I can’t get any resolution, because USAirways could give a flying hoot about helping the disabled or anybody, for that matter. Just a very ugly machine — incapable of understanding or processing more complex concepts — devouring and spitting out passengers with horror stories that are never fixed.

ALL employees (over 30 contacts) have REFUSED to give me to supervisor or to employee with authority to fix situation. It is clear that USAir’s employees are trained to send you on wild goose chases, without ever transferring you to an employee with the authority to resolve the situation.

In my case, my rights under the Air Access Carrier Act were clearly violated 11 different times — when 11 different USAir personnel refused to help me with my baggage — despite having a disability and despite being protected by the ACAA.

But even though it is a black and white violation, USAir has stalled since Sept. and has made no real attempts to resolve the issue. And they continue to refuse to let me speak to anybody with any level of authority or power, who could actually help me, instead of argue with me. I didn’t want to have to go through the D.O.T. and then go through a long drawn-out trial, but they’ve left me no choice.

I have emailed CEO Doug Parker explaining US air’s abuse, lack of timely response, and explained that the Complaint Resolution Department is so downright unprofessional it is unbelievable (really). In fact, they are indeed EVIL (didn’t say that to them, though it’s true), as they continue to string along a disabled person who has been blatantly abused, and not a single employee will deal with it. Barbaric.

I have been hung-up on repeatedly by many USAir staff, but mostly from people in the CRO department. And the CROs are supposed to help solve the situation. In my case, they’ve done absolutely nothing to help, only obfuscate (put me on hold; send me to scary music land; send me to the family emergency line, which is common; deliberately lie about sending letters they know they never sent; deliberately hang-up, etc…).

Even when I explained that I’d be starting a DOT complaint, they said “fine.” I guess they don’t care that the last DOT fine for USAirway’s abuse of the disabled was over a half-million bucks (I wonder how much of this went into training on disabilities and the ACAA).

And my complaint is about black & white violations of the ACAA (refusing to help the disabled is a clear violation, unless the employee has documented medical condition; and in that case, they should find someone to help).

Any lawyers out there with advice on how to sue, if my ACAA rights were repeatedly and flagrantly violated? My understanding is that I can sue under the Rehab Act of 1973; and because airlines received federal bailout money after 9-11, they are federally funded and can be sued.

I cannot stress how downright evil and deceptive this company is. I cannot understand how so many people can lie so quickly and readily, even though they know they are hurting people.

Given USAirway’s employees also have continued to impugn my character and insult me, while I’ve tried to find someone with a beating heart, I feel I have no other option but to go through all the possible steps to make these evil people make up for their abusive crap and to have my rep vindicated.

Please don’t take abuse from these guys. They seem downright emboldened to steamroll you and then laugh about it. And they’ll threaten to have you arrested for discussing the ACAA, be forewarned. Using the police to scare away the disabled, instead of helping the disabled with their luggage. Real nice.

What the heck is going on at USAir? Beyond a doubt, my experience with USAir is the worst experience with ANY company in 40 years (given how bad customer service can be, this says a LOT).

Please help and demand that USAir end policies like systematically blocking access to supervisors and upper administration; systematically blocking access to grievance or legal recourse; and systematically refusing to adhere to the ACAA.

Finally, here are some of the steps I’m following in my search for Justice and restitution. If people have any more advice about these steps or other steps, please let me know:

1. Make a complaint to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice covers violations of state or local governments and violations of public access.

2. File a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Call the EEOC at (800) 669-4000.
3. Wait for a response. After reviewing the claim the EEOC should send you a “right to sue” letter.
4. Talking to ACLU to see if they have any insight into what’s going on at US Air.
5. Report violations by Public Transportation. File a complaint with the Federal Transit Authority.
6. Speak to a lawyer. Discuss the situation with a lawyer and determine if you want to sue for a violation of your civil rights.

Don’t mess with their CROs; go straight to your attorney if you have $$, because the CROs are professional liars/enablers/cover-uppers, not people truly trained in conflict resolution (maybe USAir’s perception of conflict resolution, which is to totally ignore, until the letters from the lawyers start appearing).

I realize there are many good people who are forced to work for USAirways; but their upper admin. must be seriously messed up and terrible “role models”, for so many employees to be so fabulously belligerent and so incredibly unwilling to help people with disabilities.

