Has anyone had any bad experiences flying US AIR

[RAIDERMOM]

I am flying with US Air for my April cruise. I have been hearing stories that the baggage handlers have gone on strike in the past and people haven't gotten their luggage? I will be flying school vacation week in MASS and hope this doesn't happen to me.

 

Anyone experienced this?

[bjboothman]

They had a one-day issue over Christmas when a lot of people called off sick. I live in Pittsburgh and, along with my colleagues, fly USAirways often. I can't say that I've heard any more issues with them than anyone else. I have to say that they misplaced one of my suitcases two years ago when I was going on a cruise. We flew in a day early and the suitcase did make it in time for the sailing the next day. However, we didn't know it would and the suitcase contained all the cosmetics, blowdryers, formalwear shoes, etc. My daughter and I shopped and replaced all the items, not knowing if we'd get the original suitcase in time or not. We spent nearly $200 on replacement items and USAirways reimbursed us without blinking an eye.

[Pam in CA]

I've never had a problem with US Air but did have terrible problems with Delta over the holidays. We were flying from MHT on Christmas Day and got to the airport to find out that not only was our flight cancelled but they weren't flying and the first flight they could get us out on their or a codeshare airline was Tuesday (this was Saturday). We raced over to Southwest and booked (and paid for) standby flights to FLL. It worked out, we got in and made the ship. Coming home, we used our Delta flights and they lost my luggage. The next day, they wanted to deliver it at home even though I was at work and I told them what they could do with the luggage. 30 minutes later, the guy showed up at work with my suitcase. :)

 

Yes, Delta eventually refunded my one-way fares (I was paying for three people) which almost made up the cost of the SW flight. So, it worked out but I wasn't happy with Delta.

[zurmoly]

We have flown USAIR alot (we are from Ma too!), never had a problem. They do have some great deals!

[margaret91326]

Just returned home from a USair flight from our cruise. Original flight was for Depart Miami at 11:am to Charolotte N.C. then to RIchmond Va. That flight was changed to 12:45 leave Miami to Baltimore, Md then to richmond. Made it to Baltimore and just as we were to board for Richmond our plane was cancelled. They had to reroute us to Philly then onto richmond. GOt to philly and that plane had mechanical problems and we didn't board until 9:00 pm! GOt to Ricmond at 10:15 and all our luggage was lost. Not one person on our flight had luggage. They didn't put any of it on the plane. It was delivered to our home at 5:00 am. WE spent from 9:00am until 10:30pm trying to get home from our cruise. It was a long day and US air will not be our choice ever again.

[cruisingfreak]

Just returned home from a USair flight from our cruise. Original flight was for Depart Miami at 11:am to Charolotte N.C. then to RIchmond Va. That flight was changed to 12:45 leave Miami to Baltimore, Md then to richmond. Made it to Baltimore and just as we were to board for Richmond our plane was cancelled. They had to reroute us to Philly then onto richmond. GOt to philly and that plane had mechanical problems and we didn't board until 9:00 pm! GOt to Ricmond at 10:15 and all our luggage was lost. Not one person on our flight had luggage. They didn't put any of it on the plane. It was delivered to our home at 5:00 am. WE spent from 9:00am until 10:30pm trying to get home from our cruise. It was a long day and US air will not be our choice ever again.

 

This is scary to hear. We just booked flights on US Air, out of Philly, for our Dec. cruise. Maybe we'll get lucky because its a non-stop flight to FLL.

 

 

Minette

[kryos]

This is scary to hear. We just booked flights on US Air, out of Philly, for our Dec. cruise. Maybe we'll get lucky because its a non-stop flight to FLL.

I hate to add fuel to the fire ... but ... my first cruise ... U.S. Air really screwed me over. We boarded in Philly reasonably on time, headed to Fort Lauderdale. Although I was flying out on the same day as the cruise, this was a 7:30 a.m. flight that should have had me in Fort Lauderdale by 10:30 or so. The boat didn't sail until 5:00 p.m. We taxied onto the tarmac and then sat ... and sat ... and sat. Finally the pilot gets on the intercom and says he was gonna have to "reboot" his console because he had an engine warning light lit and he felt it was a bogus alarm. He rebooted and we finally took off about an hour late. No problems. I still had plenty of time.

 

We're in the air less than an hour when Captain Reboot gets on the intercom again. His warning light is back and we are diverting to Baltimore. Now I'm getting little pangs of worry. I happen to be sitting next to a U.S. Air executive who was rating the cabin stewards on the trip. I asked her ... "will we take right off in another plane again?" Her answer is not encouraging. "If they have another plane, which is doubtful." She said they would most likely have to bring a maintenance crew over from Washington, D.C. to service the aircraft and that could take a couple of hours.

