the policy of use it or lose began with Ben Baldanza ex US vp marketing who compared airline tickets with opera/concert tickets if you douse them you lose them.. i really did not agree at first but understood where he was coming from. when you buy something and it says NONREFUNDABLE be any different for the airline industry. this business has always been looked at some entitlement to the consumer like heh where is my hotel room where is my car rental where is my MIND. other transportation services you never hear in the news about some person who missed their business meeting because the bus to Boston had a mechanical problem. if anything the consumer lost big time back in 2000 when they wanted flyers rights the airlines got together and said okay this is what you will get and this is what you wont. Wn said we will not participate all we offer is a cheap price and nothing else to complain about they also dont charge change fees cancellations fees etc .. thats is why since DOT has kept records WN always ranks nbr one in consumer complaints... Heh they offer a good price and thats it... no seating.. no this no that... so there is nothing to complain about you knew it when you booked it. now we are not alone many other airlines have the same policy.. if you dont plan on traveling you need to cancel the booking prior to the flight leaving and you can apply the unused citash towards a new trip plus any penalty. understand when you buy the ticket online or otherwise you agree to all the policies of the fare.
Maybe US does care about customer loyalty
- Thread starter PHX PHLyer
- Start date
US1YFARE
Veteran
- Mar 31, 2004
- 3,932
- 54
First, a concert is a totally different animal. You don't have people waiting to go in standby. You can't compare the two.
Next, I have been an a$$, a real big one, and apologized for it (I'm still embarrassed about the comment I made)--but the gate agent screwed up also and she apologized, too. After that, she always came over to say hello, or I would do the same, when I was at that airport. The big thing with her was that she never once fell back on, do you know how crappy my job is and the jerks I put up with all day...unfortunately when you are in customer service you can't project from one customer to the next--just because customer #1 is lying, doesn't make customer #2 a liar which is what I've seen a lot.
And, US does NOTHING because someone is nice. Trust me. I bet there is more to this story than some nice guy admitting he screwed up begging for forgiveness. When you are nice to this management team, they don't respond--the only thing they respond to is when someone reports them to the DOT--and lo and behold, they couldn't be sweeter than Four Points Pecan Pie unlike when you first try to call them to resolve the issue.
Next, I have been an a$$, a real big one, and apologized for it (I'm still embarrassed about the comment I made)--but the gate agent screwed up also and she apologized, too. After that, she always came over to say hello, or I would do the same, when I was at that airport. The big thing with her was that she never once fell back on, do you know how crappy my job is and the jerks I put up with all day...unfortunately when you are in customer service you can't project from one customer to the next--just because customer #1 is lying, doesn't make customer #2 a liar which is what I've seen a lot.
And, US does NOTHING because someone is nice. Trust me. I bet there is more to this story than some nice guy admitting he screwed up begging for forgiveness. When you are nice to this management team, they don't respond--the only thing they respond to is when someone reports them to the DOT--and lo and behold, they couldn't be sweeter than Four Points Pecan Pie unlike when you first try to call them to resolve the issue.
sorry fogot to mention prior to merger US would give residual value to exchanged tickets which would include the 100 fee after the merger with the Playstation computer system the new company inherited on Mar 4th we do not give any refund of tickets even if the new ticket is less than the original. When US East had Sabre and the TIPS system it was so much different and because we went to Playstation Computer Systems Inc. prior to that when you reissued a ticket the system stops you when there was a fee to be charged and you could override it with a call to Ticketing Services and thank god they are still in Winston Salem and have a good reason . the new company decided on Playstation for its Rez system and not utilizing TIPS and man the money this company is losing.. ticket counters are applying refunds for irregular ops situations and before in Sabre automatic refund this system we tell folks i will put it in but dont expect much and they dont even give us a number the passenger can call about the refund because the East folks were given 2 day of training and told okay you have seen enough now go back and you are on your own.. we in the ATO.s have been suffering ever since
You do have people waiting and willing to buy scalped tickets to a sold out show, and yes sold out shows do exist. Could concert promoters re-sell tickets to a sold out show? I think so, I just don't think they've figure out how to manage such a thing yet. In this case the reservation wasn't cancelled so the seat wasn't re-sold, possibly given to a non-rev. I'm not talking about behaving like an a$$ when the employee has made a mistake(not that it's right then either), I'm talking about starting out behaving that way when you want something. You know the saying" you catch more flies with honey than vinegar", totally applies in a situation like the kid who didn't use his ticket. I personally don't project from one passenger to another, I can't speak for all fellow employees, and yes it is sad that in today's society(not just the airlines) we assume people are lying. I've seen people forge death certificates(that's just bad karma), falsify police reports(it's going to catch up to them someday), cancel other peoples reservations because of a personal grudge, and I've only worked at US for a year. So, do passenger's lie? YES!! Does this cause the employees to be skeptical? YES!! And I do personally go out of my way for the nice passengers, I won't for the rude ones. I've gone so fare as to dig through archived records and searched through the white pages looking for ways to contact passenger's if I didn't exhaust all options for them before we wrapped up our conversation. I have even taken some by complete surprise, but isn't that what outstanding customer service is?
