US AIR love it or hate?
 

Last year I flew us air and didnt have a good experience. My friend just flew with them to miami and had a even worse experience. What do you think, was it just a fluke?

WAIT!!!! (long enough) and somebody will tell you a horror story about almost every airline you could possibly fly.

My experiences with USAirways have been mixed but some of the "horrors" were really not under the control of the airline.

Ergo, I try to always take the earliest possible flight and try to always get a non-stop.

My husband flies weekly on an assortment of airlines - USAir, United, AA and occasionally Delta. He has an equal number of horror and wonderful stories of trips on all of them - and for the most part the flights are non-events and a means to get from A to B. And most horror stories are in some way weather related, as we live in Boston.

I agree. Over the last couple of years I have flown Southwest, USAir and Continental. Southwest doesn't really compare, as my other trips were transatlantic. In my experience, USAir was no better, no worse than Continental in pretty much every way.

I DID learn to avoid airports in the Northeast like the plague and otherwise follow the advice Dukey just gave.

to bad i live in the northeast so that would be pretty impossible. boo me

I've flown them a few times recently between Seattle and Puerto Vallarta, as they are much cheaper and have better schedules than Alaska Air (my old standby) these days. They did just fine.

I've always had good luck but then I have littel choice (I reside in CLT). That being said we did schedule flights during certain times, avoided all DC airports (as well as PHL) esp. on Fridays, etc., etc.

When America West bought USAir several years ago, I think things got much worse than they had been under old USAir. Before then, my only complaints were the usual random inconveniences that are routine if you fly a few times a year.
My three USAir experiences in the first half of 2007 were all bad--computer meltdowns that halted checkin at airports in two different cities two months apart (FLL in Jan, DCA in March) and caused hundreds of passengers to miss their flights, hours-long hold on the phones, a "computer problem in Phoenix" that dealyed a May flight out of DCA for three hours (an early morning westbound, so not subject to the everyday afternoon- in-the-northeast problems).
I hope they are improving because they are usually the most conveinent for my travels and I have a bunch of ff miles accumulated with them that I'd like to be able to redeem.

I hate US Air...aside from having the worst terminal (PHL), the planes I've flown on have been old and dirty.

Didn't you know that "US-Scare" specifically saves the dirtiest seats and planes for non-members of their Dividend Miles program?????

haha thats really funny

I fly USAir frequently, one route, and I have zero complaints.

BUT I am angry with USAir's decision to charge for a 2nd checked bag. Express your outrage:

http://www.usairways.com/awa/content...tionsform.aspx

I had no problem with my flights but using my vouchers was a nightmare. Whatever you do, don't take the voucher offer!

oh i have, im to afraid to fly with them after the last experience. i dont think ill use them

On this day and age, can anyone really LOVE an airline? I've had good and bad experiences with almost every carrier out there.

I have learned that there are airports to avoid, not necessarily airlines. Miami is very high on my list of places not to go through.

I have been loyal to US Air for quite a few years. Much of the time, I went out of my way to take them, even if it meant a connection rather then non stop. When they changed the rules for Chairman's Preferred after the merge with America West, I stuck by them even then, despite the fact that I knew I would never have 120 segments. For the last few years, I even forgave them for using smaller planes with no first class seats and longer flying time. Just last month, though, my back was broken when they decided to only give credit for the amount of miles flown, rather than the usual 500 mile minimum. This decision has effectively removed any reason that I may have to fly them. For the future, my decisions as to which airline to choose will be based upon convenience, rather than my loyalty to a frequent flyer program.

marigross: <i>On this day and age, can anyone really LOVE an airline? I've had good and bad experiences with almost every carrier out there.</i>

I love Southwest Airlines. I think they have great service, fly where I need to go, and don't have change fees! I think their website is terrific - very easy to navigate and fast. If you like low fares, you should like Southwest too, even if you don't fly them yourself, because they usually force the competition to lower their fares in any market they enter.

I know a number of people who love Jet Blue (yes, even after the Valentine's Day fiasco of 2007).

I've flown USAir and don't really remember much about it, so it must have been okay. I typically fly in coach.

Now, United is an airline I shall never forget, cheapskate that I may be I will never book with them unless the flight is practically free.

In the past year I have flown with Northwest, Southwest, Midwest, United, USAir, American. I can't say that one is any better than the other. You can basically close your eyes and not tell what airline you are dealing with (except for the cookies on Midwest and the boarding on SOuthwest). My flights are mostly for business and the work TA picks the airline.
I have flown southwest when I choose because Louisville to Chicago and Baltimore, you just can't beat the price and convenience. Choose US air for fun trip (honeymoon) in June based on price and flight times.
I really have not found one airline to be totally good or totally awful.