My one consolation is knowing they are going to mess with a very rich and connected disabled person, and it will be front page news that USAir systematically abuses and discriminates against the disabled. And if they keep treating passengers so poorly, maybe they’ll go down the drain totally, for good.

* Tallarico v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 881 F.2d 566, 570 (8th Cir.1989).
* Shinault v. Am. Airlines, 936 F.2d 796, 800 (5th Cir.1991)

But I never could’ve prepared myself for the blatantly hostile treatment I received from U.S.Airways’ staff, when I tried to get “reasonable accommodations” for some flights in Sept. 2008

My partner and I counted 11 different U.S. Airways’ staff who blatantly REFUSED to help me with my luggage in any manner (recent shoulder surgery made it impossible to reach overhead). One of their desk managers even taunted me, “you are going to make a little woman (employee) carry YOUR luggage?”

The staff all claimed that US Airways’ Union Rules enabled them to refuse to help passengers — even disabled ones.

And when a stampede ensued due to a late-arriving plane and too few USAir employees to control the passengers and keep access open, I was knocked all over the place. I explained to other passengers during chaos that I was disabled and needed help and needed to pre-board, but still got whipped around in like I was in a blender.

When my partner and I finally squeezed our way to the front — and my post-surgery shoulder was terribly aggravated — we were mercilessly verbally assaulted by a very large fellow passenger, who continued to demand we get to the back of line and tower over us with a mean face.

I explained my disability and even showed the mean, possibly drunk? man my SSDisability card and a card explaining my sometimes fatal condition. To this, he said “F. U.” to my partner and I.

We tried to ignore him, as we were asked to pre-board; but he started to pre-board with us; and then, he shoved me in my back, into the terminal and up against the wall (several feet shove that greatly aggravated already herniated discs in back).

Many passengers and staff witnessed this assault, including U.S. Airways staff; but this man was still allowed to board (and he sat in the first seat of the first row-first class, and many of the staff were familiar and friendly with him — after he flagrantly just shoved a disabled guy, for absolutely no reason whatsoever.).

As a former Americans with Disability advocate, I cannot allow this type of blatant discrimination and hostility.

Since September, I’ve been getting the run-around from USAir’s Complaint Resolutions Officers (more like Fault-Enabling Pathological Liars).

But today, I began to look into a lawsuit (federal, oh boy) and also am following up with the DOT, the EEOC, and the ACLU.

Any other advice or the name of a good and willing attorney would be greatly appreciated. US Air personnel refusing to help disabled people is not only not nice, it is a clear violation of the Air Carrier Access Act.

Given how much effort USAirways has been exerting to “sweep this under the rug” so far, I’m beginning to wonder if my assaulter was somehow affiliated with U.S. Airways (drunk, off-duty pilot) or related to — or part of — upper mgt.

It’s really scary how many of their employees are seriously emboldened to trample the Air Carrier Access Act and are so blatantly hostile toward people with disabilities (like elementary school all over again).

If you are disabled or have any “special needs,” I’d strongly urge you to stay away from U.S. Airways, even if it does cost a little more.

We were flying from Manchester, NH to Jacksonville, FL through Dulles. We had an hour layover in Dulles. We boarded on time, but then sat on the tarmac for about 30 minutes. Of course there was no information as to why. Once we were finally in air, we asked about our connection and were basically told “we don’t know, don’t ask.” One stewardess in particular was incredibly “snippy.” About 30 minutes into the flight (It’s about an hour, I think), we’re warned that there’s bad weather in Washington, so we’re probably going to have to divert to Richmond. AWESOME. But obviously, this isn’t USAir’s fault, and no flights in = delayed flights out, so I wasn’t too angry–yet. The man across the aisle, however, was regaling his seatmate about all of his flight problems trying to get home (all on USAir). He was being quiet and not overly bitchy, just a kind of resigned whine, when the flight attendant stopped by (he was not addressing her) and said “yes sir.. we at USAir are doing all we can to interrupt your day. We sit around and try to PLAN things that could mess up YOUR travel.” I was completely aghast. Perhaps she thought she was being funny, but, um, no… she wasn’t. There were several little quips like this over the day.

