Part 5 -- Portrait of a good airline: South African Airways

Aside from saving us a bundle of money by fixing the problem with the
ticket name, SAA proved to be a fine airline on this trip. Their level
of service was superior to any other airline we have used in recent
years, their equipment modern and well maintained, and their extra
efforts to help us out with special requests truly remarkable.

As already noted, a shaky Delta Airlines provided the flight from PHX
to ATL. They were marginal: the flight was on time, the in flight
service was passable, but they have very poor customer service
telephone help and they overbooked the flight by four people (creating
the possibility of missing our connection in Atlanta with our
non-refundable tickets). But the ticket agents were helpful on the
name problem and their service was far better than the return flight
from New York back to Phoenix yesterday on America West/US Airways
(the merged airline name now also used with America West flights).

The name change from America West to US Airways was a tactical move to
escape the more popular designation for this airline: "America Worst."
But a skunk by any other name smells as bad. If anything, US Airways
policies have made the service even worse. They had overbooked the
JFK-PHX flight by 9 people. Despite the fact that my wife and I had
pre-reserved adjacent seats on the flight, I got kicked our of my seat
(no doubt to accommodate a higher-paying customer) and placed on
standby status. My wife had a seat on the flight, but I did not.

But thanks to another ****ty US Airways policy (not allowing any
check-ins beyond 30 minutes prior to the scheduled flight departure,
despite the fact that the flight didn't leave for another hour) some
other people got screwed by being denied check-in and I got the last
seat on the airplane -- on the opposite end from my wife, of course.

Among the other rotten policies employed by US Airways/America Worst
is the charging of $5 for earphones, a drink, or a sandwich. The
ticket agents were arrogant and the entire service staff acted like
they were doing you a favor by taking your money and letting you fly
on their airplane. But the reality is now that most all of the
airlines here operate in the same mode these days.

The US airlines are now employing the tactic used by the giant oil
companies to milk the consumers for more money. Flight schedules were
drastically reduced after 9/11 but the demand for flights has now
increased to pre 9/11-levels. Yet the airlines have not increased
their schedules to their former levels -- producing a condition of an
at=artificially restricted supply in a time of increasing demand. This
allows increased pricing, gouging for routine duties, and the kind of
discrimination by ticket price that we are now seeing.

http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.travel.usa-canada/browse_thread/thread/57911a471c4a7a16/4ead518b26b90a54?lnk=st&q=(nickel+OR+and+OR+dime)+ group%3Arec.travel.air&rnum=9&hl=en#4ead518b26b90a 54

The South African Airways (and Express/Airlink) operations were, by
contrast, a breath of fresh air. Ticket prices were comparatively low
for the distances covered. Blankets, pillows, socks, earphones,
eyeshades, very good food, and drinks were happily provided free of
charge on their flights. We even asked for, and received, extra wine
"dinkies" on their flights. The supposedly strict baggage limits were
obviously ignored -- guitars, surfboards, and the classic giant
stuffed giraffes were merrily carried aboard by happy passengers.

Despite the fact that we held discount tickets that were supposedly
non-changeable without a fee, I requested a schedule change by e-mail
and got a nice note back with the changed flight details enclosed. The
contrast with the lousy US airline policies was quite dramatic.

South African Airways is heartily recommended by us.