kds@intelca.UUCP (Ken Shoemaker) (06/23/84)
I have had similar experences with TWA, it tends to be a real pain.
Usually they go out of their way to make sure you make connections,
but...I believe all airlines tell you to call the day before the
flight to make sure that the plane is going to be there when you
are. The only time I had a plane cancelled the day of the flight for poor
ticket sales was an Alitalia flight from Rome to New York. All the passengers
had to wait 6 hours for the next flight (which was also
half full) to leave. As to reported mechanical problems, that
has also caused problems with planes I was supposed to be on, but usually
they will bend over backwards to accomodate passengers, putting
customers on competitor carriers, etc.
--
Ken Shoemaker, Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
{pur-ee,hplabs,amd,scgvaxd,dual,idi,omsvax}!intelca!kds
---the above views are personal. They may not represent those of Intel.mikey@trsvax.UUCP (06/26/84)
#R:intelca:-32200:trsvax:70900010:000:2449 trsvax!mikey Jun 26 09:53:00 1984 I have had some really good and some really bad experiences with airlines. Some of the best have been with Braniff, Eastern, USAir, and American. Some of the worst have been Braniff, Eastern, and Altair. Altair was so bad I almost sued the travel agent. I made reservations 4 weeks in advance for Altair to get me to Philadelphia to catch an American flight to Dallas. I showed up at the airport 2 hours in advance and my flight was not listed. Now a week earlier I had called and confirmed my reservations. The girl at the counter told me the flight was canceled and hadn't been flying for 6 weeks. I asked how I was to get to Philly and catch my flight and she told me she could schedule me on their later flight but that it was not her problem since I went through Liberty Travel in the Whitehall mall in Allentown PA. She went on to tell me to get out of the way for other customers. I refused until she would straighten out my ticket since I called and confirmed it. She said that didn't matter and she walked out and left the counter unattended with other customers waiting. Well, I went to a phone booth and tried to call the Altair offices. I was told they were all busy and no-one would help me. I went back to the counter and demanded that my ticket be fixed and she ignored me and when she finished with that customer she again left the counter for the back room. Anyway I was quite disgusted, I even tried to charter a plane as I had to catch a flight from Dallas to Lubbock by 9:40 pm. I ended up near the USAir counter and they wern't busy. The guy there had seen what had happened as I had gotten quite loud and the counters were near each other. He said to let him see my ticket. He spent about 20 minutes trying to post me on different flights to Lubbock. He ended up getting me on United to Chicago, then either Braniff or American to Dallas, and I grabbed a Southwest cattlecar flight to Lubbock. My ticket was even cheaper. Needless to say, that was the LAST time I used a travel agent, except for business, and I will STILL warn EVERYBODY "Don't EVER fly ALTAIR" I've since used Allegheny Commuter and I'll fly the long way around to avoid them. I mean, would you trust and airline that told you it was your fault you bought their ticket? I guess accidents happen, but they didn't want to straighten it out. And when their corporate offices say buzz-off, that was too much. mikey at trsvax