Comments on: US Airways customer service director: À la carte fees are the only way forward http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/us-airways%e2%80%99-customer-service-director-a-la-carte-fees-are-the-only-way-forward/ The last honest travel site Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:20:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Marilyn Long http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/us-airways%e2%80%99-customer-service-director-a-la-carte-fees-are-the-only-way-forward/comment-page-1/#comment-12070 Marilyn Long Sun, 10 May 2009 21:58:57 +0000 http://www.tripso.com/?p=13854#comment-12070 U.S. Airways had an opportunity to generate a lot of good feelings with positive customer relations for a trip that I have been working on for a non-profit group. A staff member made a clerical error in reserving seats for our group. This error is costing us a lot for our relatively small organization, but it is amount that is small for a large corporation. U. S. Airways was asked to apply this extra money to the very large amount that we still owed for the actual seats that we ticketed, but they refused. We were told at the time that the money was nonrefundable. Then after I had written several letters to explain what happened and asked that the decision be reversed, I was told that if I had complained more at the time, then it could have been changed but not later. We released the extra seats that were reserved by mistake and the airline has now had 5 months to sell those extra seats and has another month to continue doing that before the actual flight so it seems punitive to say that we must suffer all of the consequences for the clerical error which was caught within 24 hours. U.S. Airways had an opportunity to generate a lot of good feelings with positive customer relations for a trip that I have been working on for a non-profit group. A staff member made a clerical error in reserving seats for our group. This error is costing us a lot for our relatively small organization, but it is amount that is small for a large corporation. U. S. Airways was asked to apply this extra money to the very large amount that we still owed for the actual seats that we ticketed, but they refused. We were told at the time that the money was nonrefundable. Then after I had written several letters to explain what happened and asked that the decision be reversed, I was told that if I had complained more at the time, then it could have been changed but not later. We released the extra seats that were reserved by mistake and the airline has now had 5 months to sell those extra seats and has another month to continue doing that before the actual flight so it seems punitive to say that we must suffer all of the consequences for the clerical error which was caught within 24 hours.

]]> By: Jo Anne VG http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/us-airways%e2%80%99-customer-service-director-a-la-carte-fees-are-the-only-way-forward/comment-page-1/#comment-12057 Jo Anne VG Sat, 09 May 2009 04:53:01 +0000 http://www.tripso.com/?p=13854#comment-12057 Hapgood's comment is priceless and so very true! It's all about cargo and not passengers. The airlines have forgotten the true nature of their business. Hapgood’s comment is priceless and so very true! It’s all about cargo and not passengers. The airlines have forgotten the true nature of their business.

]]> By: Hapgood http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/us-airways%e2%80%99-customer-service-director-a-la-carte-fees-are-the-only-way-forward/comment-page-1/#comment-12045 Hapgood Fri, 08 May 2009 16:14:58 +0000 http://www.tripso.com/?p=13854#comment-12045 Concise summary: We are focusing our efforts on working with passengers to help them lower their expectations to a level that we can meet most of the time. And when we don't meet even those much-lowered expectations, we're improving our processes to delay, stonewall, and ignore their complaints until the passengers give up and stop wasting our time. We aren't concerned about the loss of business to competitors, since other airlines are actively pursuing similar efforts to reduce passenger expectations. So our elite, desirable customers will stay loyal to us because there's no benefit to switching to another airline that treats them just as shabbily. The transition to a uniform, industry-wide standard of service will improve profitability while offering passengers a consistent experience. The important thing for passengers to remember is that airlines are doing them an enormous favor by letting them occupy one of our seats (make that two if they're fat). Using that space for cargo would be much better business for us, since it generates more revenue per cubic foot and makes far fewer demands on our staff. The sooner passengers learn to behave like cargo, the better it will be for everyone. Hopefully, our new approach of treating passengers like self-loading cargo will eventually teach them their proper place in our business model. Concise summary: We are focusing our efforts on working with passengers to help them lower their expectations to a level that we can meet most of the time. And when we don’t meet even those much-lowered expectations, we’re improving our processes to delay, stonewall, and ignore their complaints until the passengers give up and stop wasting our time. We aren’t concerned about the loss of business to competitors, since other airlines are actively pursuing similar efforts to reduce passenger expectations. So our elite, desirable customers will stay loyal to us because there’s no benefit to switching to another airline that treats them just as shabbily. The transition to a uniform, industry-wide standard of service will improve profitability while offering passengers a consistent experience.

The important thing for passengers to remember is that airlines are doing them an enormous favor by letting them occupy one of our seats (make that two if they’re fat). Using that space for cargo would be much better business for us, since it generates more revenue per cubic foot and makes far fewer demands on our staff. The sooner passengers learn to behave like cargo, the better it will be for everyone. Hopefully, our new approach of treating passengers like self-loading cargo will eventually teach them their proper place in our business model.

]]> By: Eric http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/us-airways%e2%80%99-customer-service-director-a-la-carte-fees-are-the-only-way-forward/comment-page-1/#comment-12042 Eric Fri, 08 May 2009 13:10:20 +0000 http://www.tripso.com/?p=13854#comment-12042 Good for USAir. Now in reality USAir is still one of the worst airlines to fly. Only recently did they bring back free drinks, but they still charge for luggage. Every time I'm on a flight the majority of the passengers are NOT business travelers and have luggage. So contrary to Mr. Romantic a la carte is not saving the vast majority of his customers money. I don't expect to be wined and dined on flights but I think it only reasonable to expect a drink and a piece of luggage to be part of any ticket price. What's next hotels charing for sheets and pillows? Good for USAir. Now in reality USAir is still one of the worst airlines to fly. Only recently did they bring back free drinks, but they still charge for luggage. Every time I’m on a flight the majority of the passengers are NOT business travelers and have luggage. So contrary to Mr. Romantic a la carte is not saving the vast majority of his customers money. I don’t expect to be wined and dined on flights but I think it only reasonable to expect a drink and a piece of luggage to be part of any ticket price. What’s next hotels charing for sheets and pillows?

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