Marvelous Marv

Just wanted to hear if I’m the only one.

I attempted to take a trip via USAir this weekend. Had some family matters in Oregon.

I bought my tickets in July with USAir. I knew they were in bankruptcy, but they were functioning, and it looked like Delta was about to go INTO bankruptcy, which is much more disruptive.

I guess USAir and United have merged. To GREATLY abbreviate the story, United said that although my return e-tickets said “Confirmed,” I didn’t have seats on the airplane. What one agent (the one that didn’t lie to me) told me was that they routinely oversell their planes by ten to twenty percent.

I spent an hour and a half two days prior to my return flight talking to “Tom.” I think his name was probably Rajneesh. Neither he, nor one other agent whom I couldn’t understand, or a person he SAID was his manager was willing to e-mail me written confirmation, although they were happy to swear on their mother’s graves that I had tickets. They just didn’t want to put it in writing. Actually, that may have been true—I had tickets; they just wouldn’t allow me to board their plane.

So in between their trying to blame my travel agency for changing my flight schedule, I requested seats on another airline. They said there was no plane with an empty seat leaving from that airport and going to my home state. When I left the desk, I picked up my cell phone and bought four tickets on Jet Blue to get home.

When I got there, two of my bags were missing. The lost baggage agent was so arrogant and argumentative (tried to blame Jet Blue for the bags that United lost) that after he started yelling, I finally called airport security. It was remarkable how much his attitude improved at that point.

I have left out a great many things I will add if there's any interest.

Anybody else want to post travel horror stories, or better yet, any effective means to force USAir or United to reimburse me for passage on Jet Blue?

I may swing by the “Ask the Lawyer” area, too.

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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher

maleficent

Talk to your credit card company... AmEx is usually pretty good about getting you home by any means if the airlines messed up. (especially if you hold more than a green card)

Airlines regularly overbook... ContinentHell is notorious for it... One of the things you learn early on with air travel.. there's a big difference between a ticket on a plane and a seat assignment on a plane... I understand the need for overbooking to some degree - -but it shoudl really only be in certain markets (like the vacation markets where the odds are good that people will cancel or miss their flight because l ittle mikey didn't want to get in the car)

The travel horror stories i could tell would make Wilbur and Orville ashamed that they ever considered air travel

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Marvelous Marv

Thank you. For what it's worth, I don't think I will ever fly anywhere ever again if I can't go there on Jet Blue. 36 channels of DirectTV at every seat, and their employees are actually friendly.

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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher

denim

USAir is a major loser airline. Not all their people are crap, and I don't mean to suggest it, but the final time I flew with them, last January, I was caught in the middle of their baggage loss problem. Never again. Let them go the way of Eastern.

Sultana

Do. Not. Ever. Fly. Air. France.

That's all I can bear to share right now.

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"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

powerclown

Hehehe, yes, the wonderful world of Outsourcing in action. "Tom" was probably 8,000 miles away working in a cubicle farm in Bangalore, India. Jet Blue keeps it closer to home: all their ticket agents work out of their homes in Salt Lake City. I've never flown JB, but I understand they are quite a successful upstart airline company, and satellite tv for every seat sounds like a damn good idea. Unfortunately, they don't fly out of my city.

You might write an email or snail mail to a Higher Up at United. I received a 100% refund from Orbitz last year for booking the wrong flight online. I accidently hit the RETURN key when I tabbed too far, and the "Book This Flight" button was highlighted. They were very polite and understanding...I still think I got away with murder.

maleficent

Start with the customer service desk (though that only gets you miles... Dear United/US Scare, I'm pissed and I'll never fly you again. Dear customer, thank you for writing, here's 1000 miles for your trouble) but copy the letter to people in higher positions... You shoudl be able to get names from the website.

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SirLance

Why does this shit always happen to you? YOu seem like a nice guy, but you always seem to find yourself in some kind of mess. Bad karma from a previous life?

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DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.

maleficent

Heh... based on my adventures in travel and the bad karma I constantly am working off, either I'm not as nice as i think I am at times, or I was Lizzie Borden or Bonnie Parker in a past life...

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sailor

Flying sucks. I'm living in Europe right now on a study abroad program, and lemme tell you--they got the whole train thing figured out. Fuck flying.

For comparison, I went home for a week last week, and while the tickets were cheap, I had to deal with the standard fare: lots of delays, cramped seats, bitchy employees, dirty airports, oversold flights... And oh yeah, more delays. At one point, my flight to Frankfurt was delayed from 4PM until 8AM the next morning. Luckily, I encountered a nice employee who reissued my tickets for a totally different route before I had to spend the night in the Philly airport.

