Troubled airline refunds nonrefundable ticket to unemployed passenger
Here’s something you don’t see every day. A deeply troubled airline with a reputation for rigidly enforcing its nonrefundability rules has issued a full refund to a recently-unemployed passenger. Has the carrier found its heart?
By most accounts, US Airways is in serious trouble. It doesn’t have a reputation for being generous, even with its best customers.
Jennifer Bush’s husband lost his job three weeks ago. The couple had booked a vacation to Ireland through Expedia, but when he got his pink slip, they decided to postpone their trip.
I contacted Expedia and they told me that they could only give me a credit to use within a year. I told them that we were involved in a lengthy legal battle to have my husband reinstated and that it would take up to a years time to resolve it. So needless to say we would not be able to travel within a year. They told me there was nothing they could do.
The Bushes had taken out a travel insurance policy, but it didn’t do them any good because the couple was still physically able to travel.
So last week, Bush tried one last thing. She found a list of customer service executives from my site and began emailing them.
The first note, to the airline’s customer relations director, “got me nowhere,” she reports.
So I decided to go right to the chief operating officer of US Airways, Robert Isom. I emailed him, explaining the entire situation and about a week later I got a phone call from a women named Sharon Baker in the executive offices at US Airways.
She told me that they all felt for my situation and decided to refund the amount of the airfare.
Kudos to US Airways for giving a passenger in need a deserved break and refunding $2,200. It may have lost a little revenue in the short term, but I think it’s earned a customer for life.
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7 Responses to “Troubled airline refunds nonrefundable ticket to unemployed passenger”
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Go USAIRWAYS!
For the past few years, I’ve traveled an entire ONCE per year on business. I’ve stayed with US Airways simply because their schedules and fares seem to have worked out for me.
I usually cringe every time I have to fly, simply because I know airline reputations. I’ve been lucky to have no incidents in the few times I have flown, although I’ve heard the horror stories.
I can be happy next week when I board my plane for DC, that the company I fly with actually has a heart!
(FWIW, my wife was laid off a few years ago, and we had to cancel a dream trip ourselves about six weeks prior, so I can sympathize with the person writing)
What does it say about the policies of a company when you need to get to an exec to get something suefull done? I mean, why not just follow Jetblue, and dump the entire help desk and wait unitll some blogger puts your address online?
I don’t want to sound sauer, but one example of decency, does not make a company any better.
PR to make the executives feel good and so blogs can pick up the story and help repair US Airways dismal record of customer service.
Big deal ONE good deed versus THOUSANDS of consumer complaints with the DOT. Months for complaints unanswered.
You buy into this and I’ve got a nice patch of swamp land in FL I’ll give you a deal on.
One good deed doesn’t make US Airways a better company anymore than me standing in a garage makes me a car.
The fact that the airlines are acting in unison (i.e., most are adding charges and cutting capacity) makes individual airline brands seem even less important. Of course, people have been thinking airline brands less and less over the years anyway and more about what schedule works best for them. This might just be the final straw. Just watch what happens when (not if!) the airlines start playing around with frequent flyer benefits –probably the last brand loyalty component left!
Uhm, Jasper, that wasn’t JetBlue. That was Skybus and Spirit. Unless you’re talking about some other blogger… because I’ve never, in all the years I’ve been loyal to JetBlue, ever had a problem with their customer service.
I’m really shocked US Air did this, because they lost my business a long time ago… but, I have to agree with your kudos. At least someone up the chain has either a sliver of a heart left, or understands the plus side of some customer service.
@ Jess K: I stand corrected.
It’s correct that this one example doesn’t make up for many customer service complaints. But be fair and give credit when it is due. US Airways could have just blown this guy off and added to the list of complaints - after all they certainly are not obligated to refund his money regardless of the reason. One reason people never change their behavior is that theie positive actions are ignored. Why would an airline be expected to act any other way? Kudos to US Airways for this one encouraging sign - now keep up the good work and maybe even Robert Johnson will fly you again!