Overall, very dissatisfied with the service....

[Dont call me Shirley]

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/us_air.htm



Okay, I'll admit to having plugged Skytrax before. Although it is quite Eurocentric, I do enjoy reading it. I'm even an FB fan of them; today, they posted some review highlights on their FB page.

Amid the glowing posts for the likes of Emirates and South African, this headline caught my eye.
"Overall, very dissatisfied with the service. " Okay, so I know that US Airways is not EK. No North American carrier could be, even if it wanted to. Still - for someone who is old enough to remember Piedmont and its being "Airline of the Year in '86" - it is kind of sad. Yeah, the marketplace has changed, and will never be the same. But, must US be the "almost, but not quite" airline?

With all due respect to the fine people at other carriers, I still agree with the FFOCUS folks "ffolks"?) who maintain that, in spite of many faults, US has the best front line people in the industry. Yet it on keeps being the Roger Dangerfield of the business. Sad.

 

[UPNAWAY]

That was worthy of a post? Please!

 

[SparrowHawk]

That was worthy of a post? Please!

Any customer's point of view is worthy of a post.

Thank you for clearly pointing out for all just why the customer reviewed the airline as they did. Attitudes like YOURS would be the primary reason. Now run along and get Dougie a PBR for the ride home from work.

 

[UPNAWAY]

You have to be kidding?
Airlines fly hundreds of thousands of customers every day and these exact same stories are repeated on every single one of them, they are in of themselves completely meaningless. Factor in the media almost never gets it right when reporting on airlines makes them even less so. The facts are all airlines have about a 97-98% customer satisfaction rate on any given flight. Your favorite store or restaurant would love to have so few complaints.

 

[Dog Wonder]

Have you ever flown one of the established European airlines?

 

[SparrowHawk]

You have to be kidding?
Airlines fly hundreds of thousands of customers every day and these exact same stories are repeated on every single one of them, they are in of themselves completely meaningless. Factor in the media almost never gets it right when reporting on airlines makes them even less so. The facts are all airlines have about a 97-98% customer satisfaction rate on any given flight. Your favorite store or restaurant would love to have so few complaints.

Except for the fact then when surveys are done, US Airlines fare poorly often coming in with lower customer satisfaction numbers BELOE that of the IRS.

Perception is reality. Additionally US Airways is usually in or near the Top Ten worst companies when it comes to Customer Satisfaction

JD Powers 2011 North America Airline Satisfaction Study - US Airways DEAD Last in category.
official SKYTRAX Airline Ranking US earns 3 stars out of 5. The 3 Star ranking signifies a "satisfactory" standard of core Product across most travel categories - but reflects poor or less consistent standards of Staff Service and/or Product quality in selected Onboard or Airport features.

These are but 2 of many that support my position. Better hustle and fetch Dougie a cooler and a six pack of PBR for the ride home, Oh wait make it a case Scott's coming along too. Run along now and HURRY, we wouldn't wanna keep Massa Doug waiting.

 

[ggiby]

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/us_air.htm



Okay, I'll admit to having plugged Skytrax before. Although it is quite Eurocentric, I do enjoy reading it. I'm even an FB fan of them; today, they posted some review highlights on their FB page.

Amid the glowing posts for the likes of Emirates and South African, this headline caught my eye.
"Overall, very dissatisfied with the service. " Okay, so I know that US Airways is not EK. No North American carrier could be, even if it wanted to. Still - for someone who is old enough to remember Piedmont and its being "Airline of the Year in '86" - it is kind of sad. Yeah, the marketplace has changed, and will never be the same. But, must US be the "almost, but not quite" airline?

With all due respect to the fine people at other carriers, I still agree with the FFOCUS folks "ffolks"?) who maintain that, in spite of many faults, US has the best front line people in the industry. Yet it on keeps being the Roger Dangerfield of the business. Sad.

I worked for PI when it was the AirLine of the Year....
So what is your point... I still give the same customer service that I gave back when starting in 1982 and forward to now,,, How about you?????

If you can
not still give it your all... I say QUIT... go work in a gas station...
IMHO

 

[BoeingBoy]

The facts are all airlines have about a 97-98% customer satisfaction rate on any given flight.

An interesting twist of statistics...