I have flown quite a bit in the last several years and my husband flies frequently for business. For domestic flights we both LOVE Midwest. Very comfortable seating on the 2x2 leather seats. Great customer service with a home town feel from the air staff.

Hubby's least fav is Southwest because of the &quot;cattle call&quot; seating policy. It really doesn't bother me as long as I am not in the last boarding group with a middle seat and no room for my bag. They don't fly my airport now but I wish they did for the competition.

My least favorite BY FAR is air tran. I have flown them 3 times and each time there were significant problems. It started with weather but their poor customer service takes a bad situation and makes it worse, particularly in Atlanta - the hell of the aviation world. They have no system in place to handle the chaos after an Atlanta weather blip and so far every staff member I have dealt with has been less than competent and friendly. Even the letter that they sent to me to &quot;apologize&quot; for a significant delay was addressed to another passenger in another state.

I am generally a thrifty traveler but I will pay hundreds more to avoid air tran.

I left Delta and Continental off my list-close your eyes they are all alike.

I hate US Air, but they are one of the airlines at my neighborhood airport (Long Beach, or LGB) so I often choose them just for convenience. I certainly do NOT like their service, and I hate PHL with the white-hot passion of a million bitter little suns. The planes are safe, but their maintenance of the interiors is awful. One time they tried to bump me on an LGB-PHX flight because my seat was-- get ready-- BROKEN. I had to get on that plane (my mom was ill, my sister was going through cancer treatment, it was NOT a happy trip), and it took a lot of complaining to get on.

All of the airlines have major problems, seemingly, and staff are generally really unhappy (I have lots of friends who fly with the airlines, so I hear stories). It shows, believe me!

I avoid US Air whenever possible.

I do love one airline - Lufthansa.

Don't mind Austrian Air either...

The Federales collect consumer complaints about late flights, lost/mishandled luggage etc and compile regular reports ranking the airlines. You will learn a lot more about an airline from these reports than from random anecdotes from people on the internet.

http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr08.htm for a link to the latest reports.

US Air doesn't rank very high in most categories, unfortunately. They did a poor job handling the merger with AmWest.

Bill

Yes everyone has their horror stories for almost every airline, but USAIR is a bit worse for one main reason. They have carried preferred travel to such an extreme that it is not worth traveling on their airline as a &quot;lay&quot; customer. 3) The still don't know how to handle luggage. I have pictures of their Boston baggage claim system being blocked by hundreds of lost bags.

Here is my recent experience. 1) I get a crappy seat because I am not a preferred traveler. 2) In Boston they crowd &quot;lay&quot; travelers into a narrow security checkpoint ill-equipped to handle the traffic and reserve the larger checkpoint for preferred and first class travelers only.

For the same reason, I avoid United like the plague. I have 200,000 lifetime miles on United and I still wont fly them unless I am going to Chicago. Fortunately, JetBlue is beginning to offer service between Boston and Chicago.

I fly almost every week and I chose JetBlue when I can. I have my share of horror stories with JetBlue, but at least I get a comfortable seat with Direct-tv.

USAIR is the worst piece of crap airlines I have flown and I pity the poor preferred fliers who have endured such misery to get their elite status.

1: US Airways is the WORST airline in the U.S.

2: I fly out of PIT so I have reason to despise them! :-@

Again, I've flown US Air about 120 times in the past 10 years, and, knock on wood, US Air has never lost my checked luggage and I've never had a bad experience.

(My home airort is LGA.)

Stopped flying them because of their extreme preference for elite pax. Now that there are codeshares with United and the two both rope off large sections of coach to reserve for premium travelers, there's almost no point in even checking them when I want to fly.

Wonder when the airlines will figure out that just courting business and elite pax will eventually lose them the marginal customers who might just make up their margin. Probably never because they keep cutting flights and raising fares so the only people who CAN fly are the subsidized (by their business) and the wealthy.

Was nice while it lasted, but a tourist deterred from flying is tourist dollars that won't land at a destination.

My faves are Southwest and Jetblue. My family and I haven't flow US Air much lately (DD usually flies AA from San Jose to Austin). When we did I don't recall negative experiences, maybe more delays now that I read this.

I'm using them again Seattle to Puerto Vallarta next week (thru Phoenix). They had the best fare, times, and routings beating the other carriers by quite a bit.