 

We land and there are six of us scurrying to get in touch with HAL to let them know our problem. We are all bound for the same ship, the Rotterdam. None of us had HAL air, so we were kinda on our own. I'm also on the phone with my travel agent, who is also in communication with HAL. Two of the six of us stuck were part of a large group attending a writer's conference aboard the Rotterdam. My T.A. handled all the bookings for the conference, so I guess he is trying to use his influence to get them to hold the ship.

 

We finally take back off around 3:00 p.m. from Baltimore. We'll be lucky to arrive in Fort Lauderdale by 5:00, let alone be at the ship by 5:00.

 

The pilot gets on the intercom again and tells us that he has been in touch with people from HAL, as he knows there are folks on the flight bound for a HAL ship. He says HAL is going to have someone meet us at the gate. Now I start to relax. Okay ... this is cool ... they're gonna rush us down to baggage claim, help us get our bags, and whisk us over to the ship. They'll square away the cost of the transfers once we are onboard.

 

No such luck. Yeah, there was someone there waiting for us, but he was only there to tell us the ship had sailed and help us to get in touch with our travel agents so that we could arrange to meet the ship at the first port ... three days later ... Costa Rica.

 

U.S. Air offered us no compensation that we did not fight for. Even so, it was paltry. A couple of free travel vouchers. Big deal.

 

I realize any plane can have mechanical problems and that is certainly not the fault of the airline. But the thing that torques me is that U.S. Air had those problems on the tarmac in Philadelphia. Had they grounded the plane there, instead of "rebooting," there were dozens of airlines that I could have booked an alternate ticket with ... even if I had to pay for the ticket.

 

Yes, I had travel insurance, but they only pay a max of $500 for "trip interruption" coverage. My little sojourn to San Jose, Costa Rica wound up costing me in excess of $1,100.

 

Now, you would think I learned my lesson, right? Never again use U.S. Air. Nope. I got a great deal from them on airfare to Los Angeles for my cruise in April, and went ahead and booked them again. Let's hope I have better luck. But, if I hear anything about a "reboot" this time around, I'm demanding to be let of the damned plane!

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[cruisingfreak]

I hate to add fuel to the fire ... but ... my first cruise ... U.S. Air really screwed me over. We boarded in Philly reasonably on time, headed to Fort Lauderdale. Although I was flying out on the same day as the cruise, this was a 7:30 a.m. flight that should have had me in Fort Lauderdale by 10:30 or so. The boat didn't sail until 5:00 p.m. We taxied onto the tarmac and then sat ... and sat ... and sat. Finally the pilot gets on the intercom and says he was gonna have to "reboot" his console because he had an engine warning light lit and he felt it was a bogus alarm. He rebooted and we finally took off about an hour late. No problems. I still had plenty of time.

 

We're in the air less than an hour when Captain Reboot gets on the intercom again. His warning light is back and we are diverting to Baltimore. Now I'm getting little pangs of worry. I happen to be sitting next to a U.S. Air executive who was rating the cabin stewards on the trip. I asked her ... "will we take right off in another plane again?" Her answer is not encouraging. "If they have another plane, which is doubtful." She said they would most likely have to bring a maintenance crew over from Washington, D.C. to service the aircraft and that could take a couple of hours.

 

We land and there are six of us scurrying to get in touch with HAL to let them know our problem. We are all bound for the same ship, the Rotterdam. None of us had HAL air, so we were kinda on our own. I'm also on the phone with my travel agent, who is also in communication with HAL. Two of the six of us stuck were part of a large group attending a writer's conference aboard the Rotterdam. My T.A. handled all the bookings for the conference, so I guess he is trying to use his influence to get them to hold the ship.

 

We finally take back off around 3:00 p.m. from Baltimore. We'll be lucky to arrive in Fort Lauderdale by 5:00, let alone be at the ship by 5:00.

 

The pilot gets on the intercom again and tells us that he has been in touch with people from HAL, as he knows there are folks on the flight bound for a HAL ship. He says HAL is going to have someone meet us at the gate. Now I start to relax. Okay ... this is cool ... they're gonna rush us down to baggage claim, help us get our bags, and whisk us over to the ship. They'll square away the cost of the transfers once we are onboard.

 

No such luck. Yeah, there was someone there waiting for us, but he was only there to tell us the ship had sailed and help us to get in touch with our travel agents so that we could arrange to meet the ship at the first port ... three days later ... Costa Rica.

 

U.S. Air offered us no compensation that we did not fight for. Even so, it was paltry. A couple of free travel vouchers. Big deal.

