Canceled Flights

I’m once again off to DC for work, but on the way this morning I got a call from the person that booked my ticket for me that the airline had changed my itinerary and I was going to spend the whole day and night in airports and airplanes and not get there until tomorrow morning. Needless to say this wasn’t workable either from a work standpoint or from the viewpoint of keeping my sanity.

So first off, I should say that this was with US Airways. And so far I have been quite unimpressed with them as an airline. They charge for everything. First checked bag: $15. Drinks on board (like water and soda): $2. Snacks on board: $5. It’s brutal. Instead of handling the tough times airlines are having by having good service and promotion, they just are opting to charge for everything.

So back to this morning. Here I am in the car already to go to the airport and I get this news. I was going to be early anyway so I just decided to handle it once I got there and I told myself to remember that it wasn’t the people at the desk in Portland that made this blunder so I shouldn’t take it out on them–though I was prepared to do so if things didn’t get sorted out.

But I got there, and the ladies were very nice. They ran through all sorts of scenarios to try to figure out how to get me there, including trying to book me a hotel (at the airline’s expense) in Baltimore so that I could fly to that airport. Finally we found a flight on American Airlines that I could get on that would get me in only two hours later than I was going to be, plus I didn’t have to fly on US Airways (saving the baggage fee and I should get some drinks in flight!).

So here I sit waiting for my flight having averted what could have been a very disastrous and upsetting day. And I wanted to point out that while I think US Airways as a whole is a crappy airline, the individual agents in Portland were very nice so it worked well to not lose the individuals within the conglomerated mass.