I thought his letter was great. It was actually entertaining. My favorite part is the fact he is a private pilot. Maybe he will get his comm/instru/me and get hired by USAir! I am sure he will be in public relations, maybe even negotiating the next contract!
US1YFARE
Veteran
- Mar 31, 2004
- 3,932
- 54
After flying AA and now CO, it is more than clear that US does not care about its customers. I would say inflight service is about the same at AA and CO.I think CO has more friendly TA's and GA's and res people Some things better on one or the other. Movie on CO from CLE to MCO...on US I got Cranium trivia. I won't even go into the meal that CO serves on a 2+ hour flight. It is just ridiculous that anyone in their right mind flies US.
Dont call me Shirley
Veteran
Good points, especially on the invol refunds issue. All the ATO can do now is "request refund" instead of processing on the spot. No idea how long it takes (or even if if it's done at all). What's really cute is that partial refunds can't be requested until the rest of the ticket has been used. (Ex: Outbound flight is cxld and the customer decides to drive.. .Still wants use return ticket. In Sabre, no problem, figure out taxes and refund just the outward leg. And the customer is on his/her.
In "QIK" the refund for the outbound can only be "requested" by the ATO after the rest of the ticket has been used)
JS
Veteran
1. Are there any concert tickets that cost as much as $664? (regular price, not scalped) I've never heard of such a thing.
2. Concert tickets can be sold to another person (scalped, not allowed by airlines).
3. Concerts don't overbook.
There is no reason to have a use-it-or-lose-it policy (or cancel-and-re-book-and-pay-$100-before-departure, basically the same thing) for an airline ticket, unless it's dirt cheap, like $200 for an overseas flight, or $39 for a short domestic flight. $664 overseas is not bad but not deserving of such draconian ticket rules especially with the crummy operations and attitude that come with it.
2. Concert tickets can be sold to another person (scalped, not allowed by airlines).
3. Concerts don't overbook.
There is no reason to have a use-it-or-lose-it policy (or cancel-and-re-book-and-pay-$100-before-departure, basically the same thing) for an airline ticket, unless it's dirt cheap, like $200 for an overseas flight, or $39 for a short domestic flight. $664 overseas is not bad but not deserving of such draconian ticket rules especially with the crummy operations and attitude that come with it.
You're right, I've never seen a concert ticket for $664. Point to you
All airlines, except WN, charge an REI fee. So, I don't kow why US is being blasted for this. Does this mean it's right? No, but that's the way it is and its out there for everybody to read. And let's not forget what started all of this, the REI fee was waived and he had the whole value of his ticket to use. Concert tickets can be scalped because there is no name on them. Don't forget to get through security your name on your identification better match the name on the boarding pass.
Concerts don't overbook, the venue just adds another day when the first one sells out regardless if the seats are full on event night or not. Airlines can't just add another flight at the drop of a hat.
This all started from something positive and got blown out of proportion. The fee was waived and he can use his ticket, and then the negative posts started that US doesn't do this for FF's, and there must be a catch US doesn't do things just to be nice and the list goes on and on(you can read the previous posts)... How about we just accept this for what it is the kid wrote a nice letter and got what he was requesting end of story.
Funny. I have two more days before my trip, so let me at it!!
We do a great job responding to customers, we just give them the same story and riderick, and justify a false claim, and send a auto response with a voucher. Keep in mind the voucher doesn't cover the original claim usualy. In this case, it is amazing they gave the kid more. I wish the DOT would fine the company for a certain amout of complaints, that would put the fire right up Dougie's hose, and things would be different. The FAA already gave HP a big wake up call years ago with mx issues, what is it going to take next??? :huh: I guees they just don't care until it finally hurts the bottom line. People first, money second Sandcastle!!!! <_<
JS
Veteran
No one is blasting US for charging a change fee. We just think it's odd that US has a tightened-screws policy on reissues, and when this customer forgets to change it before departure, they cut him a break, but when a FF has a problem with an actual flight, US goes "nope, ATC, not our fault" or "nope, weather, not our fault". I do think it was a dumb idea to waive the $100 change fee. I'm sure the customer would not mind paying that since he would have had to pay it anyway had he changed the ticket before departure. So they threw away $100 but what else is new with these morons.