So we land at Richmond. And we sit. Not at a gate, but on the runway area. We sat there for over an hour with the seatbelt sign on b/c we were on an active runway. If a person got up to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants freaked out and started berating and threatening them. But apparently there were no gates available for us. Finally they did say they’d let us use cell phones and drive the plane to the cargo area so that we could get up and move around. Notice, since we didn’t have a gate, we still couldn’t get off. The people seated in front of me told the flight attendant that Richmond was their final destination and asked if they could potentially disembark here once we got a gate–the flight attendant basically laughed in her face and said there was “no chance” and that she’d have to fly to Dulles and try to find a new connection. Note, this is all the same FA, because the other FA was for 1st class, and she didn’t deign to step foot past her 8 first class passengers to talk to the coach passengers. Also note that in the meanwhile, we have never once been offered a drink or snack.

In the meantime, I call USAir to see about getting us on the next flight to JAX. I’m told by the ticketing agent that my flight has landed in Dulles so she doesn’t understand why I’m going to miss my connection (scheduled to leave in about 1 minute). That’s right–USAir’s own system didn’t show our flight as having been diverted, and in fact showed us as having landed as scheduled at Dulles. It turns out our flight to JAX was delayed until 12:30 (originally 9:20). So I thought, sure, no problem–we can still make it. Well… maybe. Because, you see, by the time they started talking about maybe taking off, they’d decided to let the Richmond people off. But then that means they have to go get their bags from under the plane. And then update the passenger manifests. And then “wait to file paperwork” for literally 45 minutes. (I would like to add that the plane was left on for all of the 3 hrs we sat in Richmond, which was nice b/c we had air, but also a ridiculous waste of fuel, and then we had to wait to refuel).

So we finally land at Dulles around 12:15. At this point we’re like “please let the JAX flight be delayed again.” Well I hold Dulles to be one of the worst airports I’ve been to, and this solidified it. Our “gate” was basically one room with two physical gates serving about 10-15planes. With NO ONE at the counter, and one person at the gate. So we waited for about 30min just to ask if the flight was delayed (the screen still said 12:30, despite it being 12:45. So we ask. He looks at us like we’re idiots, then says hold on, and then proceeds to BOARD ALL OF THE PASSENGERS for another flight–yes, he’s the literal only person working at a gate servicing about 15 flights. On a day where every flight has been delayed. He finally tells us “yeah, it’ll be boarding in 5 min.”

I had checked my bag, and wanted to know if it was going to make it to JAX, considering the plane was *literally* parked next to our new plane. He told me that there was “no way in hell” b/c it takes 2 hours to turn over bags. I just stared at him–I was like “it takes 2 hours on every flight to turn over bags.” He mumbles yes. I’m like “so all those times I’ve flown and had a 45min layover, my bags… teleported to my final destination? Or the times that I’ve been delayed and *just* missed a connector, but my bags actually got there on the first flight?” He just mumbles something. So I’m like “okay, so when I get to JAX, I have them fill out a missing bag form and then they’ll get it to me, right?” He answers “no. It’s weather related, so you have to pick it up at the airport whenever they find it.” I ‘may’ have uttered something about this being bullshit (btw, I was staying in St. Augustine, a full hour away from JAX).

So around 1:30, we are told “boarding all rows all zones to JAX.” This is the first update we’ve gotten. Yes, there’s clapping.

Imagine my happy surprise to find that the flight crew is the SAME ONE as ours from Manchester! We finally did make it to Jax, but not before this little lovely gem–a passenger asked My Favorite Flight Attendant how long the flight would take to Jacksonville and she answered “um, I don’t know, like, under 2 hours.” The guy across the aisle, just being handy, said “sir, according to the ticket, it’s 2hrs, 9 minutes. The FA turns to him and says “um, excuse me, are you a pilot? No? Then maybe you should just leave these things to me.” I was just completely shocked and he was both embarrassed to have been berated like an errant schoolboy, and i’m sure totally pissed!

It wasn’t so much the delays that incensced me–I understand that there are weather problems that USAir can’t control. It’s the way we were treated that was unconscionable. I will absolutely never be flying USAir again.

Though on a positive note, my bags *did* arrive in jacksonville–and under the 2hr “turn over” time.

We interpreted that to mean that it may or may not be charged. When we contacted USAir we were informed that the charge will always apply. Upon informing them that they are giving up aproximately 40,000 ticketed passengers per year they did not seem to care.

The airlines have only themselves to blame for they financial woes. In addition, our government has no place in using our taxpayers money to bail them out.

