RE: America West incident

There was actually an article in Airways magazine about 2 years ago that proclaimed them, “America’s Worst.” I had already experienced them at that stage, so I felt it was very appropriate. They suck for a variety of reasons. I will tell you what I have experienced. Mind you I’ve only flown them 4 times, each time return routing went through Las Vegas. They have 1 daily roundtrip from ONT-LAS. The first time I flew them, upon arriving in LAS roughtly 22:00, the plane sat at the gate for one hour because, “the jetway was inoperative and they couldn’t find an airstairs.” Are you kidding me? A huge airport like LAS and they couldn’t find a lousy airstairs? Out of the 4 return legs, which depart LAS at around 1 a.m. and are scheduled to arrive around 2 a.m., only 1 has actually left on time. The other 2 were delayed AT LEAST 2 to 2.5 hours. 1 was delayed 3. Instead of arriving at my house at 2:30, I’m arriving at like 5 a.m. My work day is history after that. So that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Back in June my parents flew them from ONT to Acapulco via PHX. The flight was the first one out of ONT to PHX at like 8 a.m. Needless to say, the flight was delayed 3 hours. By the time they got to PHX, HP’s only flight to Acapulco had left. They consequently got re-re-routed through Mexico City. As a nice gesture, they put my parents plus the couple that they were with in first class. How good was the service in first class, you ask? They got free booze, and peanuts. NO MEAL! Are you kidding me? My dad asked them why they didn’t get fed. Apparantly America West no longer serves meals on segments less that 4 hours, NOT EVEN IN FIRST CLASS!! On the way back, they also got first class upgrades all the way through to ONT. Did they get fed that time? Nope. That’s ridiculous. I understand airlines are making cut-backs, but this is ludicrous. Now, I know what all you people are going to say, “typical American carrier,” right? I don’t think so. Contrary to popular believe in here, I know I sound like a broken record but, United is a pretty good airline and it is comparable to any airline in Europe except perhaps Virgin Atlantic. I had a flight from ONT to DEN in Feb. which is about a 2 hour flight. Pre 9/11, everybody got fed a meal on that flight, even economy. Post 9/11, economy doesn’t get fed now, but first sure does! I upgraded on this flight, and got fed as a result. America West just flat out sucks.

GD1