Two facts. Number one: The latest Airline Quality Rating (PDF download) finds that US Airways ranks dead last, when it comes to customer service. No surprise, considering the tumultuous past year in which it was assimilated into America West as it withered away on life support.
Number two: US Airways Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker’s compensation package totaled $5.68 million last year (in fairness, he did turn down a $770,000 bonus). That’s more than four times the $1.25 million total he earned in 2004, according to reports.
If you’re thinking that something is wrong with this picture, you’re probably not alone. Something is very wrong with it.
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I moved to Arizona 2 years ago from New York. I still have an apartment in New York and do a lot of traveling. I had very positive experience with America West and have elite status with them. I flew HP this week for the first time in several months. I was booked to fly PHX to SAN. I was surprised to note that there were two flights for this route leaving at exactly the same time. We were upgraded to first class and I checked in 24 hours in advance via web.
We arrived at the airport 2+ hours ahead of time. We checked our bags at the counter and went upstairs for breakfast. About 40 minutes before the flight we arrived at the gate. There were no announcements but the gate agent seemed unusually busy with customers. Finally, I asked if there was a problem and was told that my flight had been cancelled (surprise) due to “mechanical problems” and passengers were being rebooked on the other flight.
Of course, by the time I got to the front of the line, the alternate flight was full and they booked me on a flight 3 hours later. Unfortunately, we had an appointment in Orange County, 2 hours away by car that we would miss. Nobody seemed to care.
Finally, they agreed to fly us to Orange County. But they said our bags would be on the flight to SAN and we would have to arrange to get them. This was inconvenient as we were planning to change clothes for our appointment, but nothing could be done.
In the meantime, they wouldn’t even give us a pass to the lounge to make up for our inconvenience (we wouldn’t even have to ask at the “old” America West).
So, after a thoroughly aggravating day, we went to our appointment and dinner in Orange County. I had to rent a car there and lose my priceline rental in San Diego (another 100 bucks). We were on our way back to San Diego when “Keith” called from Baggage Services at ORANGE COUNTY to ask us what he should do with our bags that had been shipped up to him. So we had to turn around and go BACK 50 miles to retrieve our bags. We finally got to our hotel in San Diego at midnight.
Do you suppose the culture of US Air is showing?
Robb Gordon
Robb – why would you book an appointment the same day amd not carry a change of clothes wıth you. İt seems you are an unprepared traveler and not the airlıne.
US AIRWAYS and America West have the most disgusting and old planes I have ever traveled on. I am Elite Silver on Continental for years and now I understand what they mean when they advertise the “youngest fleet” in the business.
Our recent flight to Las Vegas from Fort Lauderdale put us on a plane with dirty seats, seats whose backs were stuck in recline positions and overall dirt on the plane.
On the return flight from Vegas to FTL the plane was from the 70’s and still had ASHTRAYS in the armrests and were marked as such! There were stains on the seats, and on the carpet and the entire plane was hot and smelled for the five hour trip.
We will NEVER fly those airlines again….would rather pay more and have a short layover than be imprisoned in those planes.
lets understand the reality of the airline industry.the ceo’s and there crownies are raping the very best resource they have. the front line employees
I just wanted to let you know about a bad experience I had this past friday on this airline. I was scheduled to fly from Houston to San Jose via Phoenix on Friday 6/23/06
First, the plane from Houston to Phoenix was late arriving in Houston, and left for Phoenix approximately 1 hour late. I knew that I had a short connection time, and asked the ticket agents in Houston if there was a different plane, since I knew I probably would miss the connection. They reassured me that I would make the connection, and that the SJ bound plane would wait, as there were 5 others doing this same trip.
We arrived in Houston approximately 45 minutes late, and ran to the gate for the SJ plane to be told that the plane did not wait, and had left on time. If the plane would have waited even 2 minutes, we would have all made it.
We were then booked by customer service in Phoenix onto a plane bound for Oakland, and were told that arrangements would be made to shuttle us from Oakland to San Jose airport when we arrived.
This plane to Oakland was leaving very soon, so the six of us ran to the gate, boarded, found the overheads full and had to have our bags checked, and then waited on the plane for another hour while “manifests/documents?” were changed, causing that plane to leave an hour late as well.
We arrived in Oakland, and were then surprised to find that no one from Phoenix had called to arrange a shuttle. We had to convince the agents what happened, and were finally given a shuttle to use.
I am disapointed in the lack of communication between their staff – either in calling the SJ plane to wait a couple minutes, or arranging the shuttle, etc. I am equally disapointed that I had booked a window seat on an exit row for the flight to SJ, and ended up with a middle seat in front of the exit row (where the seat backs didn’t recline) to go to Oakland.
us airways/america west just plain suck for customer service…we were checking in for our 3:50 pm flight to phila from st thomas. i approached the counter at 2pm butting up in front of about 300 other people in line to find out what flight was being handled. the ticket agent wouldn’t answer and told me to get back in line where i was. so i returned to my place in line and proceeded to wait and wait and wait. by the time we reached the counter at 3:10 the had closed ticketing for my flight. I naturally protested and was told that an announcement was made for final boarding. the only announcements we heard were very muffled and incoherent. i was told to go to the back of the line to reschedule my flight for the next day. i protested at what an inconvenience this was and what were we supposed to do, where were we supposed to sleep, eat etc…well us airways offered nothing for their inept customer service. the layover of one day for 3 of us cost a mere $1074.00 taxi, hotel, meals, lost salaries I heard today the delta and us airways are merging…..buyer beware…..fly continental or american sure enough us airways has lost another 3 customers
I recommend that you do whatever you can to avoid US Airways.
We just completed (if that is the word for it) and round trip from Boston to St. Lucia on US Air.
On both the outbound and the inbound segment, US Air left us stranded, without a connection.
This was not merely an overbooking problem, but something apparently much more systemic.
On the outbound flight the rebooked us due to a storm through San Juan changing to US Air. However despite assuring us from their central reservation and at the Boston ticket counter that our trip was confirmed, they never completed the booking, and we were stranded in San Juan.
Amazingly coming back, they totally screwed up again and for some reason cancelled our reservation on the the second leg (this time a US air carrier) without rebooking us or giving us any notice, leaving us stuck in Philadelphia too.
In addition to all of this, they charged us for five round trips for three people (I booked direct thru their reservation number–when the booking was lost thru their computer system).
And I could go on about how I literally spent a total of one day of 8 hours waiting in lines and talking with their agents in Boston and San Juan and all the other hour long and half hour long and two hour long waits on the phone and more…but I think you get the point…this airline is a mess.
However one last tid bit…the final flight we came home on (a day late) the plane was delayed for a half-hour so their mechanics could come tape the plane together with duct tape to make it flyable!!!
No I am serious–one of baggage compartments they couldn’t fix so they put duct tape on it.
I Love US Airways. They have great service. The staff are friendly, they upgraded me to first class, and I even got a glass of wine. They were well informed. The plane was recently redone.
The flight attendants were very nice. They helped me store my luggage. I am a short person so it was really hard to get the bags up on the overhead bin.
The flights took off time from PHX-JFK and the flight was 35 minutes early!!!
I was very impressed and would recommend US Airways to anyone.