Maybe US does care about customer loyalty

[PHX PHLyer]

Story Here

Dear Matt,

Thank you for contacting Customer Relations at US Airways. We appreciate hearing from our customers and having an opportunity to address their concerns.

We have reinstated your ticket REDACTED (REDACTED) as a gesture of goodwill. This ticket was issued on April 10,2007 and is good for one year from date of issue. Please note that all travel must be completed by April 10, 2008. In addition, I have waived our customary $100 re-issue fee as a one time courtesy. Please call our reservation department at 800 428-4322 when you are ready to book your ticket.

We appreciate and value your business. We're working hard to earn your continued patronage. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,

Customer Relations US Airways

 

[Art at ISP]

This was a one time event, and based on negative publicity.

I know HUNDREDS of other issues which were not only unresolved, but not even addressed.

To compliment them for doing the right thing ONCE shows you how low they have sunk.

 

[Dog Wonder]

What is the EECB?

 

[PHX PHLyer]

This was a one time event, and based on negative publicity.

There was no negative publicity with this. The boy who wrote this letter went through the whole thing and then posted it to the site. He was trying to show a way in which he was able to get a positive outcome from his situation. The title "EECB pressures US Airways" refers to "Execute Email Carpet Bomb" in which you send your letter to every email address you can find at a company....then get your family and friends to do the same thing. EECB isn't a consumer activism group or anything like that, its just an acronym for a email method of trying to get something you want. And it actually doesn't seem like this was an EECB, just a letter to customer service (possibly Carbon Copied to others) that was resolved. US was under no public pressure for this.

And you might want to lighten up there a little Art....you seem a little bent out of shape.

 

[PHX PHLyer]

What is the EECB?

Click Here to Learn All About It......as you will see it is not an activist group

 

[PO'ed PHX Ramper]

I don't know man. ALL airlines have very tight policies when it comes to reissues, refunds, and any of the rules in general. Look at Jet Blue, they only give refunds if you're stuck out on the tarmac for 7 hours in nasty weather, with the crappers full.


If we don't oversell, and stick to our guns, we tend to lose money.

 

[freedom]

Whoa !!! An employee gave the customer back his money when it wasn’t legally necessary to do so ??? Uh OH , I sense a pink slip coming …lol

 

[US1YFARE]

Wow, he flies 5 times a year? No wonder he got special treatment. I used to give US tens of thousands of dollars a year and for me they actually offered this year to refund a fully refundable ticket. :blink:

 

[Art at ISP]

And you might want to lighten up there a little Art....you seem a little bent out of shape.

I am not the slightest bit bent out of shape, PHX, I have the facts.

I commend US for doing the right thing. I encourage them to continue doing the right thing.

Unfortunately the evidence we have says they won't.

And it seems the more you fly them the more poorly they treat you. The person who got the refund flies much less frequently than our members do and was treated much better.


And what we have comes directly comes from the customers affected.

 

[noname]

The letter was well written and honest.
I have found that people are usually very willing to assist you when you admit that you were at fault. It is so rare that the customer/passenger/end user/parents/etc. accepts responsibility and says "I SCR**ED UP.. I can't believe I did that..Is there anyway you can help me?" Works most every time when in fact I have s**ewed up. Honesty and being up front is so much easier anyway.
Glad they worked this out so Matt can use the value of his ticket. We used to have some flexibility in resolving these types of problems on the front line...
Maybe someone in Tempe is listening.

 

[happy01]

I am not the slightest bit bent out of shape, PHX, I have the facts.

I commend US for doing the right thing. I encourage them to continue doing the right thing.

Unfortunately the evidence we have says they won't.

And it seems the more you fly them the more poorly they treat you. The person who got the refund flies much less frequently than our members do and was treated much better.
And what we have comes directly comes from the customers affected.

He didn't get a refund, he got the ability to apply the value of his unused ticket towards future travel and they waived the standard re-issue fee.

I have to say the letter was very well written, he didn't place blame on US he accepted responsibility and asked for some sort of forgiveness. In situations like this, this is an easily fixed problem. The problems come when passengers demand refunds or an outrageous exception to published policies, for something that the passenger screwed up on. I think anyone in a customer service oriented position is willing to help a passenger out when they are nice. It doesn't matter if your an average Joe or a CP, if you're rude no one wants to help you.

