America West Airlines - flight Denver, CO to Raleigh, NC - no employees available when needed

# 25 for July 9, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on July 8, 2003:

From:

RE: America West Airlines - flight Denver, CO to Raleigh, NC - no employees available when needed Dear America West, I had recently tried to fly with your airline from Denver Colorado to Raleigh NC. I had purchased my ticket on line with Orbitiz.com. I was in visiting relatives in Colorado Springs which is about 2 hours from Denver, My flight was schedule to leave at 9:35pm. My sister who is 5 1/2 month pregnant with twins was the only family member able to take me to the airport due to my mother having a crippling illness, that will not allow her to go on extended trips.

We left in plenty of time to make it to Denver we were on the road by 6:30 pm that evening, however about 45 mind out of Denver there was a 5 car accident with Fatalities which held us up on the highway for over a hour. We didn't arrive at the airport until 8:45 and it was 9:05 when we were able to locate the ticket booth. I still had 35 mine to make my flight I had no baggage to check in all i had was my purse and a small carry on bag. Unfortunately what I didn't know was that America West allows their employees to leave at 9:00 when their last flight doesn't leave until 9:35pm.

My problem is what type of business allows their customers to do without a representative for a short 35 minutes? I had to have that flight, I was schedule to be back to work Friday morning at 8:30 am. I paid a extra $100 for this flight it allowed me extra time with my family and I was to arrive in Raleigh at 613am which allowed enough time for me to get to work. But due to the fact there was no one service represinative I was unable to get my tickets. We call led the airport customer support to see if they would be able to page a representative for us and we were told then that they leave at 9pm and that we may be able to get someone at the baggage counter, unfortunately she didn't know anything about the tickets- and was advised to call customer service. I spoke to 2 different representatives after a 40 minute wait time, and was told that this was my problem not theirs, i did try to advise that the situation was beyond my control and how important it was that I was at work the following morning but the representatives continues to advise this was my problem not theirs out of anger I advised that I wanted to speak to the supervisor, after waiting another 10minutes for the supervisor to get on the line he answered the phone " PIZZA HUT " sorry I had no sense of humor and who could blame me - i asked if they had a partner airline that I would be able to get a flight with was advised again " No " The supervisor advised me the only thing they would do is put me on the next morning flight which was at 630a.m. Which would mean not only am I out the extra $100.00 that I paid for this flight , but i missed a day pay from work and I now had a extra day of parking fees at the Raleigh Airport.

And all because America West airlines does not require customer service representatives to stay the extra 35 minutes for their last flight to take off. It was only midnight which meant spending the night at the Airport by myself. Or putting out more money for a hotel. i then Hung up and went outside to cool off and came back in to call again to see if I could get a later flight was advised will have to pay $50 same flight the following night. So then the next day when I arrived at the airport at 830 pm I was told the flight i was taking was delayed due to weather condition was advised that the flight was schedule to get to LAS airport at 1106 pm and my connecting flight was to leave at 11:16pm was advised that if this flight was missed due to getting to connecting gate or weather that I would have to buy another airline ticket to get to Raleigh NC.

Again situation beyond my control and theirs but still being penalized. I advised representative that this was second trip to Denver Need to have a flight. the representative did get my tickets exchanged to Delta flight leaving at 12:40am. Again more delays and inconvience and America West still continued to advise me that this was all my fault even the situation was beyond my control and theirs. I will never fly with this airline nor will I ever recommend any family or friends to this airline instead I recommend them NOT to fly with this airline.!!!!!! All together I was out about $600 due to missing work with out pay, extra airline cost, food and airport parking. and all America West will say Next time be there 2 hours prior to flight, I had 35 min to catch my flight , no baggage to check in there was no reason for me to miss the flight except for the fact that there was no one there to give me my tickets !!!!!!