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US AIRWAYS - Customer Service Lacking!
Airline Customer Srevice - Complaint
Review by Karen W. on 2012-02-22
Rating: 
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- Last evening I had the most horrible experience I can remember in recent times with any customer service department. I called about changing one leg of my upcoming round trip from the east coast to the west coast and back. Simply I asked that my return flight be changed from leaving from Ontario to leaving from Sacramento and changing to one day later. Still arriving back in Baltimore. This was apparently more than the customer service representative could do herself, so I asked for a supervisor.
The supervisor really was no better. In the end the supervisor said that my change was made and I hung up the phone (this took more than 1 hour on the phone). When I got the confirmation I saw the changed flight, but there was now no mention of my outbound flight from Baltimore to Ontario. When I called back the Customer service person that answered told me that I did not have an outbound flight. I move to a Supervisor and she told me that on the previous call they canceled my WHOLE Reservation and moved it to a ONE WAY! This was NEVER supposed to be done.
When I asked her to reinstate my outbound her attitude changed and she was very unpleasant. I immediately asked for her supervisor. When speaking to third person (Alita) I explained the situation and my complete displeasure with the now 2 + hours I have spent working on making a small change. She told me that my displeasure needed to be expressed on the website (usair.com in the contact us section) which I found absolutely upsetting. Customer Service People are in sales, they are to sell the company and the company's product / services. I do not feel that the 5 people I spoke to did ether. By the end of the call I was told I would need to pay an additional $183 if I wanted to get my Outbound, which should never have been canceled in the first place, back.
The bottom line is that I spent well over 2 hours working on something that should have been 15 min. I spent 2 hours dealing with people that did not seem caring or interested in helping me with my issues even though I am the one spending my money to use their service. I have been a loyal customer of US AIRWAYS for years and I have walked away last night feeling that my loyalty is not desired, respected, or deserved.
The supervisor really was no better. In the end the supervisor said that my change was made and I hung up the phone (this took more than 1 hour on the phone). When I got the confirmation I saw the changed flight, but there was now no mention of my outbound flight from Baltimore to Ontario. When I called back the Customer service person that answered told me that I did not have an outbound flight. I move to a Supervisor and she told me that on the previous call they canceled my WHOLE Reservation and moved it to a ONE WAY! This was NEVER supposed to be done.
When I asked her to reinstate my outbound her attitude changed and she was very unpleasant. I immediately asked for her supervisor. When speaking to third person (Alita) I explained the situation and my complete displeasure with the now 2 + hours I have spent working on making a small change. She told me that my displeasure needed to be expressed on the website (usair.com in the contact us section) which I found absolutely upsetting. Customer Service People are in sales, they are to sell the company and the company's product / services. I do not feel that the 5 people I spoke to did ether. By the end of the call I was told I would need to pay an additional $183 if I wanted to get my Outbound, which should never have been canceled in the first place, back.
The bottom line is that I spent well over 2 hours working on something that should have been 15 min. I spent 2 hours dealing with people that did not seem caring or interested in helping me with my issues even though I am the one spending my money to use their service. I have been a loyal customer of US AIRWAYS for years and I have walked away last night feeling that my loyalty is not desired, respected, or deserved.
Comments:
Posted by littleshorty on 2012-02-22:
When you change one leg of your trip, it cancels the rest of the reservation. Did you mention that you wanted to keep your outbound flight the same?
Posted by dan gordon on 2012-02-22:
when you change a flight you pay a change fee plus the difference in the fare. Thats why you were charged.
Posted by Karen W. on 2012-02-22:
littleshorty: when you change one leg it does not automatically cancel the whole reservation. They can change one leg and keep the balance of the reservation active. I fly more then 250,000 miles per year and I need to do things like this often, so I am very familiar with the process. The customer service people just don't know how to use their own system and they are not caring about the customers feelings.
Posted by Karen W. on 2012-02-22:
dan_gordon: I paid the $150 Change fee on the first call. I know there is a cost to change, please do not patronize me by trying to make "gotcha comments". Everyone knows there is a change fee. The point is that they charged to give me something back that I had never asked them to cancel and I had already paid for.
Posted by littleshorty on 2012-02-22:
I used to work for US Airways as a supervisor. When you change a city, it does cancel the other part of the trip. The agent has to basically book a new ticket.
Posted by SteveWiginowski on 2012-02-22:
What US Airways should have done is changed this a multi-stop trip going from Sacramento to Baltimore to Ontario instead of a RT from Ontario to Baltimore and back. There would have been only one change fee required.
Since US Airways allows people to book tickets this way, it shouldn't have been an issue. It sounds like there was a miscommunication of some sort, but I agree that US Airways should fix it. The only additional charges should be the change fee and any price difference in old flight to new flight.
Since US Airways allows people to book tickets this way, it shouldn't have been an issue. It sounds like there was a miscommunication of some sort, but I agree that US Airways should fix it. The only additional charges should be the change fee and any price difference in old flight to new flight.
Posted by Churro on 2012-02-22:
I've changed my return flight with US Airways many times and I never had my entire reservation canceled. That is after the change I still had the same departing flight as before the change. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes in the US airways computer system and quite frankly as a customer I don't give a fiddler's fart. Hey deliver the baby don't whine to me about the delivery pains.
In this case US Airways obviously dropped the ball. It's just that simple.
Good reply SteveWiginowski!
In this case US Airways obviously dropped the ball. It's just that simple.
Good reply SteveWiginowski!
Posted by justcuz on 2012-02-22:
I travel frequently for work and while I don't fly with US Airways, I've had to make changes plenty of times and never once have I had any portion of my flight cancelled.
This sounds like rep error followed by no accountability. Whether or not a new ticket needs to be generated is beside the point, the rep should have clarified that the OP wanted everything else to remain the same.
This sounds like rep error followed by no accountability. Whether or not a new ticket needs to be generated is beside the point, the rep should have clarified that the OP wanted everything else to remain the same.
Posted by CowboyFan on 2012-02-23:
The OP was not seeking to buy a round trip ticket at this point. She said she was changing only "one leg" of the ticket. As I read it, she wanted to fly from Baltimore to Sacremental on the way out. She then wanted to fly from Ontario to Baltimore on the way back. This is not a round trip ticket.
If I had a round trip ticket from LA to New York, but then wanted to come back to LA from Miami (instead of New York), I would expect that my reservation would be cancelled and new tickets (perhaps one way) would be issued. (Remember the rule about have to use both parts of round trip tickets, so that people don't scam the airlines by buying cheap roundtrips, instead of one ways.)
If I had a round trip ticket from LA to New York, but then wanted to come back to LA from Miami (instead of New York), I would expect that my reservation would be cancelled and new tickets (perhaps one way) would be issued. (Remember the rule about have to use both parts of round trip tickets, so that people don't scam the airlines by buying cheap roundtrips, instead of one ways.)
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