America West Airlines - Should I Use?
 

Need info as soon as possible to book
seats. Only reasonable alternatives from
LAX for my particular route (LAX-Billings
with one stop somewhere) are Delta
and America West. Previous posters
(but from almost two years ago) were very anti-America West. But has anyone flown
them recently, had any personal experiences? The second leg of America
West's routing (through Phoenix) is on Mesa Air on a smaller regional jet; while Delta's routing through Salt Lake City uses regular jets. Don't mind regional
jet in summer, but am more concerned
about Am. West's reputation for cancellations, etc.

I had a very enjoyable flight from Washington Dulles to San Diego and back in April. I had planned on flying with them again next year but even tho plans were changed, I would go with them again. Breakfast wasn't that great going west, but on the way back the sandwich was pretty good. (free)

A local Phoenix DJ used to rip America West on his program, but recently commented on how its service had gotten better.

I always have had a decent flight with them.

Our daughter and s-i-l fly them PHX-TPA every time they visit us here. No complaints and they are almost always on time, at least on this end.

We can only hope they have gotten better cause they surely couldn't have any worse. I'm surprised to hear someone say they are on time because they have one of the worst on-time records in the business. I've unfortuntely flown them a number of times and would not recommend to my worst enemy.

I flew them a few months ago from east coast to las vegas and had no complaints. I would fly them again!

I am actually going on America West this summer to San Diego and I think that the airline appears to be a good carrier. In fact, the customer service that America West offered to me over the telephone was better than the local major airline carrier offered.

Have flown America West and I had no problems. However,it has been several years since I have used them.

We flew them to Las Vegas in April, found it very comfortable with good service & lots of leg room on that particular plan. We're flying them again next month to Phoenix.

I just flew from Phila to Vegas on AW. I had a bad experience with them three yrs ago, but since then I feel they have improved considerably.

The flights were on time, the attendants were pleasant, even the in flight movies were good. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Wrongo, Pumpy.
AWA is not a laggard when it comes to on-time rankings.
Over the past 18 months America West has ranked in the top quarter of US carriers for on-time performance. See US DOT data at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/

I flew to Colorado Springs in April - America West to Phoenix and Mesa commuter to COS. On the return at JFK, the bags were late coming because they took two trips to get them all. Everyone standing around was all muttering America West under their breath yet not realizing it's the ground crew provided by the airport that does that, not the airline itself. Sometimes people blame the wrong person.

Im my case the flight was Ok to Phoeix, nothing special. But Mesa was really good, they are very, very highly rated and would definitely do that any day of the week.

I haven't flown America West for awhile now, having given up after several negative experiences. One time our flight was cancelled with some sort of weather-related excuse, although there was no weather affecting the areas involved and all the other carriers were able to land and depart without a problem. I might have been more understanding had the ticket agent at least been polite in dealing with all the frantic passengers trying to find alternate flights. And the last time my husband flew A.W., his connecting flight home from Phoenix was cancelled, and they flew him to Las Vegas instead for an unwanted overnight stay. For their sake and ours, I hope they've improved since that time, which was about three years ago. I'm typically not much of a whiner, but I do avoid A.W. for these reasons.

All the US carriers are the same to me--adequate at best. It's really hard to tell one from another. So, relax.

I basically agree with ezron. But for what it's worth, I flew America West from Mpls to Phx and on to Mazatlan, and had no problems. All flights were on time, luggage OK, service average. I thought the seats seemed a tad smaller and more cramped than on other carriers. I would certainly fly AW again.

Years ago, we lived in Tucson and referred to America West as America's Worst. Recent reports about airlines states that AmWest is the only one not in bankruptcy. I've heard it's much improved over years ago. I wouldn't hesitate!