Dear @UsAirWays

Its been many years since i’ve flown you, and this year was my first time in a long time that I was willing to give you another chance (mostly because I was not the one booking my flights).

On a recent trip home from Orlando Florida, I arrived at the airport 2 hours before my boarding time (as instructed).  I went to the self check-in and was prompted with a screen telling me that my flight was delayed and I had to speak to a customer service agent.  Slightly annoyed, I wandered into the line that was forming and waited for someone to help me.

I was greeted with by someone (I didn’t make a note to catch her name unfortunately) who went over and beyond to make sure that I could check into my flight.  She not only saw the flight delay (due to bad weather), but realized I had a 1 hour lay over in Phoenix that I could possibly miss.   She asked other agents, who came back to assure her and I that I would NOT miss my lay over flight on Phoenix.   The agents had assured me that they were going to be holding the flight in Phoenix to make sure that everyone was onboard.

Confident that I would not end up stuck in Phoenix, I checked in, wandered around the airport and finally went through security.  I felt a sigh of relief as I had to be home the next morning to get back to work and could not miss another day in San Francisco.

Upon my arrival to Phoenix, I got to the gate just as they were closing the doors.  I checked in with the woman at the desk who rudely told me that Orlando agents had mis-informed me and slapped a piece of paper for a number I had to call for a ‘discounted hotel’ as that was their last flight to SF for the night.   Because it was ‘not their fault’ that there were weather delays, its now my fault for not showing up on time and I have to pay for it with a discounted hotel voucher.  The woman was rude, and completely abnoxious and walked away.

I decided it was a better choice just to stay in the airport to catch the first flight out of SF.   Yes, I ended up spending the night at the airport.  By the time I was able to get a hold of someone on the hotline for a discounted hotel rate, by the time I got to the hotel, into bed and had to wake up, I would have gotten a total of maybe 3 1/2-4 hours of sleep.  A total waste of money.

I have to advise you UsAirWays, Don’t have a customer service Twitter account if you don’t plan on offering customer service.  I was in the airport all night, and tweeted to you a couple of times.  When you finally responded, it was with a link to a form to fill out.  That was it.

When you tweet something like this, it gives someone hope that you actually want to help them:

Your reply? A DM to a link to a form to fill out.

I then tweeted, along with several others about the situation and your customer service team replies back telling me it would be up to 5 business days before I heard anything back.

This is where you went wrong in many ways:

1. In Orlando, you could have offered me another flight so I wouldnt have to worry.  As I traveler, I want to feel assured that I am going to get home, and that you are going to get me there on time.
2. In Phoenix, you could have had a better attitude.  Slapping a piece of paper on the counter for a discount when I was guaranteed i’d make this flight is completely uncalled for.
3.  You can train your ‘social team’ on what customer service is really all about and making people happy.
4. I got your email response on the 2nd.  It sucked. (see below)

 

Dear Ms. Baldwin:

hank you for contacting Customer Relations. We appreciate it when customers take the time to share their concerns.

I’m sorry you were delayed on your flight to Phoenix. Our records show your flight was delayed due to Air Traffic Control (ATC).

Air Traffic delays can be the result of weather or congestion at your destination or origin city, or weather enroute. These delays are similar to freeway congestion where an earlier situation can cause delays long after the initial incident has been cleared. When these kinds of issues occur Air Traffic Control will decrease the number of take-offs and landings which they believe can be safely allowed. This can cause backups in flight schedules for the remainder of the day. Although it may appear as though flights of another airline are unaffected, this is because other flights have been held back or cancelled to free up the airport space and help control traffic. In these types of situations, ATC determines the flow of traffic.

I realize it was disappointing for you. Since this was not a situation that we could have prevented, I regret that I am unable to offer you compensation, but I’m again sorry for the inconvenience it caused you.

Additionally, based on what you’ve said, our agents didn’t handle the situation with the quality customer care we expect. I apologize and understand your frustration. I’ve shared your feedback with our leadership team in Phoenix to help improve our service and ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Ms. Baldwin, we appreciate and value your business and look forward to serving you on a future US Airways flight.

Sincerely,

Helen

Allow me to translate my response to this email in this picture:

Sure, it wasn’t your fault USAirways, that the flight was delayed due to weather. What was your fault was guaranteeing that i’d make my connecting flight. It WAS your fault that your customer service has a total lack of regard to making consumers want to continue to fly with you again. And it WAS your fault that no matter how hard I tried to reach out to you in hopes that you would make the situation better, I had to fill out forms, talk to what felt like a robot on twitter with an automated response, and your email reply that basically laughs at me for your faults.

I know my experience is just one of thousands. This is why there are airlines such as Virgin America, and JetBlue who took customer experiences such as mine and realized that there are people that want a pleasurable experience flying with them. And they do whatever it takes to make sure their customers keep coming back.

I have never had a bad experience on any airline. Sure, i’ve been woken up by the attendants when I am trying to catch up on sleep trying to offer me something to drink, and Sure, my luggage has been lost but always found. But i’ve never been guaranteed a flight that clearly wasn’t going to happen followed by a week and a half of terrible customer service.

Please hang this image in your customer service department as a reminder of how your customers see you.

With that, I bid you a fond fairwell USAirWays.

Krystyl (Never Flying With You Again) Baldwin