Overall, domestic based airlines only have 0.001-0.002% of their customers unhappy enough to file a complaint with the DOT. But not being unhappy enough to file a complaint is not the same as being satisfied. There's no public way to know what percentage overall complain to the airline or just to their friends/family/associates. However, a higher percentage is IDB'ed - about 10 times as many as file a DOT complaint - and I doubt that they're singing the praises of the airline. Then there are 10-20 times as many people who don't get their bag upon arrival as there are IDB'ed - are they all thrilled with the service? Finally, there's the late flights which can cause misconnections - 15-20% of flights are late by DOT standards. Put it all together and your 97-98% customer satisfaction on any given flight is really 10% or more being unsatisfied about something overall. For "any given flight" the problems could easily compound - late, bumpy, missed connections, no bag upon arrival, poor service, etc - and half or more of the passengers may be unsatisfied about something.

As SH says, survey after survey shows U.S. based carriers usually don't rank among the best in the world for the way they treat passengers, and US is normally among the lower range of U.S. carriers. That would tell most intelligent people that US has a problem, real or merely perceived by the traveling public. But there are always those who choose to wear blinders so they can't see the unpleasant reality...

Jim

 

[NYCDelta]

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/us_air.htm



Okay, I'll admit to having plugged Skytrax before. Although it is quite Eurocentric, I do enjoy reading it. I'm even an FB fan of them; today, they posted some review highlights on their FB page.

Amid the glowing posts for the likes of Emirates and South African, this headline caught my eye.
"Overall, very dissatisfied with the service. " Okay, so I know that US Airways is not EK. No North American carrier could be, even if it wanted to. Still - for someone who is old enough to remember Piedmont and its being "Airline of the Year in '86" - it is kind of sad. Yeah, the marketplace has changed, and will never be the same. But, must US be the "almost, but not quite" airline?

With all due respect to the fine people at other carriers, I still agree with the FFOCUS folks "ffolks"?) who maintain that, in spite of many faults, US has the best front line people in the industry. Yet it on keeps being the Roger Dangerfield of the business. Sad.

While I do enjoy reading the reviews, I certainly don't decide on a carrier based on their star system. The only US carrier to get 4-stars is JetBlue, and while I used to commute on them a lot, I don't necessarily find their service any better than many other carriers. I guess their amenities push them ahead, but Virgin America has many of the same amenities yet I couldn't find their ranking (maybe they are too new or too small or I just overlooked it).

I haven't flown LCC (US) since the merger but I never had a flight stand out as being so bad that I would write a letter, and I could even say the same thing about AWA, AA,DL,UA, etc.

What I don't like about opinion surveys is they are strictly anecdotal, and we all know that passengers who are particularly fond on one airline will compare every airline to said airline-even if they are different types of carrier. For example, I have seen people complain about DL or UA, only to find that they never stepped foot on DL or UA, only their regional partner. Maybe that says more about the problem of overusing regionals, but that is a discussion for another thread.

Also, we can't truly compare international airlines, because like it or not, they don't compete on equal footing. Even if they are not state subsidized, they still often receive benefits from their home country that US carriers don't enjoy. I remember reading once that PanAm paid many times the amount to land in the UK than BA did; yet the US charged BA the same as PanAm. I'm not sure this exact situation still exists, but I'm sure there are examples even today of similar situations. We (meaning the US) for better or worse, don't employ protectionism.

Lastly, and this is nobody's fault per se, many foreign airlines hire young (happy & cheap) cabin crew for contracts of 2-5 years, then boot them for a fresh crop, so to speak, every few years. When you are flying a 747 with 13 F/A's and trying to compete with a company that can afford 18-20 F/A's at the same cost, service is going to suffer, I don't care how many lie-flat seats,VOD, or premium wines you offer. Just my 0.02.

 

[NYCDelta]

Dupe

 

[galley princess]

While I do enjoy reading the reviews, I certainly don't decide on a carrier based on their star system. The only US carrier to get 4-stars is JetBlue, and while I used to commute on them a lot, I don't necessarily find their service any better than many other carriers. I guess their amenities push them ahead, but Virgin America has many of the same amenities yet I couldn't find their ranking (maybe they are too new or too small or I just overlooked it).

I haven't flown LCC (US) since the merger but I never had a flight stand out as being so bad that I would write a letter, and I could even say the same thing about AWA, AA,DL,UA, etc.

