TWA - First time & last time.
 

This is the email I sended to TWA after spending all my Monday in St Louis airport : <BR> <BR>First time and last time we fly TWA. <BR>We are a French couple leaving in Kansas City for 2 years. Every 15 days we take a plane to visit the USA. After California (2 times), Arizona, Texas (2 times), Colorado with United, NorthWest, American we went last weekend in Seattle with TWA. That's the most horrible experience we had with an airline company. Our Fly (376) between Seattle and St Louis left 1 hour late because of ?? we don't know nobody told us. In the plane we asked about our connexion in St Louis, "don't worry they will wait for you". At the exit of the plane a woman told us to go to the door C12 to take our connexion to Kansas City. But at this door no plane. The customer service told us "the plane was full so they left". "I can add you to the stanby list for the next fly, you will be first on the list" Great, we both give a call to our company in kansas City to explain the delay and say that we will be there for 10am, no big deal. Few minutes before the fly leave we saw that we have no chance to take it because there was 27 peoples before us and the hostess ask to ten passagers to don't take the fly against a free plane ticket. What's this joke. The customer service ask us to wait for nothing !! We were ready to rent a car to be on time at our work and now it's 10am and we are still in ST Louis without any ticket. How many night do your clients spend in St Louis airport before to switch company. In our case this day we lost in your airport is enough for us. Ok a plane can be late but you can't tell to your client that every thing is going to be ok if you now that they can't catch the fly. Why do you lie to us ??? Why don't tell the truth. To rent a car was the solution for us but because of the stupidity of you employees we didn't do it. <BR>I hope to read soon what you think of what happended to us. <BR>Sincerely. <BR>Bruno Roy-Contancin <BR> <BR>Tell us about your experience with TWA 'cause we have a lot of trip to plan for the next months and we don't want to experience this again.

Bruno, the short answer is "don't fly TWA!!" The only people who can cope with this airlines are college students who get off and get the free flights when they are delayed. The rest of the world can't cope with their rhetoric.

Bruno: <BR>I thought TWA stod for The Worst Airline. We took it to Paris and said never again, too. Coming back from Paris 75% of the passengers missed their connections. The plane flew out anyway and we were one of the few who managed to make it. We conplained...they did nothing. "Put your money where your mouth is" and never fly them again. I won't.

I used to fly regularly between Chicago and Columbus, OH. At that time, TWA was the main carrier. We used to say that those initials stood for: Try Walking Awhile.

Gee, I always heard it stood for "Teeny, Weeny, Airlines"---anybody else have a nickname for this carrier?

I flew TWA just last month and everything was fine. We were delayed about on hour for the final leg of the trip, but it was due to a band of severe thunderstorms in the same area that brought down the American flight just one night later. I'm glad they erred on the side of safety.

If you fly that frequently, you really should fly with Southwest. After only four round-trip flights, you earn a free ticket (if you book on the internet). Sure, they don't assign seats and herd you on the plane like cattle, certainly there is no meal, but for $200RT coast-to-coast, I'll pack a lunch. Plus, the flight attendants are cheerful and funny.

<BR>I took TWA from Washington DC to San Francisco with connection in St Louis. I barely made my connnection because the plane couldn't pull up to the terminal because another plane was delayed leaving.

We live in St. Louis so we don't have much of a choice of airlines.If we want a direct flight ,its TWA. Our family flies often and over the years have had both good and bad experiences with TWA. We have noticed in the last year or two a real decline in the friendliness and quality of customer service. Grouchy gate crew and flight attendants have become the norm. A few weeks ago we took a family trip on Air Canada and my kids especially were shocked at the difference in atitude. The food was even edible! Now as I begin planning our next trip to Europe my kids are begging,"Please, not on TWA!" Unfortunately all of my frequent flier miles (MasterCard, Sprint, etc.) are with TWA. I don't know how they expect to stay in business with such aweful customer relations. We really need them here is St. Louis but I don't see how they can survive.

I was suppose to fly with TWA in July..I say suppose, cause they cancelled my flight out of Kansas City, why? mechnical. I doubt that, I was moved to US Airways,(not a bad flight) but was delayed at the KC airport for over two hours, then sent to Pitts.Penn, to be put on a plane for Columbus Ohio...well, instead of getting home about 10:30. I was there bright and early at 1:30 am, a nice way to start off my work day, don't you think? What really fries my eggs, is that the next day I had to rearrange a ticket for my husband, of course I was charged the $75.00 fee. But, when TWA rearranged my ticket, and inconvienced me. Well, there wasn't any deleted cost from my ticket....So, it's okay for them to make changes, and no money exchanged? I, wrote them about this....no comment from them as of yet. <BR>Oh, by the way that following week, on a return trip from Kansas City, my husband was delayed in St. Louis, Why, you ask....because there wasn't enough people to fly to Dayton, so, they moved them onto another flight, delaying those passengers enroute to New York.. <BR>Oh, I thought you never cancelled flights, that were light on passengers? <BR>TWA......isn't for the people. J.D. Powers must be asking the wrong Customers......that survey can't be correct.