Happy Flying in the not so happy skies

I expected the worse outcome with US Airways. To my surprise they called my son and advised him that the luggage had been found. The bad news is that they didn’t offer to deliver the suitcase to his residence. I bet you would be glad at least to have your luggage anyway even if they did not offer some accommodation.

But this shows their bad attitude.

I have thought about different approaches to handle the problem. Any time when I contact US Airways I have the taste of unpleasant feelings because of their lack of good attitude and service culture, and more reluctance to go an extra mile for the customers. The Russians have an interesting proverb. In the English language it sounds like this: Fish gets rotten from the head.

So, what you want from a company that has a rotten head!

On the other hand, I did my homework, which might be useful for those who were less lucky than our family.

Here are some governmental bodies that can make Mr. Doug Parker pay personal attention what is going on in his company.

U.S. Department of Transportation
Aviation Consumer Protection Division
400 7th Street, S.W. Washington, DC 20590
(202) 366-2220

Federal Aviation Administration
Consumer Hotline, AOA-20
800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20591

I would suggest that someone write to the Congress because this issue is not anymore a private matter, it is a national catastrophe.

The best wishes to everyone,
Alik Yanchinov

I sent my post to various people within US Airways – which got I might add a quick response. Not very satisfactory but I did get their attention and in fact all the entries made about US airways aggregates how people feel about them – which appears to be very negative

Thanks for posting

Alan

Thank you very much for writing an open letter to Doug Parker CEO US Airways and the blog.

What I wanted is to find out an the outcome of your personal story. How did it end up?

Do you have any information if someone has sued the company for lost luggage?

I am just not satisfied with blogging and chatting; I want them to feel the same pain as you and I did. There is no point to complain about them because they DO NOT CARE!

Thank you again and the highest regards,
Alik Yanchinov

1. February 1st ? upon check in flight US 473 the attendant placed my bag on the belt. I then detected something was wrong and inquired as to whether the bag was tagged or not? He then yelled to ?stop? the bag to go ahead and tag the bag. As a result, upon arriving in Las Vegas, the bag did not arrive.

2. 4 consecutive days I called about my bag. Every time I called, the lady or man either in the Philippines or Guatemala, gave me a different story. Your bag is here, your bag is there. Never was my file updated from the last call. No one had any clue as to where my bag was. I finally spoke to a nice lady at the LAS (her name was Mary) airport who told me, ?Mr. Larsen, we have no idea where your bag is! It is apparently lost. Please buy your new items, and submit a claim and it will be evaluated?. Quite an inconvenience after traveling all the way from Dubai.

3. Change of Ticket from Monday 4th of February to Tuesday 5th of February ? When I called, and requested to change my ticket, the attendant told me that I had to go to the airport to do so? This was crazy. After further arguments, I complied and went to the airport (where I found my bag, sitting at Carousel 12) and changed my ticket. When I got there, the lady said there was ?no need to come down here to do this??..go figure! In any event, my ticket was changed!

4. Change of Ticket from Tuesday 5th of February to 6th February. I called, the lady said no need to go to the airport and that I was booked in seat 2A confirmation number CL98SX. I asked if I needed to go to the airport and the lady said ?no need?. Ticket was booked all was ?ok?.

5. Arrival at the Airport 6th February ? upon submittal of my ticket, was told, I had no booking. Ended up flying in seat 9b with a First Class Ticket. No apologies, no nothing. Just, too bad. The lady then told me that I ?should have come to the airport to change to ticket?! Different story every time.

6. I waited 25 minutes in the TSA security line only to find out at the last minute that I had been ?selected? by my ?Airline? for a ?Selected Search?. The TSA lady told me that my Airline should have informed me that way, I would have know which line to attend.

In a nutshell, my whole experience was completely unreasonable. I am seeking compensation for the following:

1. Lost bag for four days ? I ended up getting my bag but bought a whole new wardrobe in the meantime. From my profile above, you can see my style. I did not save receipts nor am I looking for you to buy the new clothes I purchased. Looking for you to be reasonable.

2. Refund for flying economy on my first class ticket ? please advise how you would like to do this. I can give you my Credit Card or you can send me a money order.

3. Some compensation for my overall inconvenience.

I am a concerned passenger. I was not treated fairly by your airline and hope that you will take this email in the light to ensure your dedication to your passengers and with the spirit to improve the overall flaws. The whole system is wrong! No one knew what the other one was talking about. Total communication break down.

Anxiously awaiting your reply,

James C. Larsen