And Still They Suck

Jill Aldape recently traveled to Cancun, mostly aboard America West, with her family, for a wedding.

"We got to the airport in plenty of time, we're checking our bags and our first hint that something was wrong was when the ticket agent said this flight is overbooked," said Juliana Aldape.

Their flight was overbooked, and despite confirmed reservations, the Aldapes were involuntarily bumped from the first leg of their flight.

America West gave the Aldape family some travel vouchers and suggested they drive 300 miles to Salt Lake City to catch a different connecting flight to Denver.

"That presented a problem of how do we get our car back from Salt Lake. We don't want to drive back on the tail end of the trip, so the next option was, well, you could rent a car. And we were like, Okay, we can do that, now you're paying for that right? Oh no, they weren't going to pay for a rental car. And in the end they said they could pay for a taxi van to take us from Boise to Salt Lake," said Jill.

The solution was a $700 taxi ride, courtesy of America West. But their problems didn't end there.

Half way between Boise and Salt Lake City, the cab broke down.

"I'm in a cab because this morning America West overbooked and so they put us in a cab. The cab is now broken down," said Jill.

"I just need to know what I'm doing at the cab and how I'm going to get back," said taxi driver.

Juliana says the taxi driver was completely unprepared for an emergency.

"He was stymied. He didn't have a cell phone, he had no idea. He used our cell phones in order for us to get AAA for him to be towed and for another service to take us to Salt Lake," said Juliana.

After sprinting through the airport, the Aldapes narrowly made the flight; they were the last four passengers to board.

"When you can't get on a flight because of weather or some other uncontrollable factor you understand, it might be a bit of an inconvenience, but you understand. What's so frustrating about this is that the airline is causing the problem by overbooking the flight. They are creating the circumstance in which they cannot deliver the product that is sold to the customer. And that is bad business!" said Jill.

The airline did better on the return flight, getting everyone home as scheduled; albeit without luggage. That arrived two days later.

It hasn't even been two weeks since The University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita State University released a report outlining the Customer Dissatisfaction of Airline patrons everywhere.

In that report, it was USAirways that sucked more than any other airline. And by all outward appearances, they don't care. Not about the report, and certainly not about their customers.

America West recently merged with U.S. Airways, forming a new airline, cleverly named "The New USAirways".

The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same...