[John Madland]

On Thursday, May 29, 2008, US Airways canceled flight 2774 from Phoenix to Oakland at the last minute. The plane was fully loaded and the doors were closed and ready for an on time departure at 7:22 am, when the pilot announced that he had some bad news and he stressed that it was not his decision and he clearly was not happy about what he had to tell us. He was being pulled from our flight only so that he could fly Ms. Sandra Day O'Connor (a retired Supreme Court Justice who lives in Phoenix), to Santa Barbara. He first said that our flight would not be canceled, but only postponed until they could find another Captain for our flight. Within 15 minutes, the decision was made that the flight would be canceled. I have Silver status with US Air and have for several years, but was still not offered a seat on the next flight which left at 9:30, but was assigned to the 1:30 flight which arrived in Oakland at 3:30 pm. This was a day trip and I had my return booked at 4:10 pm, so it should be obvious that a 3:30 arrival made no sense. I also had a very important 1:00 pm meeting to attend and US Air was not going to be able to get me to Oakland in time for that. I called Southwest and was able to get a seat on their 8:30 flight, so my schedule was saved, but I paid more than $80 more for the last minute ticket.

UA Airways offered only $100 toward a future ticket, which was less than $20 for me since their cancellation had already had cost me $80. In several emails with their so called 'Customer Service' they have refused to budge an inch from the $100 offer and they are denying that the flight was canceled to cater to a celebrity. They are now calling it a safety issue which is totally bogus.

I am open to any suggestions in dealing with this terrible airline to get some satisfaction to a situation that never should have happened.

John in AZ

[Silent Bob]

the hard part john, is to prove that what happened with the pilot having to fly a judge, is what actually happened. In that sense you would need to get statements from other passengers, especially those inconvenienced, to back it up.But because the flight was ultimately canceled they should rebooked you on another airline that flew out just as early. You can try to push it for a bigger voucher, but i don't think you will get anything more.