travelbuff

When you call tomorrow, ask for a supervisor, don't talk to an agent, they will probably tell you the same thing that you have already heard, and they can not make out of the ordinary decisions.

If that does not work, call the corportate office and try to get to the Director of Customer Relations, you will probably get an assistant and you can at least get the name of the individual, for an email or letter.

If that doesn't work, call the president's office, don't know who runs USAir but you are going to have to fight and scream to get this taken care of.

I will never fly USAir again, last time I did, they cancelled 3 planes in a row on me. I'm always on the first flight out, so I ended up spending more than 6 hours at the airport in perfectly good weather, and never did get an explanation other than mechanical problems (on 3 planes?)

dmlove

Seems to me to be unreasonable to expect a voucher to fly any time with no restrictions for just a few hours inconvenience.

It's got nothing to do with expectations, and everything to do with what she was told when she agreed to accept the voucher in exchange for giving up her seat. What she was told constitutes a contract, whether it was in writing or not. Whether the "facts" can be proved is a different story when it's not in writing, of course, but it sounds to me like hdm has a very convincing story.

hdm

excellent suggestions, travelbuff, especially speaking with a supervisor. I'll remember that tomorrow.

dusty,
<Seems to me to be unreasonable to expect a voucher to fly any time with no restrictions for just a few hours inconvenience.>
Why is it unreasonable for me to expect what they offered me. If they had talked about restrictions either 1) at the time of the exchange of seats for vouchers, or 2) in their policies, or 3) on the phone today, I might agree with you. But no restrictions were stated at any of those times so why would you assume there are restrictions?

Secondly, the issue isn't availability. As I've said above, there are seats available.

And third, they asked the travelers (of which I was one) if anyone was willing to give up their seats. I didn't solicit them, they solicited me. I kept my part of the bargain and now I'm only expecting them to keep theirs.

Like you, I would be willing to use the voucher within a year from the date it was issued.

hdm

Exactly, dm, and thank you.

dusty56438

"Secondly, the issue isn't availability. As I've said above, there are seats available."

It is about availability.

There are only so many seats that an airline will give up for Frequent Flyer seats, and for low fare seats. Once those are taken, then if you want to fly on that particular flight, you would have to buy a ticket or a higher priced ticket. Why would seats using a voucher be any different? I'm sure if you would have booked the trip months ago using the vouchers, seats would have been available.

I was not there when you were issued the voucher. So I don't know what was said or not said. But, I'm quite sure there is something on the voucher that lists the class of the ticket & therefore the availability of seats using that class of ticket. It is what is written on the voucher that is important if you cannot prove otherwise.

I may be wrong, but it is my opinion & nothing else.

I do wish you luck in trying to get what you want.

nancy1652

We had a terrible problem with Iberia Airlines last year, and I spent months trying to get the money they owed us. It wasn't until I wrote Chris Elliott, who is a travel writer for National Geographic and other magazines whose sole job is to deal with problems like yours (and ours), that we got our refund. I would suggest you contact him if you don't get results from U.S. Airways. Email him at [email protected]
Good luck!

hdm

Thank you so much, Nancy. I'll try that. At the very least, I'd like them to extend our vouchers for a year. SO is a university prof so it's impossible for us to travel during the semester, and that means these vouchers would be useless for us for the rest of this year if Christmas isn't an option.

And yes, dusty, I realize I should have known that and booked earlier.

Hershey

I didn't read through all the replies but I was in the same predicament as you, hdm, 2 years ago. After being bumped in July in PHL, we were told the vouchers were good for a year, yada, yada.

Then we tried to use them. No availability 5 months in advance at Christmas time, nor at spring break the next year, nor June the next year (350 days after we were bumped).

Finally I said, OK, you tell me when and where you have available (I wasn't going to let those vouchers go to waste, come hell or high water). They offered us Toronto or Chicago (from Birmingham, AL)

So, my husband and I took an unexpected vacation to Chicago in May of last year, for 5 days. We had never been there and never thought we wanted to go there but had the best time. Can't wait to go back. Thanks, USAIR, for not having availability for any of the places we HAD to go.

MileKing

US Airways vouchers issued when you are bumped from a flight (voluntary or involuntary) use the same seat availability that frequent flyer seats are taken from. As you are probably aware, frequent flyer award seats are very limited and in some cases subject to blackout dates. Thus your difficulties in finding flights you can use the vouchers on.

It has not always been this way with US Airways. In the past (maybe 7-8 years ago), seats using the bumped vouchers were truly unrestricted. If there was a seat available on the flight, you could use the vouchers.

It's unfortunate that US Airways doesn't make the rules clear to people when they offer the vouchers. Part of this is deliberate (in my view) and part of it is that many agents just don't know the rules. Needless to say, we don't bother with bumps on US Air anymore.

karameli

hdm,

Your letter was well-written and civil. I'd be surprised if they don't respond accordingly. I've used vouchers with US Airways before with no trouble. While there are some glitches in their customer service as a general rule, they are usually very quick to correct them.

I'd avoid threatening them with legal action just yet -- which is the implication of adding a "cc: Personal attorney." Most places are less likely to respond to a litigious customer than to a loyal customer who's simply trying to resolve an issue.

Be polite but firm on the phone. Explain that there are no restrictions printed on the vouchers, and you know seats are available because you have them on courtesy hold. If the agent isn't immediately responsive, ask for a supervisor and explain the same exact thing.

And sure, an unrestricted voucher may seem like an uneven trade-off for one bumped flight -- but otherwise, no one would ever agree to be bumped!

hdm

Thank you all. Rather than continue this issue on two separate threads, I've posted their response and my subsequent one to them on the Airlines board.

You've all been just great and very supportive!