Dorrene

I just found an great price on America West arlines, but I have never flown them before. Has anyone used them? Were you satisfied? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.....

charlie

Yes! We flew them round trip from Kansas Vity to Ontario,California by way of Pheonix. We were very happy with service.

dave

The flight attendants are great, and they are generous with first class upgrades, but their on-time record is one of the worst in the industry (especially if you connect in Phoenix). I fly them only when I have no other reasonable choice, as your chance of a lengthy delay is quite high - delays of 6 - 8 hours in Phoenix are not uncommon at all.

Barry

Check the archives....this question has been asked several times lately and there are some dyed-in-the-wool AWA haters out there who had only flown them once or twice.
I've flown them several dozen times without a single problem, so go figure.
Any airline can have problems at any given time, I suppose.
Is AWA more of a 'skimp on service' carrier than Midwest Express or British Airways? You bet. But no moreso than SWA. I say, if the fare's right, go for it.

Christina

I've flown them several times with no problems, in fact, I preferred them over other airlines on that route (Wash DC to Columbus OH) as the alternatives are terrible (United Express and USAir, which I boycott). I only flew short distances so there really wasn't any service to compare, exactly; the planes were fine and on time. UNTIL this Christmas when they cancelled a flight at the last minute, not for weather which I would not blame them, but simply for "maintenance." This is not acceptable to me, espec in Christmas season, there were hundreds of people lined up and they had little help (especially competent help) to handle the situation. In this market, they do not have very many flights, the next one was that evening which made me miss all of Christmas eve with my family. I will never fly them again. I think their problem is they don't have enough planes or the planes are not in working condition and that's why they are too frequently cancelling flights for "maintenance." I do maintenance on my car BEFORE I have to use it to go to work, a concept they don't seem to understand. If there is another acceptable choice for around the same money, I would fly the other airline. If you have a great deal, I would buy AmWest but be sure to call day before AND just before going to airport to check on cancellations. (I did not as I'm not used to airlines cancelling flights for no reason when the weather is good, but they told me it would not have mattered as they only cancelled it just before flight time).

Dorrene

Thank you all for you help!!! I decided to go for it a give it a try. These tickets were $175 less than any other airline - and I had 4 tickets to buy so the savings was substantial. Now I will just hold my breath for a few months and hope it all works well. I already warned my husband that we might have a delay - - but we decided the savings was SO substantial that we would give it a try. Wish me luck!!!!!
Thanks again........

Christina

I would have also for that big a cost difference. As I said, I liked their flights and on-flight service fine, it was just the cancellation that bothered me. If it's any consolation, they might have had more maintenance problems in the winter weather (that was their story) as I guess that is harder on the planes, so might not have as many cancellation problems in the spring or summer.

PHXster

I hope it works out ok for you. I have flown them dozens of times over the last five years (few choices to my destination) and to me, they are the poster child for Airlines from Hell.

Maybe I am just unlucky.

PHXster

I would also add that at the beginning of the year the FAA was threatening to revoke their operator's certificate, in other words, ground them.

Cam

I hope you have better luck with them than I've had in the past. Unfortunately I have to travel frequently to Phoenix on business and they are often the only airline with flights that are available at the last minute. A few months ago, I was delayed 6 hours in Phoenix (I could have driven back to Orange County in around the same time!). The staff at the customer service was very rude and told a group of us to go sit down and leave them alone, since they couldn't do anything about the situation back east. Trust me, this attitude was not provoked. And then we had to wait another hour while they did maintenance work - they had reseal the door due to leakage - kind of a scary thought when boarding a flight. There was no apologies for the delays, nor any kind of food vouchers while we waited for hours. I hope your flight discount will be adequate for possibly missing out on an entire day of travel.

Teresa

Maybe I'm cynical but I honestly don't see much of a difference in the major airlines' service and 'on time' flights anymore. We usually fly United since Denver is our nearest major airport and that's a major United hub. They're not great but at least they're a known quantity. So (slowly getting to my point here...) we were leery about flying America West to and from Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It ended up being a supremely pleasant experience even though weather delayed our Denver to Phoenix flight for four hours. They upgraded us to 1st class and showered us with free food and drink vouchers for our "trouble." We hadn't even asked for them, knowing the weather was to blame and there was nothing anyone could do about it. The personnel couldn't have been nicer and they turned a stressful situation into one that was actually tolerable...and I detest flying.

Executive Asst.

My boss hates to fly and twice he had to make an emergency landing on America West. He swore he would never fly them again!

Robin

The second-to-last time I flew America West, it was on a free ticket given to me because of the horrendous service on a previous flight (that resulted in them BUSSING me to my destination and leaving me at the closed airport at 2:00 in the morning!). The flight was late and disorganized (they canceled all of our seats accidentally during one of the THREE layovers). Like Cam, I also experienced a six-hour delay in Phoenix, which is supposed to be their hub (you'd think they could find a plane to ferry us the last hour to California!). After that, I swore I wouldn't fly them again, but found myself booked for a one-hour flight to Phoenix on a business trip. Even that was overbooked and late. And the gate attendants are often surly-- I would be too if I had to justify constant screw-ups!

I am now 100% done with America West, and I have one other word of warning to those attracted by cheap fares. Please be aware that their cross-country flights are usually cobbled together from many shorter routes-- as I said, we changed planes three times between LA and Boston! So if price is the only issue, go for it. But do weigh what you're getting.

Whiners

Well duhhh!!
If you're going to fly a cut rate carrier and try to 'cobble together' 3 connecting flights you are just asking for trouble!
Even the 'premium' carriers will leave you high and dry not infrequently if you have to make 3 connections in a day!

Robin

Apparently, you were too interested in being cute to read what I said-- the people who are attracted to America West, including Dorrene in her original question, are looking only at fare. Now you, as a man/woman of the world, are undoubtedly too smart to do anything so foolish, but many people shop price. What I was trying to get across in a less snide manner is that sometimes you do indeed get you pay for.

But thank you, really, for your kind attention...

Dorrene

Robin,
Thanks for your input. I appreciate it. That was one thing I checked on. We go from Dallas to Phoenix then on to San Diego. Only one stop. I started early in the morning, so hopefully we can avoid too many delays. I am a little "nervous" but decided the price was so great with the number of tickets that we had to buy, that we decided to Go For It! I told the family to look at it this way. Normally our vacation starts when we leave for the airport, but this year it will just start when we land in San Diego. We decided we wanted the extra money to spend on the ground vs. spend in the air! Hopefully, it will all work out. We are only vacation travelers and have only flown Delta and American, so we don't have a lot of experience to book on. Thanks again to all who so graciously gave me their input.

PHXster

Dorrene:

It would be great if you gave us a post trip report about how AWA fared.