The US Airways Post

Airtran has just been replaced as my least favorite domestic airline. US Airways is the new champ of sucky aviation. I had never flown with them before (I’m a United man myself) and probably never will again if it’s up to me. This time was the result of a last minute attempt at securing tickets with Expeidia. So after my very merry holiday with the family I headed to the airport ready to go, and found that one of my connecting flights had been delayed. Firstly, who needs a connecting flight down to Florida? Its 2 hours away. Strike one. Strike two would be that the connection was delayed to the point where I’d not make the second leg of my trip and needed to reschedule my itinerary. Strikes Three through Six would be that; all flights out of Dulles are booked full (3), all flights tomorrow out of Dulles are booked full (4), the only flight she can get me on is at Regan Airport (5), and that the Regan flight leaves tomorrow morning and I’ll have to catch a cab first thing to catch the flight (6). Admittedly the Regan flight was direct, and they paid for my cab, but just when I was about to lift Strike 6 from the record, they oversold the flight and needed five volunteers to abdicate their seats before the damn thing could take off. Normally I would have volunteered, because a free roundtrip ticket is pretty tempting and I was already missing work that day as is. But the next available flight wasn’t until 7pm the following day. So too bad.

Eventually 5 suckers…err.. model citizens came forward and we took off 45 minutes late*. While the flight itself was better than Airtran (boo, hissss) all the drama and preboarding issues left a sour taste in my mouth. Plus they don’t give you snacks for free on the flight. They offer to sell you a five dollar “Snack Pack” as they march up and down the isle. Also, they did an in-flight announcement to try sell you on a credit card and proceeded to come down and ask every passenger (that wasn’t faking sleep) to fill out an application. With flight prices the way they are now, I find it crazy that this is the route the airline is taking. Cheapens everything.

Moral of the story: Don’t leave Christmas flight booking till Thanksgiving.
Bonus Moral: US Airways sucks.

*Strike 7. You’re out! I love baseball.