I learned US Airways likes to hold its seats hostage for more money

airline-seats2This is going to be a quick rant about US Airway's Poor Customer Service. I'll try and keep short. I basically just want to rant and vent about what I consider to be a appalling practice and customer service when I attempted to make a purchase of a couple airline tickets with US Airways. You have been warned.

First, let me say I understand and appreciate everything airlines try to do to stay competitive and in business. I personally can't imagine all the logistics and cost involved with running an airline. I also feel as a consumer you need to step up when you feel you are treated unfairly. Typically there is a shared blamed for the scenario, and in that spirit I will share mine.

The week between Christmas and New Year is not typically the best time of year to travel if you don't have to. More importantly you try not to do any "last minute" traveling during this time but unfortunately I had a passing of a close Aunt that put me into a situation where I need fly from California to Maryland with little planning to do so. For the past couple days I've been cursing the various travel sites trying to find the best deal on air fares. I was paying for 2 tickets, my sister and myself, and since this happen unexpectedly and after holiday gift shopping, funds would be an issue. Found an OK price with US Airways of $1500 which would get both of us round trip tickets to Maryland in time to make the funeral and be back in California for work.

On US Airways web site I started the ticket purchasing process, this is where it gets weird. I am a big guy, around 6'5 and over 300 lbs so traveling on planes in general isn't usually a pleasant experience. As such I am pretty insistent that I select my seats, typically an aisle seat and if I can swing it an exit row. This is also one of the reasons why I avoid flying an airline like Southwest unless as an absolute last resort. I believe I was on one of my last clicks to complete the purchase with US Airways when I got to the section to select my seat, however I couldn't select a seat, not without paying an additional fee?

The fees ranged from $45 to $15 depending on which leg of the trip I was purchasing. Yes I would need to preform this process for each layover when I changed planes. This is where I got really confused, what was my $1500 purchasing? There were also seats that could only be reserved by their Preferred Travels, OK I get it all airlines have perks like this but I surely must have been missing something for the rest of the seats. Confused a call was placed to US Airways customer support, which oddly enough had me calling the Philippines.

I explained the scenario as I best understood it to the customer support representative and to my shock they explained to me that in fact US Airways "reserved" 25% of the seats for same day travel. This further confused me and so I asked, was I buying 2 seats on the plan or not? The US Airway representative assured me I would have 2 seats they just couldn't guarantee which seats they would be and that it was "impossible for them to assign seats" at that point. My question in reply was, "Would it be possible if I paid the additional fee?" and their response was "Yes we could then reserve the seats."

So it wasn't impossible, in fact it was very possible, it was more a matter of US Airways trying to scam me out of more money for something I was already prepared to pay for. This practice really seems to boarder on the criminal and racketeering. I was floored and disappointed with this practice from US Airways. Needless to say I opted not to purchase tickets with US Airway because of the very deceptive behavior. And I am still not honestly sure if I had purchased the tickets if we would have actually had seats on the plan or risked being "bumped" for someone who opted to pay the additional fee for the seats.

That's pretty much it, end of rant. Thanks for listening InterTubes.