I am writing this on Sunday morning sitting in a hotel room in Charlotte, NC. Â I was supposed to be home last night at 9pm from a week-long trip in Phoenix. Â But, thanks to stupid decisions by USAirways, my 5 hour trip has now turned into a 28 hour trip.
It all started when I arrived at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport around 9am. Â My flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 12noon but I wanted to get some work done and grab something to eat. Â When I checked in with USAirways, they said I could take an earlier flight if I wanted to pay a significant amount of additional money (along with the $22 they charged me for my suitcase). Â While I would arrive in Charlotte earlier, my connection would remain the same, leaving me to wait 4.5 hours at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Â I decided to decline the offer.
I made my way to Gate A24, got out my computer and started finishing up some work. Â My flight was scheduled to leave at 12:07pm and at 11:30am, I realized that nothing was being done to start boarding the plane. Â Finally, at 11:55am, only 10 minutes before our scheduled departure, an announcement was made that the flight would be delayed until 3pm due to “maintenance issues.” Â More than 130 passengers were scrambling to find new flights and connections.
I walked directly to USAIRWAYS CUSTOMER SERVICE where I was told I had already been re-booked onto the 3pm flight BUT I would miss my Charlotte connection and would not be going home today. Â The next available flight to Lynchburg would be Sunday at 12:59pm – more than 12 hours after my original scheduled flight.
What is most frustrating about this entire experience is this: Â USAirways decided to inconvenience their “valued” passengers for a low priority maintenance issue. Â As it turns out, there was a leak in a water line that provided hot water to the coffee pot. Â The “elbow joint” that needed to be replaced was difficult to access so the repair took several hours. Â Unbelievable! Â Not an essential, life-saving repair – oh no, a routine “comfort” repair so the Captain could have coffee in the cock pit!
On this holiday weekend, USAirways executives decided that a leaky waterline was more important that getting their customers to the final destinations to spend time with family and friends. Â For me it means that I lost a day at home. Â Now, I’ll spend less than 36 hours at my place before I have to leave again. Â In my humble opinion, USAirways has its priorities in all the wrong places – again.