Brian Sloane

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Andrew’s experiences on US Airways…. one of the many reasons the old standard players in the airline industry are having problems…. meanwhile Southwest is expanding.

pile:

Dear US Airways Customer Service,

I recently flew flights #4805 and #4897 between Nantucket (ACK) and NY La Guardia (LGA). I have flown your airline many times and have also flown to and from ACK consistently several times a year for the past 25 years. Nantucket airport is small, prone to delays by fog and traffic, and I myself have been stranded multiple times. So it is with some authority that I say that yours was the worst flying experience of my life. Here are some pointers for providing better service:

1. Working air conditioning. I can understand that you want to save fuel, but in the future please remember that airplanes that have been sitting on the ramp for several hours in 90 degree heat get warm, and closing the cabin door does not help air circulation. In the future please consider turning on an internal generator to provide A/C. For small prop planes (like the 20 year old Saab 340s you fly), try connecting a portable generator while on the ground. I have seen these used many times on other airlines. It may seem like a frivolous expense now, but killing several of your elderly customers while sitting at the gate is bad form.
2. Working lavatories. Another lavish amenity, I know, but many people want to use the bathroom when waiting for over hour on the runway because you had to make your on time departure even though there was no chance in hell you would depart because the destination airport was shut down.
3. Check tickets. The elderly gentlemen in the front of the plane on flight #4805 was surprised to be on Nantucket and not Portland when he got off, as was the pilot, who could be heard saying “un-fucking-believable” over and over.
4. Inform flight attendants how a computer works. When baking customers for over an hour in a smelly tube of aluminum death, allow them to use a laptop computer. Telling someone it’s not allowed “because you won’t be able to turn it off in time” seems silly since most laptops I have encountered have hinges that allow them to close quickly.
5. Pilots who don’t their passengers like morons. When a pilot stops just short of the runway and tells his passengers the destination airport is closed and we’ll have to wait on the runway for an hour without a way to relieve ourselves, tell him to taxi with both engines on. When you taxi with only one engine all the way up to the flight line, it looks suspiciously like you left the gate for some alternative reason, like faking an on-time departure knowing full well you would never take off on time. It is obvious when more than one engine is on in a prop plane, because they have propellers.
6. Don’t gouge your customers. Here’s the thing: I can handle morons, broken equipment, loud terminals, and delays that are out of your control but why do you have to knowingly rip me off? I paid $50 extra to upgrade to an earlier flight at check-in, and the agent was in no hurry to print the ticket, even though the plane should have been boarding. Only after I rushed through security did it become obvious: the plane had no chance of leaving on time. Why not tell me that, why take my measly $50 on top of the several hundred I had already given you?

Given the general incompetence of every US Airways employee I have encountered over the past week, I won’t be flying US Airways ever again if I can help it. Luckily on this particular route I can: JetBlue, Continental and a host of smaller carriers do the exact same service for the same price. A few of them even have working bathrooms. How long can a company so (literally) bankrupt compete? Not long, I hope.

Sincerely yours,

Andrew Pile