[IP] US Air - the excitement continues...

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Mike O'Dell" <mo@ccr.org>
Date: August 27, 2006 1:40:00 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: US Air - the excitement continues...

Hooo boy! When did Franz Kafka take over an airline?

so after the departing time of the original flight,
i called back to reservations like i was instructed
to do.  to my considerable surprise, i was told in no
uncertain terms that the agent could not
do anything and that i'd have to drive to
the airport to get anything done. (again, my
previous experience made me doubt this as well.)

"The system won't allow me to do anything to it."

"Then find me a supervisor who is allowed to do it."

The next thing I'm told is that the supervisor
"fixed the ticket" by completely canceling all
the flights including the returns!!

I somehow managed to keep the expletives to myself.

I was further told that to  rebook all of them,
now that they were completely cancelled,
would be $200 per ticket (for 3 tickets already
in first class). When I asked why, i was told they
were non-refundable, at which point i said,
"But but but but..."
Doesn't matter - Cyber-Franz has declared them
non-refundable and the computer is never Rong.
When she the asked what credit card i wanted to
use for the fees I told her "none". Boy, did
that put the sabot in the gears!

After a long discussion about the rules for
possible treatment of "non-refundable tickets"
i opted for  "retaining the value of
the tickets" with the claim that i'll be able
to re-use the "retained value" when we get take the trip
derailed by impending Hurricane Ernesto.

and at that point, it will only cost me $100 per ticket
incremental to use the "retained value".

After having worked around FonKompanies for 15 years,
I would have never believed I'd find a company more
steadfastly dedicated to torturing its customers,
but US Air has set a new standard for "User Fiendliness."

	-mo


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