 

I realize any plane can have mechanical problems and that is certainly not the fault of the airline. But the thing that torques me is that U.S. Air had those problems on the tarmac in Philadelphia. Had they grounded the plane there, instead of "rebooting," there were dozens of airlines that I could have booked an alternate ticket with ... even if I had to pay for the ticket.

 

Yes, I had travel insurance, but they only pay a max of $500 for "trip interruption" coverage. My little sojourn to San Jose, Costa Rica wound up costing me in excess of $1,100.

 

Now, you would think I learned my lesson, right? Never again use U.S. Air. Nope. I got a great deal from them on airfare to Los Angeles for my cruise in April, and went ahead and booked them again. Let's hope I have better luck. But, if I hear anything about a "reboot" this time around, I'm demanding to be let of the damned plane!

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

We have friends coming in from SFO, on an US Air redeye flight. UH OH!!

 

We will be flying in 3 days before our cruise, so if the flight is delayed, I'm not worried.

 

One thing I've learned, is never fly the day of the cruise. Always fly out at least the day before, just in case you have problems.

 

 

Minette

[DRLMR]

I flew US Air twice to San Juan twice last year and didn't have any problems. I am flying Continental to San Juan later this month and they already changed my itinerary so that my return flight leaves earlier than the ship will permit. So, after some adjustments, I was supposed to get home at 5 PM, now 11 PM with a three hour wait in Newark. The airline was totally unsympathetic.

[kryos]

One thing I've learned, is never fly the day of the cruise. Always fly out at least the day before, just in case you have problems.

Unfortunately, that's not always possible for some people. I have to beg, cajole and do a host of other things in order to stretch my vacation time enough to be able to take a couple of cruises each year. I work graveyard shift, so in order to stretch my time, I generally work the night before a cruise and work it out so that I can "slide" out of work a bit early to catch a flight. I also generally work the night that I return from a cruise, often heading straight into work from the airport. Fortunately, I've been lucky on my past couple of cruises in that my return day also happened to be my night off. But my departure day has always fallen on a day where I've been scheduled to work the night before.

 

Of course, when I retire or have a different work situation, I will follow this advice and always fly in the day before. But, for now, that's just not feasible, so I have to take my chances and hope for the best. Fortunately, this U.S. Air experience on my first cruise has not been repeated and I've made it to my subsequent cruises with loads of time to spare.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[IScubaSlo]

Never had a problem with US Air..........................

 

Just flew with them for our cruise last week and no problems.

 

I hope they stay in business for a long time to come...................

[FutureFlash]

Last month, US Air "misplaced" my luggage (and my colleague's luggage) on a business trip to New Orleans. They gave us each $75 for clothes, which didn't go very far on business attire. The luggage showed up 2 days late.

 

The US Air folks in New Orleans told us that EVERY FLIGHT from Philly has some "misplaced" luggage (sorry Minette). The good news is that they will be out of business by the end of the year.

[familycruisin]

I have flown US Air several times and never had a problem, however I am tending to avoid using them further than 60 days in advance because of their financial problems. There is a requirement that obligates other airlines to honor the reservations of an airline that goes out of business within 60 days of your scheduled flight. There is also a limit on how much they can charge you in the form of a change fee.

[kryos]

I have flown US Air several times and never had a problem, however I am tending to avoid using them further than 60 days in advance because of their financial problems. There is a requirement that obligates other airlines to honor the reservations of an airline that goes out of business within 60 days of your scheduled flight. There is also a limit on how much they can charge you in the form of a change fee.

Yeah, but from what I understand, using an alternate airline in a case like that won't help you much for a cruise. The alternate airline will honor the ticket, but you go stand-by. Their regular fare-paying customers go first.

 

Kinda a difficult way to travel if you're needing to get to a cruise port by a certain time.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[familycruisin]

Yeah, but from what I understand, using an alternate airline in a case like that won't help you much for a cruise. The alternate airline will honor the ticket, but you go stand-by. Their regular fare-paying customers go first.

 

Kinda a difficult way to travel if you're needing to get to a cruise port by a certain time.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

I absolutely agree! That is why we aren't using them to fly to Ft. lauderdale this month for our cruise. Good old reliable SouthWest is fine with me!

[pcumberl]

Will be flying US Airways through Philly on our way to San Juan in less than 2 weeks. My biggest fear is baggage delay/loss on the way down - especially since reading about baggage handler issues in Philly (as recently as last month). We plan on taking all our bathroom articles and a couple change of clothes in our carry-ons. We have baggage delay/loss insurance as part of our trip insurance. Sure hope we won't be needing to use it, but glad we have it just in case.

