Why USAirways Fills My Heart with Soulless Apathy
Written: Aug 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reasonable fares, good coverage of east coast
Cons: Average performance, poor coverage of west coast
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: US Airways |
Some airlines are so aggressive on fares or customer service that I can't help but rave about them. Other airlines are so horribly late and overpriced that I can't help but blast them. But then there are some airlines that are neither remarkably great nor remarkably bad -- they just sort of plod along in their own average ways. That's how I view USAirways.
I've flown USAirways quite often, especially when I lived on the east coast, where they are at their strongest. Most of my experiences have been fairly good, with the occassional flight delay or the occassional long check-in line, but usually no big problems. When I think about all the aspects of an airline that a typical passenger might be interested in -- schedules, fares, hubs, on-time performance, baggage handling, ease of doing business on the web, and frequent flyer program -- USAirways generally comes up as decent enough, but seldom remarkable. And I think that sums up most peoples' experience with them. Okay. Predictable. Yawn, wake me when we get there....
Schedules and Fares
Depending on where you're going, USAirways can either have great or poor schedules. The airline is strongest along the east coast, and if you're travelling between eastern cities it's pretty darn likely that USAirways will be flying where you want to go when you want to go. If you're heading cross country, you'll have a limited number of flights, and if you're travelling between cities in the west, USAirways will be a total non-contender.
USAirways does serve a few international destinations from their east coast hubs. They fly to Cancun, Bermuda, Amsterdam, and a few other places. Not much, but there is the opportunity to cash in miles for tickets to someplace fun!
USAirways generally does pretty well on fares. If you're flying to and from their east coast strongholds, USAirways will come up as the low fare pretty often. They also have occassional last-minute weekend rates that can't be beat (Baltimore to Bermuda for $100 round-trip? They did it a couple times last year...now that's what I call a weekend getaway!) If you live on the east coast, I recommend getting on the mailing list for USAirways last minute airfares.
When I lived in the Baltimore-Washington area I often found myself on USAirways flights. Most connected in either Pittsburgh or Charlotte. Both are pretty good hubs, but I think I like Charlotte a bit better because it's a little less prone to winter weather problems. Both are fairly compact airports where it's easy to move between gates for connecting flights (I hate huge spread-out airports, and I hate airports where I might have move between terminal buildings for a connection, I also hate chronically overcrowded airports with records for frequent flight delays -- like O'Hare). Pittsburgh and Charlotte are both small enough and designed well enough to avoid the chronic pitfalls of bigger hubs. When I've had lengthy waits between flights, I appreciated the big open atrium area in Charlotte with their piano bar -- pretty nice place to hang if you've got to be hanging...)
On-Time Performance, Baggage Handling, and Complaints
Every airline occassionally has a late flight or a lost bag, and I hate to beat up on a company over isolated incidents. After all, the airlines are operated by ordinary humans who sometimes make mistakes, and they fly in weather that sometimes turns nasty and unsafe, and they sometimes have to deal with labor problems or government regulation.
However, when I evaluate airlines, I like looking at Government performance statistics to see how one carrier stacks up against the rest. (See the Department of Transportation web site at www.dot.gov/airconsumer for reports on airline performance.)
These reports show USAirways has having generally average scores on all the performance metrics. They have about average rates of mishandling baggage, about average on-time rates, and about average frequency of customer complaints.
Most airlines lose about 4 bags per 1,000 passengers. Some do better, some do worse. Some of the recent stats for USAirways:
4.29 in April 2000 (best is Alaska at 2.77, worst is United at 5.87)
4.13 in Nov 1999 (best is Continental at 3.04, worst is United at 5.33)
4.49 in April 1999 (best is Continental at 3.55, worst is United at 7.08)
3.08 in November 1998 (best is America West at 3.03, worst is United at 6.35)
USAirways usually has a below-average record for on-time performance, but occassionally breaks into the top 5. For the year ending April 2000, they were 72.7% on-time (surprisingly to me, TWA did the best at 82.3% on-time). In November 1999, they were 78.2% on-time.
USAirways doesn't seem to have a very good reputation among a lot of the epinionators, yet their complaint record shows that they're really pretty average -- maybe slightly better than average. In April of this year, they had the 2nd best record in the industry at 2.01 complaints per 100,000 passengers (the worst record that month went to America West at 8.37). In November 1999, they had 2.98 complaints per 100,000 passengers (again, America West did the worst at 6.29).
Web Site
Lots of airlines have revamped their web sites over the past year or so, most have cleaned up their sites and made schedule searches easier, and almost all airlines have eliminated the obviously stupid registration processes that turned away customers in droves.
Surprisingly, USAirways has one of the best airline web sites out there (www.usairways.com). The design is clean and inviting with a lot of links to frequently needed information available from the first page you see when entering the site. There are three forms in one down the right side of the screen allowing you to search for flight schedules and fares, to check frequent flyer account status, and to check the status of current flights -- probably three of the most useful and often used queries that users want.
One feature that I like is the Travelers Guide section, which includes route maps, terminal layouts, and information about aircraft configuration. Another great feature is the prominent placement on the home page of a link to bargain fares, even though when I checked it there weren't many fares listed, unless you're travelling between Washington D.C., New York, and Boston.
Aircraft Quality
All U.S. carriers generally have safe, well-maintained fleets. Even with airlines like Continental and TWA boasting about all their new planes and young average age, it's unlikely that you'll come across any carrier with uncomfortable unsafe planes.
However, there are some planes in USAirways' fleet that I personally avoid. I absolutely hate the Airbus A320, and unfortunately, USAirways has a bunch of them. I've been squeezed into these sardine cans a couple times before, and I vow never again will I buy a ticket without triple-checking to make sure the flight is using any other plane but this one. It's entirely possible that USAirways has a different seat configuration than I experienced, but I'm sure not going to risk my knees and circulation to find out. I can't imagine that this plane is comfortable for anyone taller than an extremely short midget.
Frequent Flyer Program
USAirways Dividend Miles is pretty average as far as frequent flyer programs go. Inside Flyer magazine and their webflyer.com web site have details about how the program compares to other frequent flyer programs.
You don't earn miles any faster than with other airline programs and you can earn from most of the same partner hotel and car rental chains that support other airline programs.
The elite level is also pretty average and doesn't really stack up well against airlines like Continental who really seem to try hard to make elite level worthwhile for their most frequent customers (Continental's unlimited first-class upgrades is one of the best elite perks out there).
The one nice feature of Dividend Miles is their partnership with American Airlines that lets you pool your miles between the two programs for an award on either airline.
Up and Away!
All in all, USAirways is a pretty decent airlines. Although they have a mediocre performance record and limited routes outside their east coast stronghold, they do have some advantages in that they are fairly aggressive on rates and they use less-crowded hubs that are easier to navigate and more comfortable than those favored by United, American, and Delta.
If you're not a super demanding customer, and you don't care about the frills that competing airlines offer frequent flyers, and you're flying often to east coast destinations, then USAirways is probably going to serve you pretty well. Not a great airline, not a horrible airline...just -- YAWN -- average...
Recommended:
Yes
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