Flight of the Clueless - US Airways Flight 1582
On this site I will be documenting the incompetence and mismanagement of US Airways
and the manner in which they delayed my family and me for nine hours, slammed a gate
door in my face and that of my six-month old son on an overbooked flight for which I had
our boarding passes in hand, as we watched for 20 minutes as the plane sat at the gate.
US airways refuses to compensate me for the rental car I had to use to drive my family
home from midnight to 3:30AM.
I will post every excuse I get from them and copies of all documents and photos of the US
Airways employees I have who refused to help us.
Below is a second response from a Mr. Alpe of US Airways and my response to him.
Please email me at ed@arzouian.com if you have similar stories to share.
Thank you
Dear Mr. Arzouian:
Thank you for contacting Customer Relations at US Airways and giving us the opportunity
to further review your concerns. The travel experience you described is certainly not
characteristic of the level of service we strive to provide.
However, the delay coded as per our records show the flight 158 on August, 2010 was
delayed due to Air Traffic issues. As stated before weather is generally but not always, the
source of Air Traffic Control issues. While there could be flights from other gates that may
have been cleared for take off, the clearance is mandated by the Tower depending on
many factors. The airlines are mandated by law to file accurate reasons for flight
interruptions.
I apologize If the impression was given the crew was not well versed in handling the delays
in keeping with the Passenger Bill of Rights. If it is deemed after leaving the gate a flight
cannot take off within the stipulated time, a decision is take to return to the gate for
passengers to disembark in keeping with the requirements. Regrettably, we are unable to
give out the names or our crew in keeping with the privacy act. However, please be
assured your comments and observations have been thoroughly documented and will be
shared with management and the Inflight manager.
With this in mind, I have reviewed both your original request and your additional request.
After careful evaluation, I am unable to discover any additional concerns causing me to
change our original decision not to reimburse the expenses incurred by you or issue
compensation. Regrettably, I am unable to alter our previous resolution.
Again, we apologize for the difficulties your family and you encountered. Your comments
have helped us identify areas where our service needs improvement. Please be assured
the necessary steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence.
Mr. Arzouian, thank you for choosing US Airways. We welcome the opportunity to provide
the level of service you expect and deserve on a future US Airways flight.
Sincerely,
Claude Alpe
Representative, Customer Relations
US Airways Corporate Office
Dear Mr. Alpe,
Once again, I find this response unsatisfactory.
I do not really care what your records show. As I explained those same records had my
family and me on a flight to Binghamton which we were never on. Please note, you don’t
even have the correct flight number!!! It was 1582, not 158. More sloppy work from you.
Our flight had a departure time and was cleared by the control tower for takeoff within 18
minutes of the pilot making the announcement, well within the Passenger Rights Act limit
which had about 30 minutes left before we would have been required to return to the gate.
Your pilot CHOSE to return the to the gate instead of taking off. Why, I do not know.
A flight at the next gate in Orlando that was supposed to leave two hours after us, got to
Philly an hour ahead of us, same airline, same weather, so how can you claim our flight
and your mistakes were due solely to weather when other flights from the same place at
the same time arrived earlier?
It was not an “impression” that your flight crew gave about not being well-versed in dealing
with Passenger Rights Act delays, your crew stayed flat out and clearly “We have never
done this before and we’re not sure how it works”.
And again, had anybody in your entire airline communicated with the gate in Philadelphia
anytime during our flight from Orlando to Philly and told them we would make our
connection instead of your airline giving away our seats, we would have gotten home and
not needed to rent a car and drive from midnight to 3:30 AM to get to work the next day.
As I have stated I will not rest until I have exhausted every possible option available to me
to be reimbursed for the rental car expense. I will see about going to small claims court, I
will contact the FAA, I will contact my Congressman to inform him and his staff our your
crew’s inability and inexperience to manage the Passenger Right Act. Just for the hell of it
I’ll be creating a web site called “Flight of the Clueless” to detail US Airways’ screw-
ups. Your letter will be posted on it. I’ll send you the link shortly.
Good day.
-----Original Message-----
From: Airconsumer DOT ACPD [mailto:AirConsumer@dot.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 1:00 PM
To: ED@ARZOUIAN.COM
Subject: Airconsumer Acknowledgement
Thank you for contacting the Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer
Protection Division. This office deals with airline service complaints. Issues regarding
airline and aircraft safety, emergency exit seating, low-flying aircraft, pilot licensing and
related issues should be sent to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); contact
information will be found at http://www.faa.gov/contact. Security issues, including
passenger screening, the "no-fly" list and the baggage screening process are handled by
the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at
TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov
If your message was a question regarding service issues other than safety or security,
answers to most aviation consumer protection questions, including the rights of
passengers, can be found in the information available on our website, particularly in the
publication "Fly-Rights". To obtain electronic versions of a number of air travel consumer
publications, go to http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/ and click "Travel Tips & Publications."
Although we do not mediate individual complaints, if your complaint concerns airline
service we will enter it in our computerized industry monitoring system, which serves as a
basis for rulemaking, legislation and research. Complaints are also charged to the
company in question in our monthly complaint report, which is distributed to the industry
and made available to the news media and the general public so that both consumers and
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are in compliance with our regulations. We also use these complaints to track trends or
spot areas of concern, which we feel may warrant further action in the future.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us.
Aviation Consumer Protection Division (DOT ACPD)
U.S. Department of Transportation
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02/23/2011 13:00:19