Speaking of the Philly airport, avoid it at all times. I've flown through there 8 or 9 times, and everytime, there were HUGE delays, mostly from them not being able to get enough planes on/off the ground. And it's the single dirtiest airport I've ever encountered. Not a place you want to spend the night because air traffic control needs a few more cups of coffee to get going.

God, I just realized I had so many crappy travel stories, I can't seem to get them down before I think of another one. But yeah, there's something about spending 20 minutes getting undressed and unpacked for a security scan before spending 20 more getting redressed/repacked, before spending 2 hours waiting for a plane, before spending 8 hours crammed into a seat 2 inches from a snoring, sweaty, fat man, all assuming that, like you said, you actually get the seat you paid for, that makes you wish you didn't have to/want to travel.

Biggest tip I have: At all costs, fly carryon. Get ruthless with your packing, not having to deal with baggage is, as I'm sure you just learned, a godsend. Get to the point that you can go for a week out of a small carryon. It's the most liberating feeling.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

Grasshopper Green

I don't have any advice about getting reimbursed, but I do have a horror story to share.

I was taking an evening flight from Raleigh to Newark a couple of years ago, and I was seated next to a nice couple who were in charge of some sort of band trip to Portugal. They had specifically asked the attendant that checks your bags in if the kid's instruments could be taken on the plane, because they didn't want them to be damaged by checking them. So, it's a completely full plane. We were in the front of the plane, and therefore the last on the plane, so there was very little overhead storage left. The man put boxy instrument under the seat in front of him, but it didn't quite fit. The flight attendant, a grouchy old SOB, told him to put it in overhead or it had to be checked. The man politely explained his situation, but the attendant didn't give a damn. So the other attendant comes up to see what the hold up is, and after hearing the problem started tossing coats out of a bin at random, with them falling all over other passengers, who of course got pissed. The man next to me tried to be civil the entire time, but I really thought it was going to come to blows because of the flight attendant. I was seated on the aisle and the man and his wife center and window, so I was sitting between the whole ugly exchange the entire time. And to add icing to the cake, when it was time for beverage service, the grouchy flight attendant threw the peanut packets at me, and told me to pass them down. The man apologized profusely to me, but it wasn't his fault. It's unfortunate thing was it was the beginning of my trip, otherwise I would have been off the plane and over to customer service raising holy hell. I have a feeling a great many complaints were made to Continental after that flight.

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

sailor

Oooh, just remembered another fun experience.

I was looking for a ticket from Stuttgart to Raleigh, NC. Did a search for it, and found the cheapest far from US Airways' website. I go to buy the ticket online, and it says they will only issue me a paper ticket. No good--the mail here isn't the most reliable thing, and I was only 10 days out from the flight anyways. So I called them and asked them if they could give me an e-ticket. No, it's actually a flight from Lufthansa, but USAir operated it, so they couldnt give me an e-ticket. I asked what happened if that paper ticket never came. Basically, I'd be shit out of luck, because there's no USAir ticket desk in Stuttgart. So they told me to call Lufthansa. So I called Lufthansa to see if they could give me the ticket. No, they said it was USAir's flight, so they couldnt give me the ticket, and to call USAir. Back on the phone with USAir, still saying the same thing--can't give me a ticket. Back to Lufthansa, this time to see if I could get the same ticket issued from them, so at least I'd have a ticket desk if something got messed. Sure, they told me, except that a coach class seat would cost me 1500 euro. No thanks.

So basically, it was impossible to buy a ticket for that flight because both parties kept saying "It's the other company's flight, call them." I ended up having to fly from Frankfurt, meaning a 30 euro train each way from the town where I am.

And they wonder why people hate flying.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

denim

It's USAir and all their works which are the problem there.

snowy

Man, I don't have any airline horror stories...except that Northwest's service sucks inflight...

However, I do have many Amtrak horror stories...but that's for another thread.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

yellowchef

I LOVE Continental. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Continental. Maybe its because theyre about the only non-low fare airline that isnt just hovering above bankruptcy. Their people are friendly, the planes are nice and the customer service staff is all American. They speak English and are VERY friendly. Even at 3am.