US can give away free reissues all they want; I really don't care. But if they want me or any other FF to fly them, they need to change their policy. I'm not going to write a sob story letter to try to salvage a few hundred dollar ticket; I'll just fly someone else who overbooks just as much but doesn't rip up my ticket the moment the door closes on a flight that I didn't take.
I've missed a few flights on Delta and they were happy to take my $50 change fee and give me a seat on a future flight. What's better, $10,000 in ticket revenue and 5 potentially lost seats or $664 in ticket revenue and no potentially lost seats? Is each potentially lost seat worth $1,867? No way.
P.S. my information may be old, but unless things have changed, JetBlue has a use-it-or-lose-it policy but they don't overbook (just like a concert!). US is doing it the wrong way, overbooking to make more money and invalidating tickets when the plane pushes back without you on it, to make yet more money. That doesn't work. I mean, in theory, it does (Tempe's spreadsheet says so) but it tends to piss people off.
I'm not sure if I'm understanding correctly or not, but I know you will correct me if I'm wrong. Refunds are issued if a flight is cancelled due to ATC or WX. It is my understanding that old policy was not to refund for those situations, but refunds are given for them now. Iguess this is just another example of employees not being trained properly.
Also, who is ripping up your tickets? Why? If the plane pushed back w/out you due to an oversold situation you are due a refund. Your paper tickets should only be invalidated if they are sending it in for a valid and verified refund. However I recommend to EVERYONE to get something in writing if it is an involuntary situation, many times in the chaos of things gate agents forget to document records and update seating assignments and sometimes it is very difficult to figure out what the heck happened on a flight a week before.
JS
Veteran
"rip up" in the virtual sense, as most tickets are electronic these days. US Airways policy is that if you no-show, your ticket has no value. It is the equivalent of ripping up no-show tickets.
Now this if funny, and starts a whole new topic. Agents have the ability to print e-tkts to paper and they do(alot), and some are ripped up and thrown away or used under a wobbly table leg. Not sure what happens to them but they never make it to PHX. The only time ticket values are "lost" is if a reservation isn't cancelled. But in this case this passenger's tkt vlu was not lost, and his fee waived. I'm not saying to write a sob story letter, but honestly if you called and asked without screaming or calling anybody stupid I'd do this for you. I do it for alot of people.
So, if I'm understanding correctly, the policy you think needs to be changed is the no show policy? Not the re-issue fee? You think it was dumb of the re-issue fee to be waived( I believe you called them morons for waiving the fee)? Because the majority of the other posts couldn't believe that something this nice was done with out a catch. I believe you posted this yesterday: "There is no reason to have a use-it-or-lose-it policy (or cancel-and-re-book-and-pay-$100-before-departure, basically the same thing) for an airline ticket, unless it's dirt cheap, like $200 for an overseas flight, or $39 for a short domestic flight. $664 overseas is not bad but not deserving of such draconian ticket rules especially with the crummy operations and attitude that come with it." So which is it should the fee be waived when someone asks for it or shouldn't it? And US1YFARE posted : “And, US does NOTHING because someone is nice. Trust me. I bet there is more to this story than some nice guy admitting he screwed up begging for forgiveness.†PB posted: “I am in total agreement with Art, All I will say is I have been contacted often as well. Sadly I now pass them along to Art or simply suggest they file a complaint with the DOT. Most if not all "issues" fall on deaf ears. I am however glad to see that at least ONE customer was well served. That is great!â€
I'm beginning to think this is just a situation where everybody isn't going to be happy.
Also, as I understand it each time a passenger no shows(meaning doesn't cancel reservation)this only encourages all airlines to continue to overbook flights in anticipation of future no show passengers.
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
- 5,865
This seems to be a pretty customer-friendly policy.....just not US'......
"If a Customer chooses not to travel on the flight and date for which a ticket or Ticketless Travel authorization is issued, the fare paid may be applied toward the purchase of future travel so long as travel will be completed within the eligibility period printed on the ticket or Ticketless Travel authorization. The new ticket, however, may, without penalty or fee, be more expensive or subject to different terms, conditions, or restrictions. No cash refund or credit card adjustments will be made for nonrefundable tickets."
Jim
"If a Customer chooses not to travel on the flight and date for which a ticket or Ticketless Travel authorization is issued, the fare paid may be applied toward the purchase of future travel so long as travel will be completed within the eligibility period printed on the ticket or Ticketless Travel authorization. The new ticket, however, may, without penalty or fee, be more expensive or subject to different terms, conditions, or restrictions. No cash refund or credit card adjustments will be made for nonrefundable tickets."
Jim
