First class prices with second class speed

Date: 15 March 2012
Airline: US Airways, flight 959
Location: San Francisco, CA

My compannion Ana xxx and I bought round trip first class tickets Miami-Charlotte-San Francisco-Charlotte- Miami on US Airways at a cost of about $1,500 per person. On the return trip, US Airways San Francisco to Charlotte flight 959 was delayed, partially due late arrival and the rest due to an extremely slow boarding process aided by poor airline personnel direction/supervision, requiring over 40 minutes for a mid-sized Airbus A321 aircraft.

As a result we arrived at Charlotte 5 minutes BEFORE the Charlotte to Miami connecting departure. We ran to the Gate which was close to the arriving gate getting there at 10:22 pm, two minutes past departure.

We were told the flight had actually left the gate several minutes BEFORE regular departure time of 1020 pm (Flight crew decision). In other words not only did US Airways made no effort to protect connecting passengers by a couple of minutes, the aircraft actuall blocked off BEFORE departure sked time.

We were rerouted to next morning flight to Miami, downgraded from first class to economy and were denied overnight accommodations.

We asked for a refund for the Charlotte-Miami difference between first class and economy and were refunded $31 for each passenger, a total of $62
which obviously is too low.

We are requesting an upward adjustment in the refund to reflect the difference between first class and economy for the Charlotte-Miami flight segment plus a refund for the hotel ($55). US airways conveniently blamed the delay on ATC and weather, ignoring the incompetent boarding process in San Francisco.

- Ramon