Delta might as well be because their balance sheet totally sucks and security costs just went up like another 1000% again this quarter so they're up the river without a paddle. I myself am not fond of Delta, they have rude staff and broken planes. My seat on my little one hour flight from Ft Lauderdale to Orlando(it was $100 to fly vs that much to drive so it was worth the flight) the ticket agent told me that since my boarding pass would not read Id have to go see his supervisor, get a new boarding pass and catch the next flight since they would give my seat up. At that point I literally threw a fit in the terminal. This flight was planned out to the T and any deviation from it would have messed up all my plans. So the supervisor comes over.... turns out he was scanning the wrong part of my boarding pass. I printed mine off the internet and I guess he was just retarded or something. Then on the flight I asked the flight attendant if I could have soda and water. She told me no. WTF Id have even paid for it but she said NO. Fine, you want to be that way..... be that way. I made sure to call their 1800 number. I got some miles and a $200 voucher. I may never use it, I despise Delta.

Ive never flown a low cost carrier since I dont ever seem to go where they fly but I dont ask for much. I just want them to be friendly, hospitable... and human. Continental has done that for me more than once. I was kinda stuck in Tulsa for Katrina, I called the hotline they had on their site. The friendly lady that answered my call had me a flight booked and CONFIRMED 100% confirmed since I was a displaced traveller and I had first priority over everyone. She gave me a confirmation number, gave me like 5,000 extra miles and sent me an e mail with everything so I could check in online. Apparently something happened and I didnt come for the right flight... they later confirmed a ticketing agent had messed up several iteneraries after my phone call and I was not the only one that got screwed. They got me on the flight out I had requested on the phone with no problems and I got a $150 voucher.

Recently I was booking my flight home.. and apparently Im a moron. I couldnt figure out how to apply my vouchers and I had more than one. I called their reservations number at like 3 or 4 am and the person who answered the phone didnt make it sound like they were looking down at me. They may have been cursing me in their mind but thats ok, I do that at work all day. I just never let it get through my voice. So anyway they got me through it all very easily and in English.

I like American too but for some reason when I go to search their fares they always seem to come up quite a bit higher than Delta, Continental or NWA.

__________________
the voices in your head are not real--but they still have some really great ideas.

always remeber you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. But..you CAN choose the insane asylum where you have them all put away!

yellowchef

PS in the hospitality industry we call them US Scare. They cant even afford to paint their planes. Why would I fly with them? I dont like turbo props but Id sooner take a turbo prop than fly a US Scare 737 or something.

__________________
the voices in your head are not real--but they still have some really great ideas.

always remeber you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. But..you CAN choose the insane asylum where you have them all put away!

Redlemon

Positive story: we just flew on Midwest with a 3 year old, since we needed to go to the Grand Rapids, MI area. I'd never heard of them, it was just a good fare and got us there at about the right time.

Two things stood out that I have never seen done elsewhere:

* After the safety lecture, the flight attendant came over to me personally to point out the child-specific safety items.

* We checked the child stroller in at the gate, as usual. When we deplaned, they had unfolded all of the child strollers, so we didn't have to juggle bags and kid while trying to open the stroller.

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

maleficent

Do they still bake the chocolate chip cookies in the plane? Used to fly them going to a customer outside of grand rapids -- NICE planes... but they didn't fly to any major markets (whichkeeps their costs down)

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Redlemon

Yeah, and I was near the back of the plane, so I got 2 for me, 2 for my wife (who is allergic to chocolate), and 2 more because she had extras. Woohoo!

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

Grasshopper Green

That's fantastic. When I flew with my son (he was 9 months), the stroller was left still folded when I got off...and I was traveling alone. I tried to open it while holding him and having a carryon...not good. Thankfully, another passenger stopped and helped me.

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

FatFreeGoodness

Those of you old enough to remember Eastern know will verify is it’s worst moment US Air only vaguely resembles the horror that was Eastern.
I have a letter from them thanking me for averaging 10,000 miles a week for two years straight.
I have more airline stories than you can even imagine.

Once we were diverted 50 miles to an alternate airport for bad weather This airport happened to be my final destination. Would they let me off the plane? No. We waited on the plane for two hours. When the fuel got low, they turned off the engines and we waited another four hours with no AC, in Alabama in August. After six hours we refueled and flew to the original city, where I was told I had missed my connecting flight and would have to spend the night. The next flight was at 5:45 in the morning , just five hours from now. Rental car not an option, closed for the night.
Hardly worth getting a taxi to a motel, checking in, then immediately checking out, right?
So I waited at the airport. The next morning the flight was delayed for thirty minutes. And thirty minutes more. Repeat thirty minute delays until noon. Then fly back to the same airport I sat in for six hours the day before.
Thanks for flying Eastern!

Random thought: Have you ever wondered why it is that every speaker on a passenger jet sounds much worse than the crappiest 50-cent speaker ever sold by Radio Shack, while the airline brags about their superb maintenance program?
And why is it that the radio used by the pilot / tower has worse quality sound than a disposable cell phone from Wal Mart?
Could it be that the sound quality is excellent, and the pilot really sounds like that?

maleficent

I remember Eastern fondly (snicker snicker) They were wonderful compared to People's Express.. now that was the downfall of the airline industry.. they made it OK to treat people like crap...

