America West Airlines - booked flight from Phoenix to Palm Springs cancelled - poor service experience

# 18 for May 30, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on May 29, 2003:

From: Email User

RE: America West Airlines - booked flight from Phoenix to Palm Springs cancelled - poor service experience

This is a complaint in regard to a trip I took using America West Airlines. On May 10th, 2003 I took flight 765 from JFK (NYC) to Phoenix. That morning I called the Airline, to confirm the flight, and was told that everything

was scheduled to take off on time. I got up that morning at 4:00 am, to insure that there would be no problem in taking the flight and going through security.

While on route, America West called me on my cell phone, to inform me that my connecting flight # 6104 from Phoenix to Palm Springs, CA was cancelled. Obviously, I did not receive the message until after I arrived in Phoenix, since I could not have my cell phone turned on once we were air bound. I discovered that my flight was canceled only after we landed in Phoenix and I began looking for my gate number on the monitor. I spoke to someone at the customer service desk in Phoenix, Jon, (at the A gate) who put me on Flight 6110, which left me stranded at the airport for over 3 hours. I asked him for an earlier flight and he said that he couldn't help me and that I should call the 800 number. I called the 800 number and spoke to a woman who not only appeared to be new and uninformed, but she was apparently ill trained. I asked for a supervisor and spoke to Sherry. Sherry was rude and did not appear to be concerned that I was upset. She advised me that this happens all the time and told me that I was lucky that I was able to get booked on the next flight out. I asked her if she could put me on a competitor's flight as stated in their Customer's First plan and she told me that she will not give America West customers away to another carrier.

I asked her the reason for the cancellation and she told me that it was due to maintenance problems. When I asked her why I wasn't notified sooner, so that I could make other arrangements for that day, she was unable to answer me. I asked her for a partial rebate or refund for my inconvenience, as I no longer intend on taking another America West Flight again.

She replied that, that would not be possible but that she would send me a future discount plus voucher that would prorate my next flight with America West. When I told her again that I no longer care to do business with America West, she basically told me to take it or leave it -- even when I told her that this is not what I wanted. I still do not intend to take America West and if and when I receive this voucher, I will give it away or throw it away. I had this very same experience on May 18th, 2002 when I took a flight to Las Vegas. At that time I had an 8:00 am flight and wound up leaving at 6:00 pm. I received a $300 voucher. That was the only reason I took America West this time. But I will NEVER take America West again. On either occasion I don't believe there was a maintenance problem at all. I believe that due to financial problems and the fact that fewer people are traveling, the flights were canceled because they could not be filled and that there was little regard for passengers comfort and sanity. Also, if in both instances (2002 and 2003), if there actually had been maintenance problems and I was lucky enough to be scheduled for both of those flights, then that tells me that the fleet is old and I still do not want to fly America West. I will never forget the insensitive supervisor (Sherry) with whom I spoke. She noted my account, because I asked for a lunch voucher, which she arranged for me - she didn't even offer me that much! (That would be a $5.00 -FIVE Dollars- lunch voucher, which did not even cover lunch at Burger King.) I am extremely disappointed with America West and would not recommend this airline to anyone!