Vanguard Airlines -- At Least The Wings Didn't Fall Off!!
Written: Jun 09 '00 (Updated Sep 29 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Their rates are cheap
Cons: EVERYTHING but their rates
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| gym-378's Full Review: Vanguard Airlines |
If you enjoy writing epinions about products that stink, fly Vanguard!
My wife recently won two free round trip tickets to anywhere that Vanguard flies. We decided to take a trip to New York and Vermont so we made reservations three months ago to fly to Buffalo, NY on a Saturday morning and return the next Friday.
About a week before our trip, Vanguard called to let us know they had cancelled the flight going to Buffalo so we would have to fly out on Friday instead of Saturday. This wasn't that big of a deal, it just meant that we would have to pay for an extra night at a hotel but it was fine with us.
The next day, Vanguard called to tell us that they had also cancelled the Friday flight returning from Buffalo and that we would need to leave on their Saturday flight. What this meant for us was another night at a hotel that we were paying for. Hey...we won the tickets so we can't complain too much so we went ahead and made the reservations.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:20 on Friday so we showed up at the airport around 4:00 and checked our luggage. We were informed that Vanguard had cancelled an earlier flight and was trying to combine the flights into one. We were told we would be delayed a little but not to worry. For those of you who don't speak Vanguardese, this translates to "go sit on the floor because there aren't enough seats in the terminal and we don't know when we will be leaving if we can even get you on the plane."
By the time Vanguard had actually figured out what was going on and got the plane in the air it was 7pm. On takeoff, I looked up to find that the overhead bin on the plane had opened up and was spilling the Biscotti cookies that Vanguard offers all over me. The flight attendant was obviously irritated at the overhead bin and gave me a look like it was my fault even though I had no objects in that bin.
Our plane made a brief stop in Chicago where more passengers were picked up. When we finally arrived in Buffalo it was 11:30pm and we were just ready to get our bags and begin our relaxing vacation. Guess what! NO LUGGAGE! We grabbed the service agent and asked him where our luggage was and his response was "I don't know." DUH!! When we asked him to find it, his response was "Vanguard doesn't have a baggage tracking system. It'll probably be on the next flight which comes in at 2am." Since we hadn't planned on arriving in Buffalo until Saturday anyway, we told him that we would be back at 7am to pick up our rental car and we would pick up our luggage then.
Upon arrival at the airport the next morning we found NO LUGGAGE! We were told that they didn't know where the luggage was and I asked them if they called Chicago to see if got off the plane when we stopped. The agent's response was "It wouldn't be there. I worked the ramp there for 2 years and they would have put it on the morning flight." After I hassled him some more, he finally called Chicago and found out that it had gotten off the plane in Chicago and he didn't know his job as well as he thought. We were informed that the luggage would be on the plane scheduled for 11:30, which was, of course, delayed until 3:30.
So...did we get our luggage? Yes. And about 10 extra pounds of good old Chicago rain water. When we picked up our luggage, EVERYTHING was soaking wet. All of our luggage had sat out overnight in the rain in Chicago. You would think that some employee at Vanguard would have seen our luggage and thought "Hmmm...maybe I ought to bring that in out of the rain." But I guess they were too busy trying to rearrange their flight schedules.
And get this. We had checked our daughter's car seat in its original box and Vanguard had made this big deal about how it needed to be classified as "Fragile" and made me sign a waiver that the item may be breakable. Would you like to see how Vanguard treats their "fragile" items?
Take a look at the box at http://www.xhorizon.com/images/vanguard_box.jpg
When I tried to call Vanguard's customer care center, I got a recording telling me that "Vanguard only accepts customer care requests in writing" and to please direct your customer care request to Vanguard Airlines at their physical address.
Although our flight home was a little better, you can bet that I will NEVER be flying Vanguard again. I guess you really do get what you pay for...and mine was FREE!
Recommended:
No
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gym-378
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Location: Kansas City, MO
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