One of my most amusing diversions (after the fact) was on my old nemesis ContinentHELL( And their famous WE DON"T CARE line) They may stay out of bankruptcy but other than Northwest, they are hands down the worlds worst airline...

I was flying from Manchester, NH to Newark NJ (a 45 minute flight) on a Embraer Jet.. (seats 67 passengers and if you are of normal height you can't stand up straight) I was well caffeinated because it was only a 45 minute flight, didnt bother with the restroom before boarding. Well we get on the plane, and pull back (and as usual, we sit on the runway for about 2 hours because of aground stop delay (Not contententhell's fault) We finally take off, and now, I'm about 3 hours into ""if the person in front of me reclines his seat any furthter I am going to request oral sex he's so far in my lap.
an hour or so later pilot comes on saying we're getting really low on fuel and we're heading to Philly (about 30 minutes southish of where we were) the weather was different there??? We landed in the rain in Philly, and every other flight that was diverted from Newark, also landed in Philly so we're sitting on an emergency runway... there was no room at the inn, and no gate for us to pull up into. Oh, and did I mention that the only restroom on this plane was out of order and did i also mention I had about 3 cups of coffee and a bottle of water before we left and I had to pee really really REALLY badly.

It's now about midnight, and we're still sitting in a hot sweaty plane with cranky people, it's been 7 hours since we left manchester... and I still have to pee.. .along with more than one person on the plane I'm sure... They finally open the door on the plane and says we can get out here if we want... But we had no access to luggage.. and Contintental wasn't being helpful about getting us home from Philly (it's about an hour drive) we would have to take a cab - and good luck getting your bag because they were not going to open the baggage hold (it was a regional jet, all luggage is checked plane side)

2 hours later.... I still have to pee... pilot says, Ok, if you are getting off, get off now, otherwise we're heading back to Newark...

My flight that left manchester at 5:00pm, finally arrived in Newark at about 3:00am...

I wrote to the we don't care line, just to suggest perhaps that when there are weather delays and such, they m ight want to have a plan in force... I was awarded 1500 miles.. thanks...

Good customer service.. I was on an American flight from newark to chicago... the plane takes off, and the cabin fills with smoke (from the A/C) plane makes an emergency landing (wasn't neccessary but was fun) and we get back to the gate... I walk to the gate, and am told that the next AA flight is booked but they got me on a United flight that leaves in 20 minutes in first class... No questions asked - they just got us where we needed to go.

Two weeks later, I got a letter from American's customer service (I never wrote to them) apologizing for the inconvenience, and awarding me 10K miles... And thanks for being a customer.

On both airlines, I was platinum status... ContinentHell I only fly when no one else goes there.. their customer service blows monkey chunks... and will not do anything to help out people... (My worst story was when I was stuck in newark for 14 hours because the flight was leaving within an hour... 3 other airlines had flights going to boston (45 minutes fromw ehre i was going) continentHELL REFUSED to put anyone on those flights... no meal vouchers or any thing was offered... ContententHell's we dont care line, after getting an email from me, offered 2000 miles -- I told them to keep them... and was going to send them a bill at my hourly rate for my time they wasted.

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Spanxxx

Southwest managed to drop our stroller hard enough to break it. It was just great coming off the plane with an 8 month old and bags, and then trying to get through the airport while CARRYING the stroller and bags while the wife carried my son and more bags.

However, I usually like Southwest. Despite the cattle herd mentality and their ever vigilant approach toward "we have silly employees who make the trip fun", they are usually reasonable to deal with, and more often than not get me to my destination on time. That, and they usually have cheap tickets to the places I'm going.

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I think that's what they mean by "nickels a day can feed a child." I thought, "How could food be so cheap over there?" It's not, they just eat nickels. - (supposedly) Peter Nguyen, internet hero

Marvelous Marv

The Jet Blue flight ahead of mine was delayed. The first sentence over the PA was that it had been delayed. The second sentence announced that all passengers on that plane should go to gate 47 to pick up a complimentary meal voucher.

Did I mention that as of today (Thursday) United still hasn't found two of my bags from my Sunday flight?

__________________
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher

yellowchef

Im sorry you've had such poor experience with Continental. I love them. Southwest and Airtran could blow me but theyre so cheap on a college students budget I cant say no. Also same for Delta. Delta is part of Skyteam so my miles transfer over. I can never seem to find a cheap enough AA flight or an AA flight at the right time though my cousin(who is an employee) swears by them and so do many of my friends. I may have flown AA to Japan when I was MUCH younger but I dont remeber.

