(Follow the whole story at http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/tag/trapped-in-georgia/.)
I faxed the letter below to the U.S. Airways customer relations department over 40 minutes ago. So far, no response (no surprise there).
I then tried to call them using the toll-free voice number on the slip of paper they gave me at the airport (to tell them I had sent them an urgent complaint via fax), and I was greeted with a recording informing me that their call volume (complaint volume, more like) was so high that they couldn’t take my call and I should write to them through their Web site instead.
Then I tried calling the long-distance phone number given on the slip of paper as “alternate tel,” and I got a recording informing me that I had dialed the wrong extension (I didn’t dial an extension!). Love it!
Finally, I tried the original toll-free voice number again, and this time I actually got put into a queue, where I’ve been waiting for almost 25 minutes.
February 23, 2009
Customer Relations Department
U.S. Airways
Fax: (480) 693-2305
To whom it may concern:
This letter concerns the reservation with code ______ for my wife, ______ Kamens, and our five children, ______, ______, ______, ______, an ______ (flying as a lap baby).
I have just posted the attached article on my blog at http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/~jik/wordpress/2009/02/23/us-airways-stops-pretending-to-care-about-its-customers/.
You have until 2:00pm (Eastern time) today to contact me about changing my family’s reservations without charging us $750 in change fees.
If I do not hear from you by then, then I will be sending a copy of this article, along with a suitably outraged cover letter, to:
- The Boston Globe
- The Boston Herald
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- The Wall Street Journal
- The Arizona Republic
- Senator Ted Kennedy
- Senator John Kerry
- Rep. Michael Capuano
- President Barack Obama
- Rep. James L. Oberstar, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation
- Rep. Jerry F. Costello, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation
- Senator John D. Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
- Every travel-related Web site I can find
In the end, perhaps we will end up being force to give in to your highway robbery, but I assure you that I will do everything in my power to make it cost you far more than that in lost sales, bad publicity, and future efforts by the government to clamp down on outrages like this.
Furthermore, I assure you that no one from my family will ever again willingly set foot on a U.S. Airways plane. You may get $750 from us today, but you’ll never see another penny of our money.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Kamens
This is what happened to me on June 9th 2010. I had booked a first class flight from Charleston SC to Venice Italy with US Airways. The ticket cost me over $4300.00. The flight from Charleston to Philly was delayed so they put me on a flight to Charlotte NC, then Charlotte to Rome Italy, then Rome to Venice. When I got to Charlotte, I was told that there was no room available in first class, but they would do everything to make sure that I would be comfortable and that the difference would be refunded. Not only did they do nothing during the flight (I was not allowed to use the 1st class bathroom even though it was much closer to my seat than the coach one, I was given a coach meal, and to add insult to injury they lost my luggage). This is the email that I received from them. Is there anything that can be done? If not at least warn others.
Thank you for contacting the Passenger Refunds Department.
We have reviewed the file and a refund in the amount of $404.32 was
issued to American Express ending in today. This transaction
should post to the account within 7 to 10 business days and appear on
the statement in one to two billing cycles.
hello i am writing this because i am so mad about the monopoly going on at us airways! i recently purchased tickets from us airways and was content on my purchase then i went to walmart a couple days later to put more money on the h&r block emerald card to pay a bill for a storage unit in arizona. then got home called the storage unit people and tryed to pay the bill but!!!!! it was declined. wtf!! i then called h&r block and found out i was charged twice! wtf! i am so angry and wasting my time trying to contact these people. noone seems to care that because they did this i am suffering they forcefully charged without my consent. now i have noway to pay a bill that money was put on the card to pay for.how are we letting this happen and why does noone want to just put my money back in the account. i payed on my end and got skrewed over is this what this means.! i would like to have the president of us airways phone number and have him resolve this. i am pissed! i am in debt because of you! my kids suffer for your actions us airways! sincerely don josker
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