1. On my connecting flight from Phoenix to Cabo San Lucas, I was told at the gate that "the overhead bins are full" and I would have to check my carry-on luggage. (At least they didn't make me pay the $25 fee for a checked bag.) This, after I went to great pains to cram all my stuff into a carry-on -- and I mean cram -- so I wouldn't have to check anything.
1a. How is this possible, really? If each passenger has two carry-ons -- one that goes in the overhead bin and one that goes underneath the seat in front of them -- then shouldn't there be precisely enough space for everyone? (Don't get me started on people who put their stuff in the bin above your seat instead of their own. But I digress.)
2. I had a small padlock on my carry-on, which I clicked shut when I was told that I would have to check my bag. Belatedly, I realized that it wasn't a TSA-approved lock. I tried to remove it, but was having trouble; and as the line was growing restless behind me, I asked the attendant at the gate whether it was necessary for me to take it off. "It's fine," she said. "You're past the security checkpoint, so it doesn't matter." I left it on.
3. Upon reaching my seat, I saw that the overhead bins above and across from my seat were empty.
4. When I retrieved my carry-on from baggage claim in Cabo, the padlock had been broken off and was gone. The zipper pulls had been mangled and distorted in the process.
5. On my return trip home, I was again in Phoenix for my connecting flight. My boarding zone was listed as Zone 5, even though I was in the middle of the plane. (I did some research when I got home, and apparently there is no rhyme or reason to how US Airways assigns zones.) After the call for Zone 1 passengers, there was no further announcement of zones whatsoever. Many of us who were waiting patiently looked at each other uncertainly as passenger after passenger simply got in line. The ticketing agents didn't even look up. Finally we all just gave up and joined the queue. I was one of the last passengers to board. They never announced the zones.
6. When I reached the agent at the gate, she told me that they were now checking all rolling carry-on luggage, and snapped a ticket on the handle of my bag. Sound familiar?
7. When I got to the plane, there was no one to take my bag from me. I had to ask a random baggage handler what to do with it, and he indicated that I should leave it in the corner. He asked what color my baggage claim stub was, and when I showed him, he said, sympathetically, "That's baggage claim."
8. Hitting my breaking point (or so I thought), I asked the flight attendant at the doorway why my bag was being checked. "Because the bins are full!" she snapped at me. Nice. Thanks. "Some people are still waiting for you to announce the zones," I shot over my shoulder as I walked away.
9. Upon reaching my seat, I saw that the overhead bins above and across from my seat were empty.
10. The woman behind me chattered to her seatmates excitedly and loudly, in a thick Long Island accent, before, during and after the flight. ("Oh, that's NIIICE!" was her favorite phrase.) Note: This is not US Airways' fault. But I'm going to blame them anyway. Note #2: This isn't the woman's fault either. But she was just annoying me.
11. US Airways charges for all its food, and does not even supply free peanuts or pretzels. I realize that this is the case for several other airlines as well, but I'm starting to make note of those that do hand out crappy, life-sustaining pretzels, and those that don't.
12. As with my cross-country flight on US Airways one week earlier, the flight attendants began running out of food by Row 10.
13. US Airways doesn't take cash -- but unlike on Virgin America, there is no credit-card reader at your seat. You have to hand your credit card to the flight attendant, who runs it at her cart.
14. There are no TV screens at all on US Airways flights, not even in a drop-down screen every few rows.
15. On all US Airways flights, as you make your descent, a flight attendant announces a "very special offer" that's only available to select people, for a limited time! It's for some US Airways credit card. By the fourth announcement, I didn't feel all that special anymore.
16. On two of my four US Airways flights, the pilot approached the runway, then circled around the city and came back again, citing "troubled air."
17. After landing at JFK (on time), we taxied for almost 15 minutes.
18. Then we spent what felt like forever (was probably 5-10 minutes) standing in the now-not air conditioned plane waiting to deboard.
19. I got lost looking for baggage claim (which I now had to find, thanks to my checked carry-on) because there was construction and the signs kept disappearing on me. Basically I ended up outside the terminal and had to come back in, showing my baggage claim stub to a worker who finally pointed me to an airless inner room. I was not the only person who couldn't find it.
20. We waited almost 30 minutes in that stuffy room for the baggage to arrive. The carousel finally started moving about an hour after we'd landed.
Yes, as flight attendants often will say after you land, you do have a choice of airlines. And that's why I'm choosing never to fly US Airways again.
(These Yelp reviews on US Airways did make me feel better, though: Newark | LGA)
(Also these reviews, permeated with liberal usage of the phrase "I will never fly US Airways again," make for fascinating and cathartic reading: Skytrax reviews)
Cabo travel report soon, though all I did was a whole lot of blessed nothing.
PS Two bonus reasons I forgot to mention earlier:
a. The security gate setup at JFK is horrible. The line to security is smack in the middle of the ticket counters, and was such a confusing mass of chaos that I got in the "preferred ticketholders" line by accident -- and some guy checked my ticket and didn't say a word about it. Good thing, because as slow as my line was, the regular one looked to be a nightmare.
b. I'm used to flight attendants being perky and helpful. At US Airways, in addition to the one who snapped at me for asking why I had to check my baggage, I encountered several other flight and gate attendants who were rude, curt and disinclined to answer questions, and who generally just seemed pissed off at the world.
