Last October my wife and I flew to Phoenix on America West to visit some relatives for a week. We stayed in Mesa the first part of the trip, then we all went to the Grand Canyon (absolutely breathtaking). We then drove to Laughlin and stayed 2 nights there. I taught my aunt how to play blackjack. Normally she only plays quarter slots and was very nervous about betting $5/hand at blackjack (she had no idea she was far better off with me at the tables hehe). After not winning or losing much anything, we drove back to Mesa. The next morning we left on a flight back to KC. The plane left on time and we had only been leveled off a short time when the captain announced we had a problem. He was calm and said we needed to stay in our seats. Everyone naturally complied, but soon after he said we were going to land in Albequerque. Before we got there the plane drove rapidly once and then a second time. The captain announced that we were losing cabin pressure and that was the reason
for his maneuvers. Most people at this point were getting a little excited. Normally planes coast in to conserve fuel, but we seemed to be approaching the Albequerque airport under full power! We landed safely but some of the passengers were quite shaken by the landing. After landing we weren't allowed to get off immediately which I thought was very strange. Ambulances circled the plane and several EMTS got on and came down the aisle. Some pasengers apparently needed help for various situations, including ear pain, and nausea. We were told 5 or 6 went to the hospital.After maybe 30 minutes we left the plane and were told to stay near that gate. Most people were calm by now and sat quietly, while a few started asking the woman at the gate as to the time we would likely be there. One large, young guy in his mid 20's was being very obnoxious about demanding compensation and was getting very loud with the poor woman! She tried to be nice to him, but she obviously was not in a
position to make that decision. Two policemen arrived soon after standing 30 feet away. The man became belligerent with her and police said and did absolutely nothing. It seemed rediculous that they were letting him get away with his intimidation. Later I wondered if they were giving him enough rope to hang himself, so to speak. I had had enough and went to her aid, basically telling him to shut up and to leave her alone! He then started cussing at me and the police did come over and got between us then. After a tense 5 hour wait, another plane arrived from Phoenix to take us on our way. The rest of the flight was thankfully uneventful.
My wife and I wondered what, if anything, we would get for compensation from America West. About a month after the flight, we each received vouchers for $150, which we thought was more than fair. We had one year to use them. The vouchers were going to expire next month, so this past weekend we were making final plans for a trip to Reno for the first time. Their web site showed flights available as cheaply as $178! Almost free airfare, not including other fees. We called them to find out how to utilize our vouchers. We were told they could only be used for reservations 24 hours before the flights leave. Basically a glorified standby situation! The agent said we couldn't lock in today's prices and if we liked the $178 price we might want to forget about the vouchers. We checked and flights leaving 24 from them were in the $400-500 price range, making the vouchers truly worthless!
We aren't very happy with them. Your comments please.
···
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]