Does anyone else feel they can’t do anything right?
I flew (or should I say attempted to fly) down to Baltimore via Baltimore/Washington International Airport from Boston’s Logan Airport. I was flying US Air from Boston to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, then onto Baltimore. My flight was to leaving Boston at 1 PM, arriving in New York by 3:20 PM and then off to Baltimore to arrive by 5 PM. It was imperative I arrive in Baltimore on time. Why, you may ask? Well, me, along with four other friends and family were on our way to watch a three game baseball series - Boston Red Sox vs. the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards – and of course - I had the tickets.
My flight from Boston was about 90 minutes late arriving at LaGuardia so I de-board the plane and start running through the US Air terminal in order to make my connection. Luckily I had carried on my luggage. As a arrive at the gate for my Baltimore connection, the monitors say the flight is delayed until 4:15 PM. Ok – no big deal. I stand in line to find out why and as I am standing there the monitor changes to reflect that the flight will now leave at 4:35 PM – with no explanation.
I finally decide to go to special services to see if there was another flight to Baltimore - either on another airline or out of JFK or Newark Airport. I even inquired about flights to Reagan International Airport and Dulles Airport, both in Washington D.C. I of course have to specifically spell out my request to the counter agent, although I believe it is their job to find me another flight when the delay is their fault. I should not have to spell out the specifics of looking on other airlines and airports.
After the ticket agent insisted there was nothing else she could do for me, I went back to my gate. The flight didn’t leave NYC-LaGuardia until almost 6:00 pm – THREE HOURS late, arriving in Baltimore around 7:30 pm. I was supposed to arrive there at 5 PM. I was over an HOUR LATE to the game which started at 7 PM.
The weather that day was rain. Not thunderstorms, not torrential downpours, just rain. Family and friends who were also coming from Boston to Baltimore had no problems arriving on time using other airlines.
Needless to say, after sending my complain letter to US Air, I do not even want the free ticket they may offer. I will NEVER fly US Air again.
Comments (1)
I had a similar problem with US Air and blogged about it on my personal blog - from that I received dozens of trackbacks from other upset travelers who experienced the same terrible service, many who like myself had "lost" bags for days causing ruined vacations, long delayed flights where all connecting flights were missed, rude customer service refusing to own-up to their mistakes and just plain bad behavior - even the tickets they gave my family were in someone else's name causing a massive hole in airport security (it turns about 30 people had to revisit the airline counter that day because of the computer glitch causing false names to be printed, though no flights were actually canceled because of this disaster, which is odd).
Anyway, I'll never ever fly US Air again, regardless of price, they're really the worst in the business. And my dad, a seasoned traveler, warned me before traveling that they'd mess it up, and he was right.
Here's a link to the most proactive bloggers commenting on US Air:
http://www.usairwayslostmycostume.com/#Record
Posted by Jason | September 11, 2007 10:04 AM
Posted on September 11, 2007 10:04