U.S. Airways and Our Summer of 2008 Trip to Europe

So, we're on a trip in Europe right now. On the way here we had 2 connections from Phoenix, AZ to Charlotte, NC to Frankfurt, Germany to Vienna, Austria. You know how they say to arrive 2-3 hours prior to your international flight? Well, don't take the 3 hours literally. We did!

Our flight time was at 6:30am out of Phoenix, Arizona. I thought it would be best to maximize our chances of a good seat and get to the other side of the TSA fiasco and be the first in line for the airplane, so we arrived in the airport at 3:30am. It is unfortunate, but we were the first people in line at the airport (because they don't open the check-in lines until 4:30am) which is 2 (NOT 3) hours prior to the flight. In preparation, I called and looked up information on the internet the previous week so that we would not have any problems with the way we packed, the size(s) of our luggage(s) and carry-on. Our daughter, Jocelyn, is 8 months old, so she falls under the category of infant, and we purchased a lap-child ticket for her for these flights. We were among the first to arrive at the boarding place, but the last 3 people to board the plane. The lady that was checking our boarding passes in Phoenix yelled very rudely "that's too much luggage… I need to check these two lug gages in" while grabbing two of our 3 carry-on lug gages right out of our hands.

Needless to say, the US-Airways people did not make an announcement, prior to boarding, that families with a small child can pre-board the plane. Nowhere on the US Airways website was it mentioned that a ticked without a seat does not have the right to a carry-on luggage. Those of you with infants, planning to put them on your lap, plan on sharing your carry-on space with your small infant’s formula and diapers!! We had 3 large lug gages that we checked in, and 3 small carry-on lug gages, that we took with us. In addition to this, I had my laptop case, my wife had her purse, and we had our baby bag containing essentials for Jocelyn, our infant baby (these were supposed to be the accessories, which according to the US Airways website, should normally be allowed)

Of course after she yelled at us and we were reluctant to give up our carry-on luggage, the manager showed up, at our request, about 15 minutes later while most of the people had already boarded the plane. When he arrived at the scene, he started to count and according to him we were carrying 7-8 luggage pieces, because we had a small bag containing a couple of sandwiches, we were going to take on to the flight, since domestic flights no longer serve food or beverages.Reluctantly, as I was seeing all the passengers boarding ahead of us, we gave two of our carry-on's to the manager to check in. (although I'm not sure why we needed to give up 2, since we were 2 ticketed passengers that could have 2 carry-on's and 2 accessories)

Finally, we thought, we are in the plane, and as we were the last to board, there was no more carry-on luggage space for stowing anywhere on the plane. When I turned around for a second to look around for room to stow my baggage, the flight attendant grabbed my carry-on luggage and tried to walk away with it, telling me that he needed to check it in. I yelled out "Where are you going with my luggage without asking me... I have my passport and wallet in the luggage... You can't just grab it and go?!..."

Anyways, it was a bit more involved because the passenger sitting right next to us, complained that we were taking up her space, etc... I thought if all this information would have been listed and if we would have been the first to board the plane, none of it would have happened the way it did. I told the US Airways people coordinating the next flight out of Charlotte, NC, and they assured me we would be the first to board the plane and our previous experience would not repeat.

I was so disappointed by US Airways and their service that I think I'm going to relieve myself of any future relations, as well as discontinuing the use of their US Airways VISA. In the passed we had flown with United Airlines and we were pretty pleased with their service(s) and all they had to offer.