Another Travel Story

So I travel a lot...I'm a Chairman on US Airways which is their very top level of frequent flyers. I actually am so top that they give me a free club membership every year so I don't have to sit at the gates, but in the luxury of the club with free non-alcoholic beverages, snacks, and quietness.

I also get bumped to first class on just about every flight I'm on (unless I try to get home early and change my flight the day of). The way this works is that for Chairman, 7 days before the flight, if there are first class seats they bump you. For Platinum it's 5 days, Gold it's 3 days, and Silver it's 2 days.

I realized on my ride through the rain from LA to San Diego that I hadn't received the email noting if I had been upgraded for my trip to Tacoma for Christmas. Also, your travel companion is bumped as well.

I got home and went online to check the itinerary. The web said that the flight schedule had changed, call the 800 number listed. I called, it was out of service.

Another nice thing for being a Chairman is they have a special concierge line to call so you don't have to wait on the reservation line for an hour. I called the concierge line and Kathy, my friendly helper, informs me the flight from Las Vegas to Seattle was cancelled in November and why didn't I call to reschedule sooner?

Because no one emailed or called me.

Some should have.

Well no one did.

Well, you can either fly out early that day or you have to wait until Saturday. Of course, there would have been a greater selection in November if someone had contacted me like they should have.

That's her fault, not mine so why am I the one being inconvenienced? Earlier doesn't work for us. My husband works and he can't just leave earlier because he wants to. Also, if I had wanted to leave Saturday, I would have booked for Saturday.

She then proceeds to do the airline apology speech and I then have to interrupt her and remind her that I fly her airline weekly and I can't believe that's how they would treat such a frequent flyer.

Now, I don't like to pull the Chairman card, but I do when I have to.

So the best they can do is change my 7 PM Friday flight to a 6:45 AM Saturday flight (layover in Phoenix, arriving at 2 PM) and she's so sorry, would I like a free round trip ticket?

No! I have 500,000 miles on the airline so a free ticket means nothing to me. She can upgrade us to first class. Again, I have to remind her I'm a Chairman so we'll be upgraded if seats are available. Unless she can magically find me a flight at around the same time, then there's nothing she can do so just rebook it.

She then insists I talk to her manager so that this can be logged as this is a huge error on their part. She puts me on hold for 15 minutes at which time I find a flight that leaves at 7 AM, goes through Las Vegas, and gets us in at 12 PM. WTF!?!

She gets back on to tell me her manager is on and then I ask why she's booking me on a flight through Phoenix when I can go through Vegas and get in earlier. She says the weather is bad in Vegas and she' not sure if it will clear up by Sat. HELLO!!! The weather is just as bad in Phoenix right now! I told her I wanted the Vegas flight so she booked it...

I then ask about my return flight. She says it's the same and reads it back to me. It's not the same, now it's at about the same time and all, but still, they've changed it and not informed me and I tell her as much. She tells me it's not big deal since it's at about the same time. I kindly tell her it is a big deal because it's about her airline's customer service and how they suck at it. She apologizes for the computer error again.

The manager then asks me how he can help and I say he can't. Unless he can find me a 7 PM flight to Seattle for Friday then there's nothing he can do. He apologizes for the computer glitch and I told him those are hollow meaningless words and they don't fix anything. Also, putting an angry customer on hold for 15 minutes only makes them angrier, it doesn't calm them down and diffuse the situation.

Would I like a $100 travel voucher?

No! I have 500,000 on your airline, a $100 travel voucher gets me nowhere.

Well, I can upgrade your return flight now (one week earlier than normal).

Hello, I'm Chairman, we would have been upgraded anyway, but whatever.

Supposedly he's writing it up for Executive Upper Management, whatever that means...

*sigh* Is it too much to ask to be on the flight I paid $600 a ticket for???