US Airways...one of the better American Choices (US Airways)

Member Name: martyfarty69

Product:	US Airways
Date:	14/01/09 (289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good customer Service, decent enough flights

Disadvantages: Not quite on the level of BA or Virgin when it comes to planes or service

I currently live in the States and have done for about 2 years now, however over christmas me and my wife decided to take a 2 week Holiday to England to spend the holidays with my family, about 3 months previous and after shopping around for a couple of weeks to get the best price on flights I found a flight through Orbits from Buffalo NY ( Where I live ) to Philadelphia, then Philadelphia to London Heathrow. The Buffalo NY to Philadelphia portion would be using US airways and the Transatlantic portion would be using BA.

So the weekend of our departure rapidly approached and I started to get a feeling of dread when we experienced a large snow storm, after getting 17 inches of snow in 2 days and the day of departure also experiencing 50 MPH winds , the feeling of not being able to get home started to set in, however we departed for Buffalo Niagara International anyway and once we arrived we started to see flight after flight being cancelled, we checked in using US Airways wonderful online check in service so had our Boarding passes ready as we arrived at the airport, once we saw the inevitable and our flight had been cancelled we proceeded to the desk and luckily were one of the first ones there before the crowds started to gather at the US Airways Desk.

We were taken care of by a very polite and courteous Mr Ripper who after seeing all the flights out of Buffalo were being cancelled for the rest of the day started the process of getting us out of Buffalo the next day, in the end he had us on the same flight out of Buffalo the next day but instead of us flying BA for the international portion he booked us on US Airways direct to London Heathrow.

Our flight from Buffalo to Philadelphia was pleasant enough, good service and a nice plane ( for a US Domestic flight anyway ) with fairly comfortable seats, the process at Philadelphia airport was easy enough, the US Airways baggage check in desk was very helpful in getting our bags re-checked in for our international flight.

We boarded our plane at Philadelphia and it was a roomy Boeing 767 with some nice Amenities, the Crew were polite and we had a pilot who was very enthusiastic and humorous with his announcements, the inflight entertainment was actually better than I expected, as when i've flown US Carriers before the movie selection is usually poor and the way its delivered is normally not much better, for those of you who value In-Flight entertainment this is one of the better choices, although this flight didn't have the wealth of movie choices such as someone like Virgin Atlantic does on its Transatlantic flights, the movies were current and you had the great ability for it to be "on Demand" which means that you can watch the movie when YOU want to, rather than having to wait until its scheduled to start or if you're asleep and wake up wanting to watch a movie, you don't have to wait until it restarts again as so many airlines do, that I think is a nice feature and really thinks of the passengers.

The seat was average for Economy class, being 6'2' seat room is a concern for me and while this wasn't the roomiest seat ive ever experienced it wasn't the smallest either.

The food was average airline fare, ive had better on BA , Virgin and Air France, but it did the job and as it was an overnight flight the breakfast they served was filling and tasted OK.

Our flight ended up landing early by 40 minutes which is nice as I don't know many people who enjoy flying and being cramped on a plane for long periods so when a flight can be shortened its normally a relief for the average passenger.

Having flown all the Major American Airlines both domestically and Transatlantic I'd have to say that US Airways ranks up there at the top ( read my other review of Continental, for the opposite ) and their Customer Service and Service in general is good and while the feeling of class and service is maybe not up there quite with BA or Virgin Atlantic ( My personal Favourite ) if you are booking a flight and US Airways is an option I would Certainly pick it over someone like Continental or United.

Summary: A very good option if you're flying US Domestic, and not bad for Transatlantic service