TR: PERFECT Example Of Why You Pay As Little As Possible To Fly US

vantheman63

Senior
Aug 30, 2007
447
3
PVD
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This trip is/was the poster child of why it is 110% foolish to spend premium dollars on a US Airways seat. The wife was on this trip...and in disbelief how different and poor the service can be...and my nieces were on it up to CLT....and they commented on it.

Here we go...

US Airways Itinerary Details (2 tickets)
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Sat., Feb. 02, 2008:
US Flight 196 B733 departing ABQ at 12:19 PM arriving PHX at 1:40 PM Seats 1D,F
US Flight 1546 A321 departing PHX at 2:35 PM arriving CLT at 8:23 PM Seats 1D,F
US Flight 1294 B734 departing CLT at 9:59 PM arriving PVD at 11:54 PM Seats 1A,C
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Total Trip Cost: $401.40 - 2 Tickets, $200.70 per ticket
Actual Airfare: $165.68 per ticket
Actual Miles Traveled: 2,785 miles
RASMs: $0.059 per mile
Taxes & Fees Paid: $35.12, 17.5% of the cost of the ticket

Puchased this on USAirways.com. All flights upgraded at the 7 day window. Had WAY less stuff coming home then when I flew to ABQ. (Flew PVD-ABQ on CO Jan 26, 2007) Check in was nice, pleasant G/A. No "priority tag" put on the checked luggage. But I did check wine and the G/A was extremely helpful in getting me set to leave. She checked in the nieces as well, on a different itinerary.

US Flight 196 B733 (HP Metal) - This flight was originally open, wide open. Then they have an OMA-PHX diversion of a YV CRJ200, so those pax got on our flight. The last pax boarded was a severely handicapped woman (we later learned had MS) and her husband and baby. As they were strategizing how to get her to 13D, I stood up and said, "I would be happy to give up my seat." The F/A and left seat both asked if I was sure and both the wife and I said "sure." So, we got up and took their seats (13D,E) and they took ours. The flight crew was extremely gracious and asked if they could do something for us....I finally explained to the crew, "it's our duty to help others who need it." I explained I was CP and didn't pay for the seat anyway....and then jokingly said, "if I were flying to ATH or FCO, I might not have given my seat up." ;)

Pushed about 15 minutes late....landed late as well. No service due to the turbulence, and thats okay...it's a quick trip.

US Flight 1546 A321 - The bus making this trip up was late coming in so we were late boarding and leaving. We only landed 11 minutes late.

With boarding, F boarded with "special needs and those that needed some time." That's a nice change. My nieces were with and they harrassed them a little for boarding with, and I needed to come back through the door to explain they were with me...and that was that.

On board, ZERO "pre-departure" service. The guy sitting across from me in 1C said, "can you please hang my coat?" F/A said, "no, we don't have closets any more." (Huh ?!?!?!? LOL) So, we all fought the traffic and hung our own coats. I had a very big ski jacket on...so the people in 4D,F probably couldn't recline too much. (High cost of CHEAP?!?)

We finally pushed and then once to the active runway, we started to accelerate and once we started to rotate we heard the loudest of crashes....all of the plates crashed on the deck...and the broken plates were down to row 2. As we rotated, the F/A tried to control the crashing. The wife said, "I'll bet the food and/or plate are all over the floor." No idea as we were in 1D,F.

Up in the air, we got one of the new meals...offered pasta with cream sauce and salad or a turkey sandwich and salad. We took the turkey and white wine. The turkey club was a half sandwich....and the salad....not sure what it was. Not a huge improvement...but at least it was different....and that's worth something.

Had an oatmeal-raisin cookie for desert. Watched the movie, "Bees," or something along that line.

Landed a couple minutes late...and we were in CLT....so we decided to abandon our CLT-PVD flight and head to the wife's house to go watch the game with her parents.

Nieces were on this IT and made it:

US Airways Itinerary Details (2 tickets)
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Sat., Feb. 02, 2008:
US Flight 196 B733 departing ABQ at 12:19 PM arriving PHX at 1:40 PM Seats 15E,F
US Flight 1546 A321 departing PHX at 2:35 PM arriving CLT at 8:23 PM Seats 21E,F
US Flight 1002 (Aircraft type unkown) departing CLT at 10:30 PM arriving JAX at 11:48 PM Seats15E,F
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Total Trip Cost: $264.02 - 2 Tickets, $132.01 each
Actual Airfare: $109.01 per ticket
Actual Miles Traveled: 2,430 miles
RASMs: $0.045 per mile
Taxes & Fees Paid: $23.00, 17.4% of the cost of the ticket

AND THAT'S ALL THIS FLIGHT AND SERVICE WAS WORTH...$0.059 AND $0.045 PER MILE....HOW IS THAT A SUSTAINABLE PLAN FOR THIS AIRLINE???

Right now, I won't pay more than ROCK BOTTOM to fly US....that keeps me from being disappointed.

To make it clear to the likes of PHLfa88 and other US apologists.....this flight was upgraded....I did not pay for F....AND I WOULD NOT PAY FOR F ON US.....it was free....that was what it was worth...FREE.

I did pay full F to fly CO from PVD to ABQ a week earlier.....and it was worth it.

Until the kids in the sand box can acknowledge, publicly, they have a sub-par product, I'll continue paying $0.05 to $0.07 per mile to fly US....
 
<SNIP> AND THAT'S ALL THIS FLIGHT AND SERVICE WAS WORTH...$0.059 AND $0.045 PER MILE....HOW IS THAT A SUSTAINABLE PLAN FOR THIS AIRLINE???
Alternative sources of revenue!

Quoting US Airways.com:
Advertise with US...on a tray table. US Airways is the first domestic airline to offer tray table advertising, a unique opportunity to reach our customer base.

US Airways provides many other onboard advertising channels including inflight entertainment.