stayed there before and so have my parents and have always been well treated. This time was different. Nothing horrible happened but the service wasn't up to Hampton standards and wasn't corrected after I brought this issues to their attention. I wrote a letter to complain and the property owner refunded what we paid for both of our nights. They made some mistakes. They acknowledged them. They apologized. They made it right. I now won't hesitate to stay at that Hampton Inn or any other again because they proved that they stand behind their product.
- U.S. Airways canceled a flight that I was to take from Albany to Minneapolis in a few weeks. I booked the flight through an on-line agent and understood at the time that U.S. Airways was in its rights to cancel or change the flight. That stuff happens. Passengers don't like it but we understand that it happens. But the cancellation left them with no non-stops so they booked us on a flight from Albany to Philadelphia to Minneapolis. Again, we're not happy but we understand that can happen. They claim they notified the agent about the change and that it is the agent's responsibility to notify us. Maybe legally so, but if U.S. Airways really thought about it, why would they want to leave it up to another organization to ensure the proper treatment of its customers when the cost of sending an automated email is, well, virtually nothing? Bad enough? Wait. The connection in Philly that U.S. Airways arranged for us gave us about five minutes to get from one flight to another. Given that it typically takes at least five and often 10 minutes just to get off of one plane and their own rules require 40 minutes for the connection. I only found out about it because I knew that the airlines were changing a lot of their flight times and I wanted to see if the changes impacted us. So I called U.S. Airways and they re-booked us on different flights that would actually make it possible for us to make the connection. I then sent a letter complaining. I was very specific in the letter that I was not complaining about their need to reschedule us but I felt that we should never have been re-booked in such a way that we would have to re-re-book ourselves as that was a total waste of my time and therefore incredibly customer unfriendly. Their computer system be programmed to look for the closest equivalent (they claim it is) that is possible to make (clearly it isn't). The responses from their customer service people? Pardon my French, but total crap. I went back and forth and back and forth with them trying to get them to even acknowledge that I wasn't complaining about the need to re-book and that I knew it was within their rights to reschedule flights. Despite my numerous attempts to get them to admit that their computer system is crap, they refused to admit it for weeks. They claimed that they escalated my concerns and I would hear back from those people but I never did. What should they have done? Exactly what the Hampton Inn did. Acknowledge the problem. Make it right. U.S. Airways could have done that with a simple apology and promise to fix the system so that hopefully I wouldn't have it happen again. Instead, their refusal to even acknowledge the problem guarantees that it will happen again. When I'm next booking a flight, and I do so multiple times a month, I will choose to fly any other airline whenever possible.
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