Bruno: <BR> <BR>Sorry to hear about your bad luck w/TWA, but I think that all of the U.S. carriers are quickly getting to be about the same. I used to fly TWA alot, and with mixed experiences. <BR> <BR>But if you think TWA is bad, US Airways is 10,000 times worse! I would crawl on my hands and knees before I will EVER take another US Airways flight. I used to fly them alot between Columbus and NYC, and they were NEVER on time, and their personnel in NYC are the stereotypical New Yorkers--rude, nasty, and lazy! I took US Airways from NYC to Cols. around Thanksgiving one year, and while it was a non-stop flight, they managed to lose my luggage, which had the clothes I was going to wear to the restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. Two times I took them from Columbus to NYC, they arrived so late that I missed my ride to Conn. The first time, the ticket agent gave me a voucher for a hotel room and a whopping $3 for breakfast....in NYC, remind you... The second time, the same agent said, "Oh, it's you, again. Well, I'm not giving you anything this time..." <BR> <BR>Well, I'm NEVER giving US Airways any more of my business!! And, no matter how many times they change their name, they will always be Agony Airlines to me....!!!

Bruno--I also recommend Southwest Airlines. They have low prices, you can change flights without being charged a fee just to change it (the cost of the flight may be more), AND they have very cheerful and fun flight attendants. Another alternative would be Delta--out of Kansas City you may not have direct flights, but all of my experiences with them have been good. I refuse to fly TWA even though I live in St. Louis. They have the rudest employees--and they are supposed to be "employee owned"? One time my son flew to Kansas City with his father, then returned alone. He had been assigned seating prior to leaving, so I knew he would be one of the first off the plane. The plane landed and he was the last one off. He told me there was already a lady in his seat when he got on. So they put him in the back--from my experience with TWA my guess is the lady's original flight was cancelled and she refused to be put in the back of the plane. When I asked the customer service people why my son was moved, they said it was because he never showed up for the flight to Kansas City so they cancelled his return flight. I told them he most certainly was on the flight to Kansas City--they kept telling me their computer said he never showed up. They were extremely rude. My husband was forced by circumstances beyond his control to fly TWA from Washington, D.C. The only thing left was first class, which he took since he didn't want to spend the night in the airport. When he asked the flight attendant if there were any magazines she told him to go to the back of the plane and look for some! After he paid $750 for a one way ticket!! When other passengers commented on her attitude, she became defensive--no apologies here.

Let's try: <BR>http://www.airlinecomplaints.com/index.html <BR>

I've had problems with TWA also, the worst being an international flight from Paris to JFK which was late (for no good reason that I know of, I think it was TWA's fault, lack of equipment or something) and then everybody missed their connections in NY as it was late at night. I won't go on as it was a horrible experience due to their terrible arrangements for the night, terrible bus driver, etc. Domestically, I'll fly them if I have to; they are more reasonable with their frequent flyer programs than many other airlines I've used (ie, United is awful--you can never redeem your miles on any useful flight); it's easier to use your miles on TWA and they never expire. They do have a couple bad marks--their hub is St Louis which is a disgustingly filthy and terrible airport IMO (last time I was there, there was literally trash all over the floors everywhere), so it is not a good place for layovers. Also, I fly out of Washington DC and they have a very inconvenient to the parking lot terminal (cheaper, I'm sure). But, I will second what someone else said; they aren't the worst, US Airways is the worst airline I've ever flown and I've had to fly them a lot because I'm from Columbus, Ohio. They are hardly ever on time and I mean when it's their fault; I've had one hour flights delayed for an hour due to their personnel and equipment problems. US Air is the only airline I literally will never fly regardless of how much extra I have to pay for a different ticket.

I have a long standing dislike of TWA also, but have to say that I had a good experience with them this weekend. Flew from St. Louis to Kansas City and both flights were ten minutes early. The flight attendants weren't overly nice, but they weren't their usually surly selves. And at the end of one flight one of the flight attendants gave a little parting speech a la Southwest Airlines. Maybe TWA is finally trying to improve their image.