On May 29 I called Usairways to see if I could get a seat for travel on Friday due to a death in the family. I was told that I could get a seat and that the cost would be $348, I was fine with that. My mother was previously booked to travel on Flights 1638 and 4266 and I was given a seat on each of those flights. I was not told that flight 4266 was a propeller plane. I am not comfortable with this type of plane and immediately asked to be put on a different flight when I saw the plane at the gate. I was willing to fly into a different airport if need be and was told that I could not change airports because I had a checked bag and my mother would not be allowed to pick up my bag upon arrival of flight 4266. I was told that it would be a 4 hour wait for the later flight and I agreed to that and was booked on Flight 2520.
My mother called my cell when she arrived on flight 4266 to tell me that she had my bag, as it was the first one to come through the baggage claim. I was still told by employees of USAirways that I could not change to a flight arriving at another airport (Laguardia, JFK, Stewart or even Newark) even though my luggage had already been claimed.
When I arrived at the gate (Gate F15) about 45 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time of 8:40pm. There was a notice that we would be delayed until 10:10pm. We were never told the reason behind the delay and were never given any updates until after I overheard another passenger, on her cellphone mentioning something about mechanical maintainence. I approached the gate manager and inquired as to the nature of the problem with the plane. She denied that there was any type of a problem with the plane and when I asked her for a customer service number for USAirways, I was told that she could not provide one unless I gave her my boarding pass. I shook my head and said "forget it, I am so done with this d*n airline" at which point she accused me of using profanity. I told her that I had not even come close to profanity and that I believe we both know that what I was thinking would be profanity but that what I said was not.
Over the past 4 days, I have tried in vain to get a phone number from USAirways to file a complaint with them and they tell me that they are not allowed to give that number out.
Over the past 2 months, my family has given USAirways more business than they obviously deserved and I personally flew from White Plains to Atlanta via USAirways on Wednesday May 28th. Had I known that this company was lacking in customer service, I would have paid more to use another airline. This was the worst travel experience I have ever had (and that includes a flight with a 13 hour weather delay at Laguardia several years ago, which incidently was also USAirways.)
I have accepted that Usairways got what they wanted, the money and that is all that matters to them. I would have received better service on a $59 flight with another airline.US Airways does not provide what you pay for, yet they advertise that the customer comes first.
I just want to save others from having to go through such an experience. The only people I can say were fantastic were the flight crew of Flight 2520. The flight attendant was a doll and the pilot was very accomodating, getting us to our destination as quickly and safely as possible.
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