We are toying with the idea of cancelling our Christmas trip to Vegas and instead flying US Air to Phoenix to see our Packers play the Cardinals on 12/27. Flights are Milwaukee to Chicago, to Phoenix and then reversed coming home. We have never flown US Air. I got a package on Travelocity for $1,800 including the Hyatt Place in Scottsdale and a compact from Dollar. One other problem. We may have to way overpay for game tickets, but we have never seen a Packer road game, just at Lambeau. What are your experiences with US Air? We are fairly committed to flying SWA all the time. Plus it's winter in the Midwest and weather could be a factor.
I fly US Airways to Phoenix every March to watch MLB Spring Training. U.S. Airways is Phoenix-based. They are a typical commercial airline that charges extra for the seats with extra leg room, priority boarding, checking your bags, etc. And, if I you need to cancel or change your flight, there are hefty rebooking fees (unlike Southwest). In my experience, U.S. Airways is not that great about accommodating passengers when flight delays lead to a missed connecting flight. Other than that, the planes I've been on are fine for flying, and not any more or less cramped than a Southwest flight. Seat assignments are in advanced, so no open seating like Southwest. I can't think of anything else right now, but post any questions and I'm sure I or other board members can answer.
US Air will not exist when you fly. The last US Air flight will happen in October. One question about the America/US Air is will their computer integration go better than United's which even years after the merger with Continental still has computer problems as witness by last weeks outage.
They always have been and will continue to be one of the worst run airlines. The merger with American took the American name but kept the USAIR management in place to run the whole airline into the ground. I'm not sure what their problem is, I used to fly them regularly in the 1980's then the regular flight cancellations and lost bags were just too much for me. I fly into Hartford almost every Friday or Saturday night. Looking at the arrivals board it is more common than not to see American/USAIR flights very delayed or cancelled, followed by many SWA delays. Departures the next day are usually affected as this impacts crew rest times. The regular business travelers fly Delta and the tickets are outrageous because of this. You maya luck out because Phoenix is a hub. Years ago they merged with Western which was a good airline and their HQ was there. Oh, USAIR is the only airline I've ever gone down an emergency chute on. At least that worked.
USAir has a heavy presence in Philadelphia and even when I lived there I avoided them. That is how I ended up flying Continental (oh how I miss you!) and dealt with connections. American is a half decent airline so the hope would be their absorption of USAir will help. And like zoobrew said, hopefully the systems integrations go smoother than the United merger.
Still thinking...but now the plan might be to fly into Vegas (SWA) on Xmas Eve, stay 3 nights and then drive to Phoenix early Sunday morning for the game and stay one night there. If the Cardinals and Packers are both having good years, there is a possibility that could become the NBC, Sunday night game because of flex scheduling. Still looking at prices for a car rental drop in another city or whether it would be better to drive back to Vegas and catch our outgoing, already scheduled flight on 12/29. Ticket prices on Stub Hub range from $175pp for nosebleed, top of the stadium seats to well over $800pp for some decent seats. EDIT: Damn, car rental to pick up in LAS and drop in PHX is over $1,100 with Dollar.
Joe, have you considered flying from LAS to PHX? It's a short flight (about an hour), and Southwest flies that route. Right now, the flights from LAS to PHX on Southwest for 12/27 are $111.
I haven't. We just started talking about this yesterday and will certainly take that option into consideration. In the end as I've known to have done in the past, I'll just say f*ck it, lets just go to Vegas. We do have what is called the Gold season ticket package for the Packers, so we get 1 preseason and two regular season games each year, but we have never seen a Packer road game and PHX in December sounded inviting.
Have flown USAir since their merger with Western. (Used to have non stops from Ohare to Las, now all go through Phoenix) Never had a problem. Just flew this past april To Phoenix, brand new first flight plane. Very nice. Very friendly attendants.
I have flown with U.S on trips to Vegas 3 times with my last one being in February although the transatlantic flights were AA, I have never had any problems with them even in 2008 and 2010 before the days of the merger with AA. I was delayed coming back in February in Philly but that was because of heavy snow there so not the airlines fault and I also learnt a lesson that if I go that time of year again choose to change at a hub further in land.
I fly US Air ("Now part of the American Airlines family") fairly often. I have no major complaints. For a while it seemed like it was big-plane-little-plane-roulette with US Air but lately I've always been on real planes. I can't remember any serious delay or anything. Only major issue is that the US Air brand is going away and our resident TAs are not sure how this will affect schedules and prices. We (OMA) has usually lost flight options with each major merger. Here in our airport (OMA) they say they will be moving US Air from the north terminal to the south to be with the rest of the AA gates. As of a couple weeks ago they were still in the north.
Technically, American West Airlines out of Phoenix merged with US Airways which was in its second (?) trip through bankruptcy and kept the name. They are the dominant carrier in Philly and there were concerns about loss of service with the American Airlines merger. I think two or three trips through bankruptcy can have a negative effect on customer service as wages and benefits were slashed in each subsequent trip. Then Southwest came into Philly a few years ago and had one of its most successful roll-outs ever which caused fares to drop.