Anything I should know before booking with US Air?
 

Their website seems user friendly enough so I am hoping the purchase process is easy? I assume I'll be able to choose my own seat, etc., as with other major airlines. Curious to know if there's anything quirky I should be aware of. Haven't flown US Air in over 15 years. Thanks!

They don't have the best reputation for quality, but they pretty much offer the same thing as anyone else. The differences will be more 'soft'; maybe a dirtier plane or somesuch. Some time ago, they also had some reliability issues, but seem to have improved significantly lately.

I have only flown US Airways once -- it was in 2007. It was a flight from Portland, Oregon to Orlando, Florida. We were a family of three. They lost all our luggage. I know that this happens on occasion. What shocked me was their reaction. They could not have been less concerned. I spent significant time on the telephone trying to find someone who could tell me if our luggage had ever left Portland. Finally I was routed to their lost luggage control center. Guatamala City. No one there was of any help at all. This, by the way, was the day after our arrival. We had, of course, filled out all the documentation necessary when our luggage had not arrived. In desparation we returned to the airport. There we found an enormous area surrounded by yellow tape, apparently filled with lost luggage. I was curious to know if our luggage was there, but since it was "roped off" so to speak,I didn't think I should just shinny under the tape and start pawing through the piles of luggage. So I asked someone in the US Airways office. Just go ahead and look I was told. We did look and did find our luggage. So I returned to the US Airways representative thinking they would want to make a notation that our luggage had been found. So that they wouldn't continue to look for it. Nope. I was told to just leave with our luggage. Which we did. We never heard anything further about the matter.

We have traveled a lot. We have had occasional instances of missing bags. But always the airlines have been attentive, concerned and diligent. We vowed never again to fly US Airways. And we haven't.

Are you desperate or ? Why pick US? The US Air of 15 years ago is no more - the new US Air is actually the old America West aka one of America's Worst! Where are you going?

Everyone can have a bad experience on an airline if they fly often enough. I am still mad at AirTran for a computer/seat mix-up and at United for telling me Wyoming was not part of the United States.

My DH flies 6-8 trips/month and I fly about that much per year - on a variety of airlines based on schedule and price only. Averaged out, they are all basically the same - have not had any more problems with USAir than any other. But I have come to expect little other than a seat and safe arrival, reasonably close to schedule.

<...United for telling me Wyoming was not part of the United States>

Are you serious?

Your story reminded me of the Kiwi who, when told we lived in Kuwait, asked "is that in Australia"?

You mean it's not?! ;-)

Thanks for the interesting replies, everyone. Gail, my thinking is in line with yours.

I just returned on a US itinerary.

Their reputation for dirty planes is no longer deserved. It was certainly true five years ago, but they've used some powerful cleaners and their planes are now up to par.

Legroom on US is about the same as other airlines in standard coach. UA's E+ is much better. If you're looking at coach and your itinerary includes airlines with E+ type service, it's worth the upgrade price.

Are you on a domestic itinerary? US's domestic flghts have no entertainment systems, so BYO. They annoy you a bit more than other airlines with sales piches for their credit card, etc., but that's no deal killer.

One thing US will give you that no low-cost carrier will is the capacity to re-accommodate you if there are problems. On my just-completed trip, the outbound US flight was seriously delayed and I would have missed my connection, but they put me on American and I made it to my destination. JetBlue or Southwest would have smiled at me and offered sympathy.

Eric, thanks for your reply. We're headed to Paris--they fly non-stop there from Philly.

Melnq - yes, serious about the India-based customer service person on United. Issue was son lost his wallet and photo ID and we needed to fly back Jackson, WY-Boston. The guy on the phone kept telling me he could just use his passport - and I kept telling him his passport was in Boston. And the guy on phone kept telling me he must have a passport with him since he would have needed it to fly out of US.

We fly USAirways from San Juan to Europe and to Lexington, Ky. The planes are ok and so is the service.
Every once in a while you will find excellent service like we did in April of this year on our return from Rome to Philadelphia. The plane was late leaving Rome because of maintenance and upon landing we were handed tickets for next day's flight to San Juan and vouchers for hotel and food just in case we didn't make it to our connecting flight, which we didn't. We are silver prefered and were travelling on an upgraded ticket, if that makes a difference.

I flew USAir from Washington, DC to Costa Rica and it was fine. The only problem I had was knowing which counter to go to in order to check in. I walked about a mile (IAD) to get to the USAir counter only to be told I had to go to the United ticket counter (which I had passed on the way to USAir) - only 3/4 of a mile away. This after being passed through the entrance to USAir and standing in line and getting to the agent.

I've flown US Air 3 times Seattle to Puerto Vallarta (thru Phoenix). It was fine. No complaints. It did not seem that different from any other major US airline to me.

I took the Philly-Paris flight on US Airways last year. It was fine. Nothing remarkably great, nothing remarkably bad. I just took a trip to Mexico on US Airways and that also went well.

I have flown US Air many times as it is our main carrier to connect to ClT from Myr. It is the same as any other airline. Flew American in Jan 2 hours late taking off to San Diego. Had a delay in CLT getting to Philly. Had to rerouted thru Baltimore,but we made it to Rome out of Philly before that cruise ship left. Other times I have flown US Air no problem. The other problem on this flight never experienced before on US Air was our luggage arrived 3-4 days late,but it was delivered from one of those Greek Isles to the ship with everything in good condition. Have flown on Northwest from Bangkok with luggage delays,but always delivered by the next day. So you never know. It's a luck of the draw whatever airline you fly.