[mmccanlies]

Call me a naive traveller, but I am posting this for others who mainly travel for pleasure and don't know what airlines are up to these days.
This is a general rant, but I'm aiming this directly at US Airways as I feel they deserve it.

I booked a simple round trip from Austin-Phoenix on US Airways for my daughter. $519 non-refundable
In the end she needed to fly into LA instead but still return from PHX.
US Airways had no flights to LA that would work, so we booked it on another airline. ($350)

To tell US Airways that we did not need the AUS to PHX leg but we wanted to keep the return leg cost $175 ($150 for change fee and $25 reservation fee because it would not let me do it on line). Plus no refund for the unused ticket.
So, $519 for round trip to $694 for one-way, no other change. Good deal for them.
Customer service agents in India or elsewhere, are nearly unintelligible. I had to ask the ladies to speak up and repeat everything and it was 5 times before I could understand one was trying to say 'forfeit'.

I bought trip-cancellation insurance $27 with the reservations. That is a complete rip-off unless you are covering a trip worth 100x that amount. Regular trip cancellation coverage only covers a cancellation in the event that you provide a Dr's or coroners report explaining why you were unable to travel. But there's no time to read and understand the coverage when you're being asked to make the decision at the time your purchasing your ticket. The last time I purchased cancellation insurance, it covered change or cancellation, period.

Lessons learned:
1 Know what the change fees are
2 If there's any uncertainty, in your schedule, do not buy non-refundable tickets. (of course there was no uncertainty at the time I bought the ticket)
3 Don't waste your money on cancellation insurance unless your covering a trip over $1500 or there is a high likelihood someone in your house will die before you get back.
4 Changing your ticket, if you must, will not be a pleasant experience.
5 Don't bother talking to a supervisor, no one at the airline is the least bit sympathetic. In fact, they're probably not enjoying working for the airline anymore than you are enjoying dealing with them.

Finally - all air traffic in Phoenix will be grounded due to a snow storm before I will fly US Airways again.

Enjoy your flight and beware.

[mmccanlies]

No wait! It gets even better. I was told that I would only be charged $175 and immediately received an email receipt confirming a charge for $263 with no explanation.
When I called to get an explanation, the person was utterly brain dead. She would not or could not explain the difference. She only could ask me what date and time I wished to change the reservation to.
No, I don't want to change anything on the ticket. I was told I was being charged $175 and was charged $263 and I want to know why it is different.
"You were charged $150 for the change fee and $25 for the reservation fee."
I know that, so why was I charged $263? dead silence...
it went on like this for 15 minutes before she hung up on me.
Hello? Guess they're really saving us money now by not training their customer service agents.

[wanderer]

Pretty much the bigger airlines operate the same. If you drop the outgoing part of a round trip your ticket is repriced as if your buying a brand new ticket and your paying change fee plus price difference and sounds like you didnt intially buy your ticket from them so they dinged you with a booking fee too. Sounds like $263 ls the chang fee, booking fee, and price difference all added in.

[mmccanlies]

Thanks AE, I kind of figured that was the case, but they never, and after more calls, still will not even acknowledge the fact that they charged me $263, and therefore have no difference to explain.
After much discussion, one US Air representative finally admitted that if we had just canceled the entire ticket then we 'might' have had it to use in the future with the $150 change fee.

So, US Air has gained $782 made 2 people very angry with their customer service and lost 2 customers for life. I am going to the BBB. What they did might be legal, but it is not the right way to do business.

[jimworcs]

They are utterly unscrupulous and make no effort whatsoever to help the customer find the cheapest volition. However, you might challenge this charge. If they quoted $175 and charged you $263, you have a possible case to argue t charg was not authorised.