What I don't like about opinion surveys is they are strictly anecdotal, and we all know that passengers who are particularly fond on one airline will compare every airline to said airline-even if they are different types of carrier. For example, I have seen people complain about DL or UA, only to find that they never stepped foot on DL or UA, only their regional partner. Maybe that says more about the problem of overusing regionals, but that is a discussion for another thread.

Also, we can't truly compare international airlines, because like it or not, they don't compete on equal footing. Even if they are not state subsidized, they still often receive benefits from their home country that US carriers don't enjoy. I remember reading once that PanAm paid many times the amount to land in the UK than BA did; yet the US charged BA the same as PanAm. I'm not sure this exact situation still exists, but I'm sure there are examples even today of similar situations. We (meaning the US) for better or worse, don't employ protectionism.

Lastly, and this is nobody's fault per se, many foreign airlines hire young (happy & cheap) cabin crew for contracts of 2-5 years, then boot them for a fresh crop, so to speak, every few years. When you are flying a 747 with 13 F/A's and trying to compete with a company that can afford 18-20 F/A's at the same cost, service is going to suffer, I don't care how many lie-flat seats,VOD, or premium wines you offer. Just my 0.02.

US is run by AWA, a regional low cost carrier. In some cases, they have invested resources to improve US. Baggage delivery being the major one. At the same time, the US fleet was aging and out of date when AWA merged with US and that was in 2005. They seem to be interested in improving the A330s, but the 767s always seem to be the step-children, as if they are going to dump them any minute. The good news is that they are flying new routes, the bad news is that the planes are aged and the customer expects better. AWA invested heavily in the TLV route, because they know it's a money maker. They've made Envoy back into a decent product after abandoning it wholesale for the last six years, again because they figured out it's a moneymaker in certain markets. Their modus operandi is simple, if it yields a profit, they're interested, if not, no resources spent.

I have learned -the hard way, that AWA's view of the customer seems to be accurate. They'll complain and write on message boards, but when push comes to shove, they book the cheapest ticket. I had a TA flight where I sat in front of a loud ignoramous who began to complain about his middle seat and the inferiority of US before he sat down. His wife decided a f/a was rude because the f/a asked them twice to turn off their phones. When asked why they were on the flight, guess what they cited? Ticket price and nonstop.

AWA extends this view to employees. Until they see actual revenue loss from employee relations, they really do not care about how rude/ bad the service is, and again, they're not exactly wrong. US service IS inferior, but the planes are full. Tired, overworked employees are not driving away cheap ticket buyers.

From what I can see, AWA worries about on time performance and certain parts of the product that they see yielding revenue, otherwise, they're not interested.

 

[res_me]

Except for the fact then when surveys are done, US Airlines fare poorly often coming in with lower customer satisfaction numbers BELOE that of the IRS.

Perception is reality. Additionally US Airways is usually in or near the Top Ten worst companies when it comes to Customer Satisfaction

JD Powers 2011 North America Airline Satisfaction Study - US Airways DEAD Last in category.
official SKYTRAX Airline Ranking US earns 3 stars out of 5. The 3 Star ranking signifies a "satisfactory" standard of core Product across most travel categories - but reflects poor or less consistent standards of Staff Service and/or Product quality in selected Onboard or Airport features.

These are but 2 of many that support my position. Better hustle and fetch Dougie a cooler and a six pack of PBR for the ride home, Oh wait make it a case Scott's coming along too. Run along now and HURRY, we wouldn't wanna keep Massa Doug waiting.

You know you would be sooo much more credible and it would actually be enjoyable to read your posts if you wouldn't tag on the last few sentances about "Dougie" onto EVERY single post. It makes it seem like we are all still in grade school.

 

[SparrowHawk]

You know you would be sooo much more credible and it would actually be enjoyable to read your posts if you wouldn't tag on the last few sentances about "Dougie" onto EVERY single post. It makes it seem like we are all still in grade school.

Oh I know and if you follow my posts you'll take note that comments like that are reserved for the "Tempe Tards" who come here to inflame and bash employees. Your observation is mostly accurate and duly noted.

 

[Art at ISP]

There are always going to be unhappy customers with any business. The airline business just happens to get more than its share for any number of reasons.

One of the major deficiencies we see with US is in the resolution of issues after the fact. Response to customer complaints is for the most part inadequate or nonexistent.

