more on Surprise! The US Air web site is not *really* US Air!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman () meetinghouse net>
Date: August 27, 2006 11:58:53 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Surprise! The US Air web site is not  
*really* US Air!

Dave,

Same here.

A few weeks back I booked one regular ticket and a reward ticket for  
my wife.  It took a huge number of phone calls - both to US Air and  
America West to set it up so we could sit together.

Then, our return was the day after the British mess hit.  We were  
expecting a complete zoo at San Diego airport - got there early, and  
it was empty.  Cleared security in no time, and had to kill a bunch  
of hours in the airport.  Flight got off on time, but our connecting  
flight in Philly was a couple of hours late.

Back to US Air/AW: we got to Boston, all our checked bags except one  
came off the belt.  Baggage services told us it was delayed by  
security (it was the bag we'd put all our toiletries in - and guess  
what, they really do screen checked bags - amazingly it was neatly  
repacked with a polite and apologetic notecard from TSA in it).

Anyway, actually getting the bag back was a nightmare:

- baggage services found it on the computer system - it hadn't made  
our flight, but was enroute on a later one - they promised to have it  
delivered, and gave us a printout with a tracking number

- later in the afternoon, I tried tracking it - the US Air web site  
has a "click here to track your baggage" link, with promises of  
automated tracking - but what it takes you to is a fill-in-the-blanks  
email form

- I tried calling their 800 baggage service number, and got a message  
saying "track in realtime on our web site" -- working through all the  
voicemail choices I finally reached a human being who said that it  
was still en route -- and they didn't have any phone numbers for the  
Logan baggage desk

- Then I called their customer service number and amazingly reached  
someone who had the phone number for the Logan baggage desk.

- Tried the phone number on and off for several hours, after a lot of  
ring-no-answer, I finally reached a very helpful woman - but she was  
the America West baggage rep. and didn't have access to the US Air  
system!!!       Understandably, it was a zoo there - so she took my  
phone number and promised to call me back.

- She did!!! She had the bag, and I decided to ask her to hold it -  
I'm only 20 minutes from Logan and didn't quite trust what would  
happen if they handed it off to a delivery service.

- When I got there, it took a while to find.  I'd been told that I'd  
have to do some paperwork to accept it.  Turns out, someone had  
already done it for me, and it was set aside waiting for me - but it  
took a while to find, since it wasn't in the crowd of other bags  
sitting, barely supervised, outside the office.

Boy what a mess.  But at least the human beings were competent and  
helpful - when the could be reached.  And I learned something about  
how checked bags are handled - we're not just taking potential  
threats out of hand-carried luggage so that they can be stuck,  
unscanned, in the baggage holds - somebody is actually doing a level  
of screening. Now for those who might consider checking something  
illicit, that's probably not as good news.

Cheers,

Miles

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: peter.freeman () mindspring com
> Date: August 27, 2006 4:42:54 PM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Surprise! The US Air web site is not *really* US  
> Air!
> Reply-To: peter.freeman () mindspring com
> Dave, it is probably (or has been) worse than that. I booked some  
> US Air award travel by phone back in April, then tried to make a  
> change by phone a few weeks later. My res was caught in the same  
> limbo O'Dell describes. It took two months and calls to both  
> airlines AND the frequent flyer desk multiple times to get  
> ticketed. Amazingly the res worked for the outbound last week -  
> you'll hear about it if I can't get home next week. ;-)
> Peter
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 08:08:59
> To:ip () v2 listbox com
> Subject: [IP] Surprise! The US Air web site is not *really* US Air!
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Mike O'Dell" <mo () ccr org>
> Date: August 27, 2006 6:28:05 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Surprise! The US Air web site is not *really* US Air!
> Dave,
> For the second time now I've come to grief booking tickets
> on the US Air web site and then needing to change them.
> The issue is that as a result of US Air's
> merger with America West, the web site found at USAIR.COM
> and labelled prominently (and only) as "US Air" is, in fact,
> operated by America West. And at least in the world
> of airline reservation ownership, US Air and America West
> are still completely unrelated entities. This has
> a huge implication:
>     A ticket booked on the USAIR.COM web site is not
>     really a US Air ticket in spite of flight numbers
>     and the carrier indicated on boarding passes and
>     ticket receipts; the reservation is owned by
>             >> *America West* <<
> this means that if you need to change a ticket booked thusly,
> the people you get calling the US Air contact numbers
>     *cannot deal with it*
> nor can they find someone who can.  Even more surprising,
> the first time this happened I discovered that
> the airport ticket counter agents cannot deal with it
> either and tell you to go see America West!!
> This is *seriously* brain-damaged.  When this first
> happened to me several months ago I though, gee,
> a transitional corporate integration problem. I've been
> through those and decided to cut them some slack.  But
> it's been over 3 months and it's *still* broken.
> This morning's amusement was the US Air reservation
> agent, honestly apologetic, telling me that she could not move
> our three full-freight tickets from departing today to departing
> tomorrow
> until after we "no-showed" for today's flight.  After that
> I can call back and she thought they could do something
> then. Or I could drive down to the airport and they
> could deal with it there. (Uh, not based on my previous
> experience!) If I do drive to the airport before flight time,
> I won't get hit with a no-show fee.
> How wonderfully gracious of them.
> My personal conclusion is that this is hopelessly
> broken and I will simply never use US Air's on-line reservations
> system again, choosing instead to pay my usual travel agent who
> prevents this kind of foolishness by booking with the "real"
> reservation systems and who can deal with weather-driven
> changes of plan as a matter of course.
> There's a huge difference between "inexpensive" and "cheap".
> Harumph.
>     -mo
> PS - insert snarky remark about "unsurprising airline bankruptcies"
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