My wife and her two sisters scheduled a roundtrip trip from Phoenix, AZ to Medford, OR. The flight was delayed because of "mechanical problems". They finally ordered pizza which was cold and then provided soda pop in very small cups. The outgoing flight should have arrived in Medford at 7:10pm. It did not arrive until about 1:30 AM. It was the last flight at the Medford Airport but they could not quickly unload the luggage so everyone could go home. My wife's luggage was no where to be found. She was about to report it lost when it came up the baggage ramp. No other baggage had come up the ramp for quite some time. No compensation was offered for being over 7 hours late.
On the return trip we kept checking the alrline's website for any delays, etc. None showing they went to the Medford Airport two hours early as the airline demanded only to find out that they had "Mechanical Problems" again. Same yucky, cold pizza and soda. Finally they were told they would depart about 1:30AM. As they went through the baggage check the ticket clerk "Scott" was very rude. One bag was 6lbs overweight. After having them wait over 6.5 hours (the plane did not depart until 3:30AM) nthey wanted to charge for the overweight. They had to repack the bags, which was not easy. AFTER it was rearranged in total oopen view ov everyone in the small ticket area, all closed up and within the weight limit, THEN the TCS came over to the ticket counter and demanded to hand search the baggage. A 62 year old US Citizen has just gotta be a very high risk terrorist threat don't ya think??? After not finding ANYTHING they could confiscate, they reluctantly ticketed the bag and sent it on its way.
The plane did not take off until about 3:30AM!!! Thats about 7.5 hours LATE. All the while their website had not shown that the flight was delayed or anything when I checked it at a little after 11PM (that was about an HOUR after it was supposed to land in Phoenix). I tried to verify flight status with the company but it was closed for the day. They did not have ANY phone numbers with a live person so I could find out what was going on. For all I knew the plane took off and had crashed.
When they finally landed about 5:30AM (again about 7.5 hours late) they parked the plane quite a ways from the terminal. There were thunderstorms in the area with lightining so they would not allow deplaining (good idea). They waited another half hour while the passengers were hopping mad along with the ground crew that had to turn the plane around and this was making them very late too.
The skies opened up and really unloaded just as they started to deplane (no covered skyways). Everyone was totally soaked as the distance to the first terminal was a distance away. Then they were drenched again as they have to go from the first building to the baggabe area. Then a third drenching from the baggage area to the parking lot.
THe first sister ended up having to miss her work day as she normally starts work at 4AM (palne didn't even arrive until 5:30 and deplane until 6AM and home by 7AM) so one more vacation day wasted.
The second sister, after being up for 24 hours did make it to work but had to drive an hour to work without proper rest.
The last sister has fibromyalsia and was in great discomfort with no sleep for 24 hours and all of the totally unnecessary aggravation finally collapsed into sleep within ten minutes of arriving home.
After all of this (total delay for BOTH flights 14 hours) broke the piggy bank and offered $25 vouchers off the next flight with them. I hope it is made of very low acid paper because it will ROT before we EVER fly this abamanation of an airline again!!!
Their rates may be low but their service (or lack thereof) is even
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