We recently flew US Airways for our holiday travels. I was unimpressed and thought I’d note a few of their shortcomings as examples of how not to run a business:
1. Not enough information. It was very rare to get any information on where we were in the flight, how far delayed we were, why there was a delay or any other information. I’ve flown on other airlines where they had a screen showing exactly where you were on a map of the world, with US Airways, we were in the dark.
2. Inconsistent. On the way to our destination they served pretzels and had a good drink selection on both flights. Both flights also had grouchy stewardesses. On the way home all the stewardesses were great but both the 5 hour flight and the 1 hour flight they didn’t serve even a light snack and there were only about 4 drinks available.
3. Uncomfortable. The airports didn’t have nearly enough seating for the amount of people on the flights–people ended up sitting on the floor and at other terminals. Once on the planes, the seats were much too close together, the fabric on the seats was old and obviously worn and there weren’t enough pillows or blankets for the passengers. The movies were bottom of the barrel as well.
4. Unconcerned. Two of our four bags were lost for more than 36 hours and finding out anything was almost impossible. From the moment they were lost we were constantly given the “I don’t have any information, try calling…” line. We had to make 2 trips back to the airport and about a dozen calls before we finally resolved the issue. No one we talked to was even remotely concerned about the situation.
These are only a few other examples from this flight. I could definitely add to this list.
It’s amazing that with airlines like Virgin, JetBlue and Southwest trying so hard to gain customers by taking care of them and making them comfortable that US Airways still hasn’t seen the light. I think this is a perfect example of a business that hasn’t caught up with the times and one that will suffer because of it.
4 replies on “US Airways – How Not to Run a Business”
Amen, brother. I’ve found that we’ll endure #2 and #3 so long as they take care of #s 1 and 4. But if they can’t do that, they needn’t waste their time to go out to the field and pretend to be an airline.
I agree. I stopped flying Northwest (Northworst) and recently Alaska airlines because of shoddy service and made a point of letting them by email WHY i stopped flying and who I was now flying with. Alaska tried to save money by firing all their baggage handlers and hiring new ones. I stopped flying when the flight time was actually shorter than the time I spent waiting for my luggage (Plus their old baggage handlers didnt put holes in their planes). Southwest, Jet blue etc will flourish and other airways deserve to die and go away if they can’t compete with other business models. Dont expect to see me at their funerals as I will be flying somewhere warm for vacation!!
I have flown half a dozen times in the past couple of months and have been treated wonderfully by Delta and FarWest. Others I despise are United and Alaska. Alaska’s planes break on the runway with a full plane and they attempt to take off only to realize eveyone is going to die because the plane is broken. After kicking everyone off the plane for ’15 minute repairs’ they tell you two hours later that the flight is cancelled. hehehe remember that one Carl? My brother and I were also treated unfairly by one of thier male stewards and so we wrote a letter to corporate. My brothers letter was irate, mine was polite (included stewards name, hope he was fired :)…) I recieved a short ‘Oops’ reply in the mail a month later, no apologies though.
AmericaWest and US Airways are merging.
World’s Largest…
With the former using Phoenix as its HQ, no one here wonders why they merged – they apparently have the same business philosophy – “let’s destroy ourselves.”
From friends who hate the union they had to join in a right-to-work state to get a decent wage as a flight attendant (many wish they worked for Southwest), to their drunken airline pilots.
Flying to Chicago on AWest, one was forced to watch the inflight movie. “Please lower all the windows during the movie,” they announced. Then you were accosted, for the next 2 hours, with the images from the movie “Chicago” – rated PG-13 for “violence, strong language, sexual situations” from overhead screens.
Five bucks let you “rent” a pair of headphones – which had to be returned, of course. I saved my money. What a way to drum up a few bucks by inconveniencing the majority of the passengers.
Stick with Southwest, if available in your area.