Wednesday, January 2, 2013

U.S. Airways and the whole airline industry sucks

To get home from Florida, I booked a late morning flight on U.S. Airways from Fort Myers to Philadelphia that connected to an afternoon flight to Islip, N.Y., where I would see my mom back home then get on a train and head back to Jersey.

For no good reason, the airline cancelled that flight and put me on an afternoon flight...which then conflicted with the second flight, so they booked me on a nighttime flight from Philly...which got in too late for me to get a train home, so I had to stay over at my parents' house and take an early morning train.

How are they allowed to do this with impunity? In what other corner of the world's marketplace can you do this??

Imagine you order a shirt from an online store. You get the package and inside is a different shirt with a note saying that you can not have the one you wanted and are forced to take whatever replacement they give you, with no option of a refund or any other choices.

That's crazy, right? Yet the airlines do this all day long, as if to say, in the shirt analogy, "You wanted a shirt, we're giving you a shirt. If it's not the one you initially bought, tough shit. Don't wear shirts if you don't like it."

Not only that, but those bastards also reserve the right to overbook the flight then kick you off at random because they did so. I saw them do exactly that.


So that is it for me. Considering it took me almost 24 hours from start to finish to get from Cape Coral to Little Falls - when it should have taken me about 14, I am taking the train whenever possible and feasible. If I have to lose a whole day anyway, why not use a more reliable mode of travel? One that does not overbook, cancel on whim, kick people off for no reason, and does not need you to be there two hours before you leave.

Screw you, U.S. Airways and all other airlines. You suck.