Overall, very dissatisfied with the service....

[res_me]

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.

You didn't mention what airline, but if it were US Aiways and you called us in res for a delayed flight ( if weather we may have routed you around if possible) we would have booked you on the competitors flight and you never would have had to ask for any compensation in the first place!

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

You didn't mention what airline, but if it were US Aiways and you called us in res for a delayed flight ( if weather we may have routed you around if possible) we would have booked you on the competitors flight and you never would have had to ask for any compensation in the first place!

Another example of "the Rodney Dangerfield airline". US will reroute a customer on another (in most cases) on a weather/ATC "uncontrolable" delay. Some others, such as DL, will not. But does it get any respect?

 

[USA330300]

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.

Pretty moronic that you find it necessary to throw barbs at Doug Parker regarding his past incident. He admitted his wrongdoing and took his punishment. And how many years later you're the morality police? Give me a break.

 

[700UW]

If that was a rank and file employee getting arrested for DUI after representing the company, they would be fired.

A mistake is one DUI, not THREE!

 

[SparrowHawk]

Pretty moronic that you find it necessary to throw barbs at Doug Parker regarding his past incident. He admitted his wrongdoing and took his punishment. And how many years later you're the morality police? Give me a break.

Well if Doug can't stand the heat perhaps he should get out of the kitchen. Like I said before I save those barbs for specific posters who bask unions and employees with equally broad brushes.

Now then back to shirley's comment regarding US being the "Rodney Dangerfield" Airline. Shirley has a valid point in this regard. I have worked behind the scenes to help US customer's and I've said it before and I'll say it again that they are nowhere close to as bad as the media portrays. Do they sometimes drop the ball as Art mentioned? Yeah they do. But let me tell you they carry the ball and do the right thing far more often.

Where US Airways totally sucks in my opinion is in getting out "in Front" of these issues that end up in the media. For whatever reason US reacts instead of being more proactive. The recent case involving the Mentally Challenged Man who was "lost" by US Airways and for a while US appeared to be unhelpful. Right now the message out there is "Evil Airline loses retard, then refuses to help find him" Now please don't think I believe that statement for a millisecond because I don't.

US Airways is always a day late and a dollar short in this arena. Instead of reacting why not get out in front of this story and paint an equally false picture, "US Airways reunites mentally challenged man with family" Both statements are true, but which one casts US in the best light? US for whatever reasons does a piss rotten job of self promotion and this goes back to the CCY days, it's not unique to Tempe.

 

[signals]

Pretty moronic that you find it necessary to throw barbs at Doug Parker regarding his past incident. He admitted his wrongdoing and took his punishment. And how many years later you're the morality police? Give me a break.

Ah, but when it involves Joe Sixpack it goes on forever. But Dumb Parker is immune because he pays a politician

Nothing to see here, citizen!

 

[Art at ISP]

Why don't we veer back on subject, which is customer service? Doug's history has no bearing on this discussion, but the culture he espouses does. To res, who said they'd have booked me on another carrier, you might have tried, but would probably not have the authority to do so....most discretion has been removed from agents and reservationists, and had you succeeded in rebooking me, you probably would have been called on the carpet for doing so---which goes to culture...as another poster said, people are afraid to do the right thing for customers, or even try to do so......and that is a fundamental root cause of the customer service problems faced at US (and I doubt they are alone)....

For what it's worth the other carrier in this case was DL...

Happy New Year all...

 

[res_me]

Why don't we veer back on subject, which is customer service? Doug's history has no bearing on this discussion, but the culture he espouses does. To res, who said they'd have booked me on another carrier, you might have tried, but would probably not have the authority to do so....most discretion has been removed from agents and reservationists, and had you succeeded in rebooking me, you probably would have been called on the carpet for doing so---which goes to culture...as another poster said, people are afraid to do the right thing for customers, or even try to do so......and that is a fundamental root cause of the customer service problems faced at US (and I doubt they are alone)....

For what it's worth the other carrier in this case was DL...

Happy New Year all...

