USAIRWAYS – STUPID DECISIONS

I am writing this on Sunday morning sitting in a hotel room in Charlotte, NC.  I was supposed to be home last night at 9pm from a week-long trip in Phoenix.  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.  My flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 12noon but I wanted to get some work done and grab something to eat.  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).  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.  I decided to decline the offer.

I made my way to Gate A24, got out my computer and started finishing up some work.  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.  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.”  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.  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:  USAirways decided to inconvenience their “valued” passengers for a low priority maintenance issue.  As it turns out, there was a leak in a water line that provided hot water to the coffee pot.  The “elbow joint” that needed to be replaced was difficult to access so the repair took several hours.  Unbelievable!  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.  For me it means that I lost a day at home.  Now, I’ll spend less than 36 hours at my place before I have to leave again.  In my humble opinion, USAirways has its priorities in all the wrong places – again.