Another reason I hate Delta. Their employees steal and are not punnished. Ive had this confirmed from my cousin who works with an ex Delta employee and from my friend Tonya who was a TSA agent. My brother had some things magically "liberated" from his bag on his return flight from Tulsa to Ft Walton Beach, FL. I called Delta and they did their usual BS about oh ok blah blah information, description, what items were missing and the normal run around. I gave them his e-mail and he got some correspondance but nothing to even hint that maybe they had found his missing things or that they were trying. He said AA was a good flight but the Delta flight had him on a turboprop that sounded worse than any other turboprop he'd been on. My "little" brother is no longer little and at over 6' he didnt mind the 2 hour flight untill the flight attendant thought it would be cute to see if he would move out of the emergency exit row. He said no as he was allowed to and suddenly the flight whore went from normal to extreme bitch.

I told him to e mail delta and see what he could get like 2 weeks after his flight because of his luggage and experience. Again, they did their normal "bandaid" of a $500 voucher, a hotel MCO for $200 and they sent him a $500(maximim allowance) for the lost articles. They also mailed him a letter of apoplogy and gave me(since he used my continental frequent flyer number) 10,000 miles or something, I just remeber my status went from silver to gold that week and I dont fly that often.

Marv keep in contact with them, legally they have to either find your bags within 30 days or issue you a check/voucher for the value of your bags(up to $500 or 1,000 I think) so keep up on it!

I also dont like Spirit. Ive flown them once from FLL to LGA and that had to be by all means the WORST flight ever. I know I only paid you guys like $60 but you are a fucking airline. Customer service people!!!! Wheather I paid nothing or paid $1,000,000 for my ticket I deserve to be treated like a human. I know Im a little chunky but I fit in the damn seat you fucking air bitch. I dont need you to tell me that I may need to speak with a representitive to be re-booked on a later flight so that there are 2 seats side by side to purchase. I AM NOT THAT FAT!!!!

Seriously on Spirit as soon as I borded in FLL I found my seat as usual, put my messanger bag on the floor under the seat in front of me, sat down and buckled up. The Air Bitch was making her rounds and asked me if I was ok. I politely said yes and thanked her. I began to lean over to get my CD player out of my bag so that while other passangers were boarding I could ignore them. She then said "miss I think you need to step off the plane and speak with a representitive. They can book you 2 seats side by side which you will have to pay for the additional seat, but you and the person next to you will be more comfortable since you are of a large frame. Can you follow me?" At that point I told her no. POLITELY. It was hard but Im a customer service person myself so biting my tongue is normal. Again she told me to come with her for another booking. I am not that fat, my sides dont touch both of the arm rests at the same time, I am smaller than the seat and I can buckle my damn seatbelt without extending it all the way or asking for an extender thingie. I know Im a bit chunky but by no means am I a fucking moo-cow. So upon her second plea I told her no. Still polite but she was wearing on my nerves. She said ok, Ill need to go discuss this with my supervisor. She comes back and says "my supervisor would like to speak with you"; at this point I could have hit her and not felt bad. I could have lost my mind...... unfortunately that little angel said "you spent the last of your paycheck on this flight, dont lose it" so I told her if your supervisor wants to speak with me they may come here or you can tell me what it concerns. So she goes to get her supervisor who is red in the face and begins to apologise like no tomorrow for the stupid flight bitch who I wanted to smack. I had my money refunded for the flght and she offered to book me with another airline at thier cost.

__________________
the voices in your head are not real--but they still have some really great ideas.

always remeber you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. But..you CAN choose the insane asylum where you have them all put away!

yellowchef

BTW I did book on another flight leaving within the hour.... on continental. and got my miles for it.

__________________
the voices in your head are not real--but they still have some really great ideas.

always remeber you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. But..you CAN choose the insane asylum where you have them all put away!

Marvelous Marv

Wow, that's amazing. I once had a seat next to someone who was so wide, the first thing she did was lift up the seat divider, and spread into half of my seat.

Not wanting to be a jerk, I waited until the flight was airborne, and signaled the flight attendant. I whispered in her ear that I needed another seat. There was one other (next to a guy who sniffled and coughed about every 15 seconds for the entire flight).

My criterion is, if the person fits into the seat without lifting up the armrest, they've done their part. If they lift it up and spread into mine, I'm going to mention it to someone, since I paid for a whole seat.

Thanks for the tips on keeping track. I knew they had a limit on what they'd pay for a bag. Guess I should check and find out how much it is.

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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher