"In order to ensure that all carriers remain focused on safety, aviation regulations do not require airlines to pay compensation for consequential expenses because of delayed or canceled flights."

Come on, U.S. Air, at least make up interesting bullshit. Compensating passengers could resurrect mighty Rodan, whose insatiable hunger for man-blood would imperil plump business-class passengers. Stuff like that.

Here's the rest of their letter:

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced when Flight 1860 was cancelled due to Air Traffic Control. You have every right to expect our flights to operate as scheduled. We certainly don’t intend to cause difficulties for our customers and realize that any service failure, even when the cancellation is mandated by Air Traffic Control, creates a negative impression of our company.

All airlines must adhere to the instructions given by the airport’s traffic tower. We realize the cancellation of your flight was a frustrating situation; however, the flight was cancelled in conjunction with airport conditions and information from the airport tower.

Deteriorated weather conditions made flying to Philadelphia an impossibility. It became apparent an improvement in this situation was not going to happen. Safety considerations are paramount to all concerned and override flight schedules. We realize this was a frustrating situation; however, the flight was cancelled for safety reasons.

In order to ensure that all carriers remain focused on safety, aviation regulations do not require airlines to pay compensation for consequential expenses because of delayed or canceled flights. This would include such items as hotel expenses, telephone calls, lost wages, missed meetings and other personal expenses including purchasing alternate transportation.

I’m sincerely sorry for the difficulties and the inconvenience you experienced on this trip. Regretfully, per policy and guidelines this is not a compensation issue.

Technically, U.S. Airways is correct in that neither the contract of carriage nor federal regulations compel the airline to offer anything, including an apology letter. Still, as travel-meister Chris Elliot points out, "the federal government doesn't force us" isn't good enough.

...common sense tells you it should do something, even if it means sending them a couple of hundred bucks in vouchers that will be impossible to redeem (or that the passengers will refuse to redeem). But “this is not a compensation issue” is unacceptable.

So what would the right response look like? Could any airline offer a response we'd find acceptable? Compare U.S. Airways' response to Southwest's classy handling of a 2-hour delayed flight.

US Airways to Dominican flight victims: “This is not a compensation issue” [Tripso]
(Photo: Getty)

US Air:

"They are the worst of the worst among one of the worst industries in America."

"US Airways is just sad. I have a friend who had been with America West since its inception, who is deeply unhappy at how bad things are now. He can't understand how, in the merger, US Airways' business model and policies prevailed over those of AW. Supposedly AW was doing well financially at the time, and customers were pretty happy with the airline."

"Airlines seem to have been waging a war of attrition on the whole idea of customer service for the last 20 or 30 years. When it gets to the point that it's less painful to take two days to drive across the country with all of horrors of inflated gas prices, fast food, nothing on the radio but Rush Limbaugh and country music, and the state of Nebraska, you know something is terribly, terribly wrong."

"I would rather have a colonoscopy than deal with US Airlines!
Oh wait its about the same only worse! Maybe a colonoscopy and a root canal at the same time.....???!!!"

"I can't use my miles."

"Thanks for turning my 7 day vacation into 2 and lying about it every step of the way. I hate you. And I hope your drunk of a president crashes his car with his kids in it."

"US Airways is still the worst airline in world history (and I flew Aeroflot in the Soviet era!)"

"US Airways has the worst customer service of any airline, and thus the worst customer service in the world. I was told by a ticketing agent, "We have the power to accommodate you, and we have accommodated others in the same situation as you are, but it's too hard in this situation, so we won't do it.""

"My recent experience of horrible customer service by a USAirways rep at the airport counter - and that I got no response to the complaint email I sent - wins out here. You can tell some of the USAirways employees hate their jobs - but please don't take it out on the traveler. And management needs to be more responsive."

"The only time my luggage was ever lost, it was flying US Scareways. I was flying to Maryland for my aunt's funeral last March. I was in a terrible state of mind to begin with (my aunt died in a car accident), and after nearly missing my connecting flight in DFW because we were running late, got into BWI three hours late to discover my baggage was missing. The staff was unbelievably rude. They told me I would just have to wait until they delivered it (their exact words). I left my sister's address in Laurel and they said it'd be there in the morning. Next day, nada, not even a phone call. Meanwhile the funeral was the next day and I had nothing, not even a toothbrush.

I ended up borrowing a dress from my sister. To add insult to injury, they had the nerve to finally deliver my luggage the morning I was supposed to fly back to Phoenix (apparently they couldn't find my sister's house in Laurel). That was the last time I flew US Scareways."

"My now-husband's aunt flew me out to the East Coast for his college graduation using her massive stash of frequent flyer miles. My flights ended and began at a small airport in Connecticut (Hartford-Bradley, I believe), which was about an hour away from the college and two away from his house. The way in, we had no problems. There was a massive storm on the way out, though, so I was stuck at the airport for over three hours.

When I got to Philadelphia to connect, I was sent to about five different ticket counters to find my flight which I thought I had missed. After two hours of counter-tag, I found out that not only had I missed my flight, but it didn't even exist anymore.

At first, they tried to pin it on me, telling me that they sent me an email regarding the change and that I'd need to rebook. There was no email in my box or his aunt's. Even so, why did the ticketing ladies put a tag with that flight number on my luggage at Bradley? Why didn't they tell me I'd be stranded in PA?

They wouldn't give me a free room, only an $80 voucher. I had no money to my name, so my guy drove another three hours down to PA, then drove another hour and change to the closest hotel with vacancies. When I got back to the airport the next day, I tried to use my free food voucher at the food court. Nobody accepted it.

I will never fly US Airways again. "

"My fun with US Airways: I was scheduled to fly from Rochester NY to Burlington VT for my parents' 25th anniversary, with a stopover in Philly for a few hours. It was intended to be a surprise, and my brother was going to pick me up from the airport and bring me to the party.

So the plane in Philly gets delayed because of snow. There is another one scheduled to leave later, but obviously, not everyone can get on it, so I talk to a person at the desk about being put on standby for the next plane, because the issue is time sensitive. I am informed that I am the only person on the standby list! Yay!

Later, from a different person, I was told that by being put on the standby list, I had queued myself to be last priority, after the people who were scheduled by -didn't- request to be put on standby. I was now absolutely last on the list. When I asked them why I wasn't informed of this when requesting to be on the next flight, I was told that I should've had an understanding of how the standby list works. I thought I did. I was wrong it seems. The next flight was leaving entirely too late for me to have any chance of making it to my parents' anniversary party.

So I tried to call my brother in VT, and couldn't get ahold of him. I next called my parents' house and explained what happened, and she called US Airways right then and put them through on a three way call and reamed them out. Eventually, they conceded that they had pulled a dick move on me, and suggested I fly to Manchester NH, and have someone from VT drive there and pick me up.

So I ended up sleeping in the Philly airport, flying to NH, and my brother drove up from VT to pick me up, then drove all the way back down again.

So much wasted time. Thanks, US Airways. "

"USAir is probably the poster child for the sorry state of affairs in American-run airlines. They're essentially a rush-hour subway car that flies."

Microsoft:

"MS's proprietary formats and poor OS are why I voted."

"since everytime I play a videogame in the back of my head is a "please don't die", I vote Microsoft."

"M!cros0ft's complete detachment from reality..."

"have you SEEN Vista? The only reason I can tolerate it at all is because of Lifehacker."

"I voted for MS because they didn't integrate the HD players into the 360, like how Sony had BR built into the PS3. "

"Microsoft is the evil empire of software. I hate them with a passion. Forcing Vista on consumers is unforgivable. Then, instead of extending XP until Vista is fixed, they tuck tail and run to Windows 7—which will likely have a couple of year's worth of glitches after it is released.

And umm...I guess that means Vista isn't going to get any better because all R&D will be reserved for Windows 7. Gee thanks Microsoft for making people buy a product even its own company doesn't stand behind.

I am sick of the Microsoft merry-go-round of operating systems and I am not playing anymore. We didn't need a whole new rickety operating system for pretty Aero icons. Sell that crap as a add-on package and leave the rest of us the hell alone. When the time comes when I can no longer use XP, I am buying a MAC. I never had an interest in MACs until Vista. But Microsoft can only anal probe a consumer for so long. Enough is enough.

Microsoft is king of the pointless upgrades in order to turn a buck. But forcing a substandard product on people for a buck...well, they have now gone too far.

Microsoft can kiss my ass."

"Microsoft and not only their forced obsolescence of operating systems but trying to force you to buy new peripherals on top of it.

MS trying to force people into using Vista is really the last straw. If they succeed on pushing XP out of use I will go back to using Mac. "

"the xobx 360 is the worst console ever. Some of the best games, but worst console. I'm including the sega 32x in this also!"

"Aside from hawking their latest steaming pile of crap known as Vista, I have another reason for hating Microsoft: buying up all my favorite game developers and ruining my favorite game IPs. I was pissed off when they bought FASA Corporation (ruining the Shadowrun IP in video game format and eventually killing off MechWarrior). I was very pissed off when they bought out Bungie (thus killing the Myth series, one of my favorite RTS IPs ever, now that Bungie no longer owns the IP).

Now they want to buy Yahoo, buy a stake in Facebook... I even found an article amusingly declaring that "Microsoft Buys Evil From Satan". Whenever Microsoft sees money in a niche they haven't dominated yet, their knee-jerk reaction is to simply buy the company that currently holds the leader spot. It may make good business sense, in truth, but that's what makes Microsoft the company we love to hate. "

"Dirty little secret: the overwhelming majority of the spam generated, sent and received on the Internet today comes from compromised Windows systems. Anyone who knows how to enable passive OS fingerprinting on their mail servers has been aware of this for years."

"My Xbox 360 console won't see/share files with my two Windows XP (SP2) machines. No way in hell I'm paying money for Windows Media Center. Knock on wood, I haven't yet experienced the RRoD on my Costco-purchased Xbox 360. $500 in upgrade parts to make my primary gaming box (which I thought was smoking-fast for my needs already) Vista compatible. Meh!"

"Tra la la, I love my Macintosh and its nifty OS."

"Microsoft - created an operating system that is inferior to their own, "outdated" operating system.
They released a console that they have publicly stated will not support the blu-ray standard, only the outmoded HD-DVD standard. In addition, this console has major design flaws such as RROD. To make this worse, the unit costs in the 300-400 dollar range, is hard to get repaired and can even be DoA."

"Has Microsoft ever released a product that wasn't still in the beta stage of development? They've used the general public as a cash-cow for 25 years while constantly releasing products unready for use. They've become a fabulously wealthy monopoly doing this and have absolutely no motive to change (either sales-wise or legally). If they had invented (er stolen) HD-DVD, it would have won and then wouldn't have worked right for 5 years. And they would have made a gazillion dollars off it."

"dont forget that when microsoft first launched the 360, that every one of their systems could not pass the hardware test enabled to prevent defective 360s from leaving the plant...
What did MS do, they decided to not do the tests that gave off failure warnings... which was all of them, and instead pop a game inside the system and if it booted, box the thing and ship it to stores...
now thats what i call quality!"

"I had a computer built recently and the tech was smart enough to get me XP so I don't have to deal with Vista which I hear is horrible."

"Microsoft. For prolonging the HD DVD wars by supporting Toshiba."

"Broken XBoxes; prolonging/supporting the HD disc war so they could get more time to let their digital download service mature; releasing Vista prematurely; multiple/confusing and overpriced Vista SKUs; removing XP from the market because people weren't buying Vista; Zune not supporting Microsoft's own Plays for Sure standard; DRM and Activation schemes that treat paying customers like criminals. I could go on, but I think thats enough to make my case."

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines, Home Depot vs Wellpoint, Wal-Mart vs Citibank, Capital One vs ATT, Sallie Mae vs eBay/Paypal, TransUnion vs Diebold, Best Buy vs CompUSA, DeBeers vs Verizon, Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association

US Airways: According to Zagat's, they're the number one worst airline ("as "unhelpful" as "the DMV," "schedule should be published under "fiction" and the Philly hub is the "Bermuda Triangle of luggage"). They've also joined in with the other airlines in devaluing their frequent flyer programs (translation: legally steal money from you). If that sounds bad, just be glad you're not a US Airways employee. A recent NYT article revealed US Air employees actually hate their own airlines more than their customers do.

Washington Mutual, but one cockroach feeding off the sub-prime mound of bat guano, recently rejiggered its executive bonus pay so no execs would feel any pain from the imploding mortgage market they profited off of and helped create. Two years after acquiring Providian, they still haven't integrated the two systems, sometimes resulting in customers getting completely stranded overseas after having their wallet stolen.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING:

American Airlines vs Blockbuster, Time Warner Cable vs Radioshack, Wellpoint vs Charter Cable, Dell vs Home Depot,
Sears vs Citibank, Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx, Mattel vs ATT, Capital One vs Video Professor, eBay/Paypal vs COX, Apple vs SallieMae, Diebold Vs Pfizer, MTV vs TransUnion, CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon,
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers, Starbucks vs United Airlines,
Exxon vs Crocs, Google Vs Sony, Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods

(Photo: Jaunted)

Dear US Airways,

I confess - I messed up. I made the number one "do not make it" mistake that a traveller can make. I forgot to cancel my flight reservation after my travel plans changed. I'm writing to ask - nay, to plead - for mercy. I hope you'll bear with me for just a few minutes while I tell my story.

The first thing you need to know is that I'm not nearly as much of a neophyte with flying as my situation would suggest. I've been flying all over the country and world since I was an infant - in fact, I'm a private pilot myself. Making such frequent use of aviation as a means of travel and being a member of the aviation community myself I understand as well as any novice could the pressures and demands that running an airline brings with it.

The second thing you need to know is that I'm a college sophomore, and that this spring was to be my great tour of Europe - you know, the one that all college students are supposed to go on at least once, where you backpack through all the great cities and stay in hostels and sometimes starve and shower infrequently and do not care a bit about it because you're having the time of your life. That was supposed to be my trip. I gleefully bought an open-jaw ticket with your company - flying from my home in Maine to Philadelphia, and then on to London, travelling through Europe on my own, and then flying back with you from Rome.

Unfortunately, the US Department of State had other plans for me. The person who was to be my travelling companion on this trip had his passport application waylaid in the bowels of the State Department and by the time it was extracted and processed our date of departure had come...and gone.

Not comfortable with travelling alone through Europe, I had no choice but to stay at home and resolve to plan an even better trip for the future.

I guess I just wasn't thinking - or else I was thinking about planning this other trip - but either way, I simply forgot to cancel my reservation with you. According to your policies, the $664 ticket I purchased now has absolutely no value.

And I understand this - believe me, I do. You had my place reserved, and you could have sold it and made money. So I cost you some money. But here's the thing - I actually didn't cost you as much money as it would seem. There are two reasons for this:

1. Airlines plan on no-shows. Airlines routinely overbook their flights by a few percent or so because they know that there will a few people like me. So, in a sense, even though I didn't tell you I wasn't coming, you planned for it. And in any case, this is only an issue if the flight is full to begin with - which it may not have been.

2. You didn't have to carry me or my baggage to Europe. Fuel is expensive these days - it's probably the single biggest operating expense of airlines. And as I pilot I know that to carry more weight it takes more fuel. The absence of myself and my baggage saved US Airways money in fuel.

What I would like is for some value to be accorded to my ticket. I feel this is warranted because I cost US Airways very little, if anything, in lost revenue by failing to cancel, and I still paid $664.10, and have nothing to show for it.

I'm very aware of the policy you have, however in this case I believe it is unfair and should be waived.

If this reasoning isn't sufficient to persuade you to give me some compensation, then consider this: I fly a lot every year. I live in Maine and go to college in Washington, DC. I fly back and forth from school to home at least 5 times every year, right along a route you fly - PWM to DCA. My business, in short, is very valuable to you. But that's not the biggest reason you should be on my side here. You have an opportunity to make a lifetime customer - even an evangelist - of me. I'm a part of a demographic that travels a lot, and the state of the market is that we have a lot of choice in our travel. It's also the state of the market that airlines have precious little goodwill among the traveling public. If you met me in the middle here and gave my ticket some value, I would not only become a lifetime customer myself, but I would also bring you significant business from my friends and acquaintances. You stand to make ten - or a hundred - times the money you would be giving up if you offer me some compensation for my ticket. I plan to live for a long time, and I would be a lifelong crusader for your company if you helped me out here.

I'm not threatening to write nasty things about you. I'm not threatening to try to make life difficult for your company. I'm instead offering you a form of positive compensation: a promise to be loyal to your company and to convince as many of the people I interact with to do the same - if you'll just help me out of this one tight spot.

I'm hoping to study abroad in Scotland next spring, and I'm going to need a way to get over there. Money is tight. Any help you can offer would be put to immediate use.

Thanks very much for taking the time to read this.

My ticket number for this spring was REDACTED. My confirmation number was REDACTED.

Sincerely yours, Matt

Dear Matt,

Thank you for contacting Customer Relations at US Airways. We appreciate hearing from our customers and having an opportunity to address their concerns.

We have reinstated your ticket REDACTED (REDACTED) as a gesture of goodwill. This ticket was issued on April 10,2007 and is good for one year from date of issue. Please note that all travel must be completed by April 10, 2008. In addition, I have waived our customary $100 re-issue fee as a one time courtesy. Please call our reservation department at 800 428-4322 when you are ready to book your ticket.

We appreciate and value your business. We're working hard to earn your continued patronage. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,

Customer Relations US Airways

Follow our handy guide to learn how to craft your own Executive Email Carpet Bomb.

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

From the Wall Street Journal:

Tempe-based US Airways decided in July to extend its operating day by 30 minutes, spreading flights out more and making four more aircraft available as spares.

The airline added one additional plane to its East Coast shuttle operation, flying the same number of flights with more jets so delays don't affect the schedule as much.

US Airways also added workers at its Philadelphia and Charlotte hubs to better handle passenger re-accommodation. The goal is to have agents meet late flights and hand customers new boarding passes, Parker said.

American has enhanced its planning for diverted flights - planes that can't get to their destination so they divert to an alternative airport to refuel and wait out storms. American's operations center now tries to make sure diverted flights are spread across many airports so backups and logjams don't occur on the ground.

And planners take into account group equipment: Don't send an international flight to a city without U.S. Customs facilities in case passengers need to get off the plane, or don't send a Boeing 757 to a city that may not have a tow bar for a 757 because it handles only small regional jets.

Airlines to alter booking protocol [WSJ via Rick Seaney]
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Rather, it was snowing in Montreal, where the connecting flight was coming from. Delays due to weather or other acts of god usually don't get much in the way of rebates or refunds.

Regardless, Noreastern remains unbowed; he has a stratagem for getting his hotel stay comped, encapsulated in the phrase, "Presumably the flight crew was in Montreal..."

(Photo: MicAttAck)

noreastern: ahoy
benpopken: howdy
noreastern: how's everything where you are today?
benpopken: cold!
noreastern: ah, yes. here as well.
noreastern: and that reminds me of the consumerist type question I had for you
noreastern: you see, I had the pleasure of spending a week in florida, away from the dreadful cold of ohio
noreastern: the trip was good, until the flight home when US Air decided to strand me in philly for the night
noreastern: they decided to cancel my connecting flight because of bad weather
noreastern: that's all well and good, except there was no bad weather where I was (in philly) or where I was flying (ohio)
noreastern: turns out there was some snow in montreal that screwed them up
noreastern: to make a long story shorter, I spent the night in a crappy hotel and flew out the next day (after a 3 hour delay, of course)
noreastern: my gripe is that not only didn't I get a free flight for my troubles, but I actually had to shell out $80 for the crappy hotel room
noreastern: they were kind enough to give me some airport food vouchers and cover about $30 of the hotel
noreastern: the csr people I talked to kept repeating the mantra - we don't reimburse people for weather related cancellations/delays
noreastern: but the way I see it, they can point to any storm anywhere in the world and say it affected travel somewhere in their system
noreastern: I call that a logistical problem on their end, not a weather problem
noreastern: so, in addition to simply venting to you, I'm wondering if you've had any successes dealing with airlines for this type of situation
benpopken: interesting
benpopken: well one of your connecting flights was coming from Montreal, yes?
noreastern: I think the plane that was eventually going to bring me to ohio was coming from montreal. I don't really know.
noreastern: I flew from orlando
benpopken: Sorry to say, but I don't think you have much of a leg to stand on
benpopken: The connecting flight was adversely affected by the weather
benpopken: They didn't point to a random weather somewhere and say it was responsible for the delay
benpopken: They made a monetary gesture with the coupons and vouchers
benpopken: It seems they covered their end of the bargain as best they could
noreastern: the best they could would be to get another plane, but I do see what you're saying
benpopken: I was going to say that I wondered if there wasn't another flight out to Ohio?
benpopken: Either with them or another carrier?
noreastern: the only other carrier was Southwest, who apparently doesn't play well with other airlines
noreastern: I would have had to buy a new ticket from them
benpopken: it's not the best of bargains, to be sure
noreastern: do you think its even worth writing a letter asking for some additional compensation?
benpopken: sure
benpopken: you could say that you found the compensation inadequate
benpopken: express how you feel it didn't match the discomfort you experienced
benpopken: might be able to wring a few more vouchers out of them, or monies off your next flight
noreastern: I think I will. one csr suggested I say the cancellation was because of flight crew unavailability. given the latest mess with the us air/america west merger, they might not even know what's going on
noreastern: thanks for the advice
benpopken: an intriguing stratagem, though dishonest
noreastern: maybe not completely dishonest - presumably the flight crew was in montreal

— BEN POPKEN

He selected his preferred seat when booking online. However, when he arrived at the self-check-in kiosk, he had a middle seat. An airline employee told him his online selections "...was only a "seat request" and not a "seat selection" and did not have to be honored. "

What's the deal? Why bother asking for a seat request if it's going to be ignored? What tips and tactics can he use to insure his wide shoulders don't rub up against two other people?

That's what Tom wants to know, after the jump...

Tom writes:

"I went to Phoenix from DC (BWI Airport) to see friends this weekend. I booked my tix through Orbitz.

I was able to select my seat on my flight out during purchase, which was on US Air (service provided by America West. US Air recently bought out AW)

I was not allowed to select a seat for my return trip on AW (no affiliation to US Air was mentioned on my itinerary, unlike my outbound flight). I assume this was due to complications not yet worked out from to the merger.

I got to BWI just over an hour before my flight out. I checked in at the self-serve kiosk. My seat was not as selected, it was a 'middle seat' (I am 6'5 and have broad shoulders. My most comfortable ride in coach is in an aisle seat). I tried to change my seat only to find that there were only 3 open seats on the plane (all middles). When I inquired about my booked seat, I was told that my seat selection online was only a "seat request" and not a "seat selection" and did not have to be honored. So I sucked it up and sat in the crappy seat on the way out. My questions are: How did all the seats get taken?; Why was my seat selection not honored?; How in the world could all but 3 seats be unconfirmed a full hour before the flight?

On my flight back from PHX (on AW), I checked-in online roughly 18 hours in advance and printed my boarding pass. I was assigned a window seat, without an option to change it online. I was at the airport at PHX a full 2 hours before my scheduled flight. I went to the boarding gate and was informed that there were no aisle seats remaining. Again, how could there be no aisle seats unconfirmed a full 2 hours before the flight?

Can you (or a commenter) explain the seat assignment procedures and how to maneuver through them? Or am I just ignorant that people are far more proactive than me when booking a flight and confirming their seats. If that is the case, how do I become more proactive?

Many thanks in advance."