As a customer advocacy organization we receive many requests from members and guests to intervene on their behalf in cases where they have complaints against US or other airlines and get either no response at all, or inappropriate responses which either offer little or no compensation or do not address the issues raised by the customer in the complaint. Unfortunately, in some cases, it seems that the customer relations rep doesn't even read the complaint, but just sends a boilerplate email response. We have seen all to often, with increasing frequency, how US CR takes weeks or longer to respond to customers, and then does not follow through on promised remedies. For what its worth, let me be very clear that we screen and investigate ALL complaints in which we are asked to intercede to the best of our ability, and we do advise people when their complaints are either unjustified or their demand for compensation is unrealistic. Only the most serious and egregious issues get referred on to our contacts at US or other airlines for assistance.

A business which does not listen to its customers cannot succeed. I have seen it in many industries (including my own), and it is a basic rule of business. While you can't make everyone happy, you at least have to listen and address their concerns--and when you see patterns which indicate core deficiencies, they need to be addressed and not ignored.

Here is an illustration of the contrast between US and another airline in dealing with a customer complaint. I will let you guess which company will have better customer retention....

Case A- customer is inconvenienced by US, receives an inadequate response from CR in a time period measured in weeks rather than days and reaches out to FFOCUS for assistance after the offered compensation, even though considered inadequate, is not processed in a month's time. After a careful review, our liaison presented this case to our contact in US management, and he or she got back to us that the issue was in a queue to be resolved by the end of the week. This was a month ago....we were advised this week that the issue was still not resolved, although our contact had been told it had been. As of this date, I believe it is finally in process, with a little extra thrown in for the customer's inconvenience.

Case B- In this case I was the customer. I showed up on time for a morning flight, and discovered after arriving at the gate that the flight was delayed 4 hours, eventually extended to 6 hours. After discussing the situation with a very helpful agent, who gave me all available information, he was unable to rebook me on a competitive airline (US ironically), as the official reason for the delay was considered weather (a factor, but the inbound had been pulled to operate a different flight, and the new inbound was delayed). I wound up booking the US flight myself, and after making my meeting late, I wrote to this airline's customer relations department, and explained politely the situation with all details, and the extenuating circumstances which I felt would justify my request for compensation.

The response from this airline was received in less than 12 HOURS, not days or weeks. They had reviewed my issue, and not only offered to refund the delayed leg since I had to make other arrangements, but offered a significant mileage deposit for my inconvenience. After accepting these offers most graciously, both the refund and the miles were executed within 36 HOURS.
I will also add that the issues raised in my note were addressed with specifics and I was very confident that the agent who handled the case both understood my concerns and addressed them internally afterward.

As I said in the beginning, I fully expect EVERY airline to have operational issues, but it is how these issues are handled or resolved AFTER the fact which is just as important as how the issues are addressed at the time of the occurrence. When you VALUE your customers (and employees), you will have significantly better customer RETENTION.....

On that note, please accept my best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and SAFE New Year.

My BEST to you all......

 

[ContUNITEus]

I quickly read about 15 of the comments and I was over them by the time I got to the third. Almost 90% of the things people complain about are things that are the typical American needy passenger can't get over. The undertone of the complaints was uselessness from the passenger. I always find American and people of some other cultures such as latin American cultures and UK cultures as useless people who cant accomplish the simplest things for themselves. That is proven in every aspect of life. Whether in the tech support world or just simple daily necessities, there is a mentallity of "do it for me" that just irks me. It seems that at times people from certain cultures have no sense of selfsufficience, and they love to put everything on someone else before even giving it the smallest effort to find a solution for themselves.

What people complain about are things that are no different at any airline, whether European or not.

I feel badly for the cabin crews who just have to really stay out of the way, so as to not tempt a pissed'off passenger into writing a complaint, because once the complaint, though mostly having nothing to do with the particular attendants working, still has a name on it, then that staff member will be called onto the carpet and blamed for what the airline should have done in the first place right. God forbid a F/A takes ownership of a situation, and try to resolve something that is not to the satisfaction of the customer because of common sense, because that F/A will soon thereafter be targeted by management as a thank you.

That's the way life is.... Front line employees' best chances of making it for many years is to just stand back and pretend its not happening. To get involved is nothing but trouble especially at US AIRWAYS.

So, in the end US Airways deserves the kind of bad reviews that are just so utterly stupid, where you just know the passenger is wrong. But the company truely deserves it, because there is nothing or nobody that is willing to give a s#it about it, so as to not have s#it flying in their faces.