42 Dreams of Arizona Bay

Because I imagine I have few readers who aren’t already aware of the full gory details of the terrible experience we had flying US Airways and United over the holidays, I haven’t bothered to write about it in detail here. The summary is that the experience was very bad, with poor customer service (to no service in one case) and delays that are hard to believe.

So I read with interest US Airways considers more route cuts.

We already noticed cutbacks. Let me give you a list.

• No folders for tickets. At first I thought they were out in Fresno. An agent admitted in a different airport that they’d cut them some months ago to save money.
• No nuts. Forget the nuts or pretzels. I can’t stand them.
• But no drinks? Even water is $2? Though I guess it’s still slightly cheaper than buying a bottled water at the airport. And you still can’t bring your own drinks through security. And the alcoholic drinks now cost $7. Me and alcohol on a plane = bad idea, so I never wanted to drink anyway. But $7 for something watered down?
• When we checked in at the Fresno Airport, a huge line was backed up around the corner. We barely got checked in for our flight, and there were probably still 75 people behind us. This airline, and I guess airlines in general, don’t bother to staff anything any more. For most of the time we were waiting, there was only one person at the ticket desk. One person. And their computers were down. And people with problems were taking up too much time.
• When our flight from Chicago to South Bend was canceled at the very last minute, a couple hours after it was supposed to leave, we were told to go to the United customer service counter to get rebooked. The line in an otherwise empty airport stretched all the way to the escalators. When we finally got to the front of the line, there was no one at the customer service counter. I  have no proof that there ever was anyone at the customer service counter.
• When we had to rebook our flight back to Fresno through US Airways, the line was literally two hours long. The bank of self-service kiosks that were underused are fine for most situations. Go ahead, serve yourself. Oh, and put your luggage through security yourself.
• We all know about charging to check luggage. I gritted my teeth and paid. But did you know that at least US Airways is now charging for so-called premium seat assignments? Not just for the more legroom seats. But I heard a flight attendant and passenger arguing because she requested a certain seat and paid $15 extra for it, but didn’t get the seat. The attendant said they are now charging for window and aisle seats. Which just leaves some poor cheap fool in the middle, I guess.
• The help is rude. Really, really rude. Trying to get on a flight back to South Bend from Chicago, we had some of the worst service I’ve ever had. Ever. From Just A Minute attitude girl to watching several people behind ticket kiosks sit with their hands on their fists not working. I saw one guy take a picture of Just A Minute and I hope he got her ass in trouble. The help at the ticket counter trying to check in for our second attempt to get back to Fresno told us we should use a kiosk, even though we knew very well we couldn’t check ourselves in because all we had was a piece of dot-matrix printout alleging that we had been rebooked. Sure enough, we couldn’t check in and then had to wait while the rude help waited on someone else. And then said, very brightly, oh, it didn’t work? No shit! Why had we been standing there for the last five minutes, grumbling louder and louder?
• It’s amazing to me that we ever got our luggage back, considering that we often weren’t on the flight with it. And with all the security measures luggage has to go through, it amazed me that one incoherent woman mumbled at us about what flight we were on, but didn’t bother to check our baggage tickets. We spotted our luggage and walked off with it after an aborted attempt to fly, and the thing is, anybody could’ve taken our luggage. We could’ve taken someone else’s luggage.

The bottom line is the bottom line. Airlines don’t give a shit about customer service because they know people don’t have a choice. You’ve already paid an exorbitant amount, are charged a fuel surcharge (even when fuel prices are down) and then you have to pay to take luggage. You have to wait patiently like sheep in a long line. Nothing comes for free, from pretzels to ticket envelopes to sitting at a window. They don’t even have to have customer service after a flight is canceled. Hey, just go home! It doesn’t matter that more than 50 people have to figure out how to leave the airport after midnight in a strange city, long after the bus has stopped running.

Am I angry? Yes. And I will avoid flying US Airways and United if I can help it. Unfortunately, the choices I have at the small airports at either end of my destination are few. And that’s where it ends. Airlines know you have few choices and don’t care. You will keep flying because it’s faster than a 3.5 day drive or taking the train.