 

~Paul

[seafish]

We really do like USAirways and are LONG time USAirways customers out of Pittsburgh. However - despite lots of miles, the availability of free frequent flyer flights, direct West Coast flights, upgrades, etc., - we have for the last year decided to use more dependable carriers out of PIT. In short - our objective is to get to our destination and back - within a reasonable timeframe based on our flight itinerary and more importantly - do it safely. Check some of the news reports. For us - there's way too much unrest & turmoil within the USAirways system for us to have a comfort travel level at this time. Hopefully - things will work out. We'll wait and see after July 2005. In the meantime - we reluctantly will not fly USAirways. SeaFish

[Asailinsoon]

We recently got back from a cruise where my cousin flew US Air. Luckily we flew in the night before because her luggage did not show up until an hour before the ship left. The people where we checked in said US Air is always having this happen. Did not even have to tell them the airline when we asked to watch out for it. They knew. When we were leaving her plane was cancelled... Now it was not cancelled in Jacksonville where all the flights out were overbooked because of the Daytona 500. No, it was cancelled in PA where the weather was bad but they told her to go to the front desk to reschedule and by the time she found out what they were up to her flight had left, with some one else in her seat. Plus, since all flights out of there were full they could not get her on another flight til the next day. Since it was weather related she had to pay for her own hotel room. She will NEVER fly them again.

[David H]

I fly a lot (and I do mean a lot) with my job. I'm am gold level (or equivilent )frequent flyer with 4 different airlines including US Airways.

 

Over the years, I have had a few minor issues with all of the airlines I've flown, including US Airways. However, while I do tend to favor one airline over another, I must say that USAirways has rarely let me down.

 

Having said that, I'm on the 3/11 cruise of Celebrity Summit next week. I had orginally booked first class tickets to FLL for free using some of my points and was to arrive that morning. Even so, I have since purchased tickets on another airline for the night before. I still believe US Airways will pull through. I still trust them on normal trips. I'd even trust them for a cruise. Just not on the same morning where I only have a window of approx 4 hours to miss the boat.

 

If you are going in the day before or more, you should be OK. If you are flying through Philly, maybe some bag probelms. (They are still having some issues). If you are flying through Philly on the same day as you leave.....you might consider changing your plans.

 

Sorry if this makes you nervous. But.....

 

Have a great cruise.

[ahracer]

I fly a lot and all of the airlines have problems from time to time. USAIR is no worse or better then the rest of them.

 

Scott

[pcumberl]

If you are going in the day before or more, you should be OK. If you are flying through Philly, maybe some bag probelms. (They are still having some issues). If you are flying through Philly on the same day as you leave.....you might consider changing your plans.

Yes, I neglected to say we'll be flying in the day prior to sailing, so hopefully even if there is a baggage delay, they'll be able to get them to us by the time we cruise. Checkout at the hotel is noon and we don't sail till 11pm.

 

~Paul

[Case1096]

Be careful if you've bought travel insurance. Since they are in a bankruptcy, our travel insurance will not cover us if we fly them. Plus I've had some bad experiences with them, mostly surrounding their luggage issues which has been mentioned here over and over again.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Just returned home from a USair flight from our cruise. Original flight was for Depart Miami at 11:am to Charolotte N.C. then to RIchmond Va. That flight was changed to 12:45 leave Miami to Baltimore, Md then to richmond. Made it to Baltimore and just as we were to board for Richmond our plane was cancelled. They had to reroute us to Philly then onto richmond. GOt to philly and that plane had mechanical problems and we didn't board until 9:00 pm! GOt to Ricmond at 10:15 and all our luggage was lost. Not one person on our flight had luggage. They didn't put any of it on the plane. It was delivered to our home at 5:00 am. WE spent from 9:00am until 10:30pm trying to get home from our cruise. It was a long day and US air will not be our choice ever again.

 

Since Philly is a major hub of USAir it seems the baggage handlers in Philly are doing their best to see that the company doesn't survive. I live in Philly and see stories on the local news.

 

Bill

[elmtree]

Well, we just used US air for a flight home for Rome, Italy a couple weeks ago and everything was fine until we hit the Pittsburgh airport and found out that they had FIVE plane loads of luggage being delivered at the same time to the same baggage claim number..There were people everywhere! We had to wait for almost 2 1/2 hours for our luggage. After flying 18 hours from Naples to Rome to Pittsburgh, we were not happy, but we did get our luggage! And, we did land on time, so go figure....

[Case1096]

Why would employees want to put a company out of business like it sounds the baggage handlers are doing. Don't they get that they'll lose their jobs. And its not like they'll have some great severance package either. I just don't get it.