My recent flying experience with America West Airlines
Fly anything but America West…
My husband and I went for a week long vacation to California. While everything on the trip was pleasant, there is one thing that wasn’t. We had a terrible experience flying America West Airlines…
We were supposed to fly out of Logan airport, Boston at 6:25 AM on a Saturday morning. We spent the night before the big day at my in-laws place which is in andover. Usually it takes about 20 mins to get to the Airport so we left at 5:00 AM. We should have arrived at the airport no later than 5:30 AM but with our luck, all the ramps leading to the airport were shut down for construction that morning… What else do you expect driving around in Boston!??! They were detouring the traffic but the “detour” signs were nowhere to be found!!! So we finally arrive at the airport at 6:05 AM… All happy… ” We still have 20 minutes to go… Yes!!! We made it!!!”
We walk up to the America West Check-in booth just to be informed that the gates have been closed. They close 30 mins prior to the take off. There were other families and couples sailing in the same boat as ours… We tried to convince them to get us on the plane. They didn’t budge. Needless to say, they probably overbooked like they always do… We had to rebook our flights. Finally we got onto a different plane which was supposed to leave at 7:05 AM. We were finally onboard… The pilot announced a glitch in the computer system just when things were beginning to settle. They had to delay the flight by over an hour due to mechanical reasons. We only had a 20 mins layover at Las Vegas. Thank goodness the pilot was able to make up some time in the air and we still had about 5 mins to get on the connecting flight…
Finally we arrived at our destination “San Diego” two hours later than anticipated. We had a wonderful vacation… Spent time in LA and drove upto Monterey and SanFrancisco…
On our return day, the following Saturday, we were supposed to leave from Oakland for Boston at 10:40 AM. While we made sure we were on time, the plane had still not arrived at the gate as of 10:20 AM. We finally boarded around 10:50 AM and took off around 11:15 AM. This time around, we only had 20 mins between the connecting flights. We were hoping to grab lunch at the airport in Las Vegas… Do you really think we had time for that… The flight from Vegas to Boston was all ready to take off as we were landing. We managed to get on the plane… We had to buy food on the plane… $5 for a small sandwich… More delays… Thankfully for us, Boston was our final destination… But there was a family who had to check in at the International terminal for their connecting flight to London… Wait… It gets interesting… The baggages… We were still waiting for the bagagges 30 mins after landing… There was some issue with that stuff also… I still wonder whatever happenned to that family who were waiting for the bagagges so that they could go to the International terminal and check in… I wonder if they missed their flight to London…
So, if you care enough for my suggestion, “Never fly America West Airlines”… What a pain in the ass…