US Airways did not force your wife to fly. She chose to fly sick. You can purchase travel insurance ahead of time to help in case situations like this arise. All airlines have change fees and will charge you the difference in ticket prices when you change a ticket. BTW, sick people flying is no different than sick people showing up to work.
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Bravo to US Airways for taking off 750$ from the charge when they really didn't have too at all. Like littleyaya said that is what trip insurance is for.
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Excellent point bargod, the OP should be posting a compliment to UA Airwats for dicounting the rebooking costs.
Also, I fail to se how flying with "what was 'going around' and that it would only last a day" would endanger her health? It might have been a bummer of a trip, but endangering???
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Excactly my point KCRovert. Sick people go out in public all the time. It is usually not endangering the health of others.
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"All airlines have change fees" -- not true. Some airlines, e.g., Southwest, don't charge anything to change tickets. Not surprisingly, Southwest is consistently rated far higher in customer satisfaction than US Airways. And, Southwest has been profitable for 36 straight years and has never asked the government to bail it out.
"She chose to fly sick" -- not true. She did *not* fly, because it would have been dangerous to her, dangerous to our children (who would have taken care of them on the plane while she was in the bathroom throwing up?), and dangerous to other passengers on the plane. She was able to make that choice because we w ... more >>
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One more point: I find it astounding that some people commenting here seem to think that "what the airline is required to do" is a metric for good customer service. It's not. Good customer service means treating customers like fellow human beings instead of cattle or marks, providing working mechanisms for containing customer service quickly to resolve issues, and solving problems instead of making excuses. If you read the details on my blog, or for that matter the hundreds of complaints about US Airways posted all over the Web, you will see that US Airways fails on all counts.
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Jik, thanks for the medical info. Do you have a degree in medicine (sarcasm)? If your wife had such a life-threatening illness than where was the note from the doctor stating she was too sick to fly? Where is it written that airlines are required by lay to refuse sick passengers? I used to work for Us Airways and I hate it when passengers make up their own rules.
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Jik you make some really good points. I never thought about it before but I'm all in favor of contagious sick people being denied boarding. That only makes sense. Also, I totally agree with -- "what the airline is required to do" is NOT a metric for good customer service. AMEN brother.
Good review!
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jik, excellent points that encompass all companies. Nearly all company policies are in place to be used as guidelines, they are not hard and fast rules that can never be broken.
I think US Airways made a fair compromise with you here by taking a portion of the change fee off...but the hassle you had to go through to get that was ridiculous.
There will always be a variety of opinions, none are right or wrong IMO, but my personal thought is that if I were running a company would I want passenger X to remember that I showed compassion for her obvious *extreme* illness and that she had 5 children to look after or would I want passenger X to ... more >>
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Excellent review. Key is the comment that the minimum legal obligation cannot become the metric for customer service. As to the medical condition, the OP is correct. Gastroenteritis (regardless of the causative agent) can cause moderate to severe dehydration. Dehydration causes hyperviscosity of the blood which can lead to thrombophlebitis (particularly of the lower extremities during prolonged air travel). Thrombophlebitis can shower emboli which may lodge in the lung...pulmonary embolus...a potentially fatal complication. Finally, does anyone remember riding on a school bus when a kid either vomited or had a bout of diarrhea? Nobody wants ... more >>
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If airlines had a policy of waiving date change fees for anyone who can cough in a telephone then I am sure we would see a lot more people "getting sick" before a flight. There are just too many people flying on any given day for an airline to determine who is pretending and who is really sick. Sure they could require a "doctors note", but the staff required just to validate the thousands of notes would be very costly.
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Amen Ben There
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>>> "Jik, thanks for the medical info. Do you have a degree in medicine (sarcasm)?"
No, I don't, but the nurse with whom my wife was staying does. And as the nursing manager at the local hospital, she was in an ideal position to watch the norovirus race through the hospital staff and many visitors to the ER. Not to mention the fact that she had it herself a few days before my wife got it. It wasn't exactly difficult to diagnose my wife.
So do the people who run the Virginia Department of Health, who have this to say: "Noroviruses cause acute gastroenteritis - symptoms include nausea, vomiting, watery non-bloody diarrhea, stomach cram ... more >>
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Had to weigh in...The OP is correct. Norovirus is extremely contagious. Just do a quick "google" on it and see how many places where people are in closed confinement can get sick. This includes prisons/jails, schools, planes, etc. While a healthy person will become very sick and miserable, norovirus can be serious for the elderly, young children and folks with a compromised immune system (such as cancer survivor like me). I, for one, wouldn't want to be on a plane where norovirus is being passed around.
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jik, it is unfortunate that the airlines cannot/will not be more understanding. I also would not wish to be on a plane with someone vomiting, etc. Nor would the person that is sick. Most of the airlines, from my own experience, charge between $100-150 to reschedule. Southwest Airlines not only doesn't charge you, but if the flight you are rescheduling to is cheaper, they will give you a credit. Now, that's good business. On a lighter note, maybe if your wife would have shown up and puked at the check-in desk, they would have rescheduled her and the family for free. But, no, they probably would have just offered her a barf bag. It is f ... more >>
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A US Airways customer relations representative called and left voicemail yesterday in response to the letter I sent them last week. As expected, she offered me useless travel vouchers (useless because it'll be a cold day in hell before my wife and I willing patronize US airways again) and refused to refund the $500. I've posted some excerpts from the conversation at http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/2009/03/18/us-airways-responds-to-my-letter/.
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It's a good thing you refused those vouchers. They are impossible to use. Some of the vouchers are dollars off based. But most are for a "free trip." The seats are very limited for those vouchers. They are actually the same class of service used for frequent flier seats. If free seats cannot be found then they will offer I think like $200 off the full price fare. So I discourage the use of the vouchers. They are uselsss and cause more irate passengers.
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You educated me littleyaya. I appreciate that.
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Most airlines charge a service charge for the change, plus (or minus) the applicable fare difference. Southwest simply has no service chage, even they would have still charged the fare increase. So, by US waiving the fee, they were doing the same thing Southwest, who you laud, would have done. Granted, they should not have taken all day in extending that courtesy. Your complaint is that you had to pay $500 to change six tickets the day before the passengers were scheduled to fly, that's a pretty good deal. Sorry your wife got sick, but life's not fair. You paid only the fare difference, that's very reasonable.
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When I was a supervisor for an airline, in these situations, I'd always look to see how empty the flight the next day was. If it was close to full, I would have fought for at least the fare increase because of the potential overbooking scenario. If it was wide open, I'd just move the flight for free to appease the customer and save myself and the rep from having to listen to [them]
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I used to be a sup for Us Airways. I would base my decision to waive fees on the passenger's attitude. If you were rude, you would pay. If you were nice I'd be happy to waive fees.
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When you buy 'cheap' tickets (non-refundable, non-transferable) they mean it. I give kudos to USAir for discounting the transfer fees. And littleyaya is right. Due to a flight delay out of Phoenix to Charlotte and then onward USAir was going to get us into Charlotte quite late and put us up. Why got to bed at midnight to get up at 6am to get a flight? Anyway, we were pleasant and talked to a USAir gate clerk and she put us up in Phoenix (which we requested), gave us food vouchers (which we were not entitled to), and got us on a reasonably timed flight the next day. When I sent an email to USAir about the great customer service they sent ... more >>
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