Totally untrue...i do have the authority and do it pretty often....do not talk about what you dont know for sure. And i am not a supervisor in case you thought that was why i can...when there is flight irreg, we do what is necessary...that isnt to say its without guidelines, but we try to do what is right...you still might not like the options, however, some are never satisfied and want compensation just because they think no matter what happened to them, there's got to be something they can get...and, yup, if you push long enough, ......

 

[johnny kat]

Yawn...If US sux so badly then why is it I can never get a seat to work? Every seat on every flight I've worked for years has been filled. So I'm not buying into the US sux mantra because clearly the airline is doing something right. And I myself do a pretty good job every time I am working. I enjoy the customers I deal with. And for all of the whiners out there I happened to enjoy my job and have had some pretty amazing experiences over the years. If US fails it will not be because of the fine professional employees.
I know for sure that most of my coworkers and friends at US feel the same way.

I think the issue is passenger perception over the reality. I have to question who pays for these so called airline experts to render their opinions. Every airline has it's critics. I always get a kick when someone boards the airplane and starts with the comparisons of other airlines they have flown. I too have my favorite airlines....anyone remember little Southern Airways?

All of the important metrics at US have shown marked improvements. If I and all the other employees let all of this negative stuff bother us we would have had nervous breakdowns a long time ago. CEO's come and go, profits go up and down etc...and yet people continue to fly and complain, that's the nature of the business.

 

[signals]

Yawn...If US sux so badly then why is it I can never get a seat to work? Every seat on every flight I've worked for years has been filled. So I'm not buying into the US sux mantra because clearly the airline is doing something right. And I myself do a pretty good job every time I am working. I enjoy the customers I deal with. And for all of the whiners out there I happened to enjoy my job and have had some pretty amazing experiences over the years. If US fails it will not be because of the fine professional employees.
I know for sure that most of my coworkers and friends at US feel the same way.

I think the issue is passenger perception over the reality. I have to question who pays for these so called airline experts to render their opinions. Every airline has it's critics. I always get a kick when someone boards the airplane and starts with the comparisons of other airlines they have flown. I too have my favorite airlines....anyone remember little Southern Airways?

All of the important metrics at US have shown marked improvements. If I and all the other employees let all of this negative stuff bother us we would have had nervous breakdowns a long time ago. CEO's come and go, profits go up and down etc...and yet people continue to fly and complain, that's the nature of the business.

Sometimes US is the only way to get there. That's why some flights are full. Reality sux, don't it

 

[Phoenix]

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......

If we had an opening in the VP for customer relations (and you applied for it... do they know what headhunters are in Tempe?), I am afraid you would probably be insulted by the salary and compensation that would be offered to you.

 

[gabby]

You should see the new hire pilot rates. I'm sure they are a lot worse.

 

[N965VJ]

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

Well, after the merger in August '89 we had people complaining about how we ruined PI. Maybe we should've said "Y'all" instead of "Yinz" when they got on the DC-9.

 

[john john]

Totally untrue...i do have the authority and do it pretty often....do not talk about what you dont know for sure. And i am not a supervisor in case you thought that was why i can...when there is flight irreg, we do what is necessary.........

On the reroute I want my aisle seat towards the front and change by return to two days latter. And change by flights a week for now and aisle seats towards the front like I had before. With this cancellation I have to change by whole itinerary for 3 flights I have book in the future did I mention ground transportation because of arriving at a alternate airport and since I have to wait in the airport for 3 hours how about a meal voucher.And can you give me international calling card to get in touch with my party

 

[Art at ISP]

Before the trolls chimed in, all I did was draw a contrast to how customer service policy and attitude differ between carriers. For what it's worth, as I stated before, we never forward unreasonable or unjustified claims or complaints, and in my case, I made no unreasonable requests.

We fully acknowledge that many complaints are either exaggerated or unreasonable in nature, and that demands for compensation and reaccommodation can be ridiculous. I am only pointing out some contrasts based on reasonable and legitimate issues, and how they were handled. And many of these issues could have been avoided, were it not for the penny wise and pound foolish policies which remain in place.

I will say, however, that some of the responses here fully illustrate US' culture, which is to blame the customer for everything......until this culture changes from the top down, and Tempe starts treating employees and customers as assets rather than liabilities, the company's future success will be limited..