 

[Art at ISP]

Happy,

In principle I agree with you entirely. However, when you watch the Town Hall videos and listen to Scott and Doug talking about frequent fliers, and Chairmans' in particular, you detect the contempt and disregard for customers in their comments. They think we're all a bunch of moochers who want the world for nothing. They use this belief to justify the continual downgrade of the product and removal of perks and customer service which have taken place since the merger. In contrast, there are other airline executives I have met who embrace their frequent flier community, and work with their customers to make things better--and are enjoying the profits which come with that attitude, as well as labor peace.

We have noted this "customer as the enemy" attitude, and most of us have decided to reward them by leaving US altogether. I have heard directly from hundreds of people who have spent on average $18K per year with US in the past say they are gone...and part of the reason is that US does not respond appropriately to their complaints IF they respond at all. In many cases, customer service issues have been brought to my attention, and only get responses when I send them on to my contacts in Tempe.

The bottom line is this: Tempe needs to decide what kind of airline they want to be and execute the transformation once and for all. They can not pretend to be an LCC when they have the highest costs in the industry (most of which are caused by poor planning and use of assets), and continue to offer inferior product and service while charging MORE in most cases than the competition.

I have stated before--I have spent my last dollar at US for the foreseeable future. However I still believe it is not too late, and am working to effect change. Money talks...............

 

[JS]

US has a "use it or lose it" policy? I wasn't aware of that. How idiotic. I thought NW was the worst with their 90 days-and-it's-gone policy.

Now that I think about it, normally a use-it-or-lose-it ticket rule exists at el cheapo discount carriers with no first class, so I guess it does fit the new US Airways.

 

[happy01]

US has a "use it or lose it" policy? I wasn't aware of that. How idiotic. I thought NW was the worst with their 90 days-and-it's-gone policy.

Now that I think about it, normally a use-it-or-lose-it ticket rule exists at el cheapo discount carriers with no first class, so I guess it does fit the new US Airways.

It's not necessarily a use it or lose it policy. It's a cancel your reservation or lose it policy. And from what I understand most airlines have a similar policy. I explain it to passengers this way "If you bought tickets to see Celine Dion( or whoever no nitpicking allowed) and you couldn't go because your Grandma Edna got sick, the show went on without you. Celine and Ceasar's Palace aren't goint to give you a refund, and I guarantee if you had a good seat someone moved into it when you didn't show up." Now the airlines policies aren't that strict, they allow you to take the value of your ticket and apply it towards another ticket purchase. Do you think Ceasar's will let you apply the unused Celine ticket towards a Madonna ticket when she rolls into town? I field calls from passenger's(and I don't even work in customer relations) all day long who are angry because they didn't use their non-refundable ticket as scheduled and now they're are demanding a refund or some form of compensation. What they fail to realize is that the flight still operated as scheduled, and it still cost the same amount of money to operate that flight even though they weren't on it. This just deals with the average Joe passenger, not the FF's or CP's. They're a whole other story, and I agree when they travel alot they deserve outstanding service. But honestly, PB and Art I wish you could hear how some of them talk to employees on the phone. I'd like to think they'd never behave this way in person, courage comes in anonymity, but I hear from the front lines some behave just as poorly in person. The letter that started all of this was a simple request, to reinstate the kids ticket. He didn't want a refund, or a free ticket, or an upgrade to first class. This is an easily resolved problem, that can be accomplished for just about any "nice" passenger. Believe me if he was a raving lunatic employees can quote published policy like nobody's business, and wouldn't go out of their way to help him. I believe you that there are disgrutled passengers out there, but for just one day I wish you could hear how some of these people behave, and you wouldn't want to help them either. I think it would be interesting if airline employees could start a website like focus, but listing the badly behaved passengers. I'm sure you haven't heard about the station manager who was hit in the head with a full can of coke and had to get stitches when a passenger missed his flight(and yes the passenger was late the plane didn't leave early). Or the lady that tried to reach over the counter and choke the the ticket agent, when she couldn't get what she wanted. Yes, these are all documented cases and there is a reason why Rule 35 exists. I know US Airways should be doing things better and they need to make up their mind are they LCC or are they going to serve what they sell? I just wonder on the Focus website do some of these passengers ever fess up to how they behaved?

 

[Dog Wonder]

Don't expect passengers to behave any better as fares go to the lowest bidder.