I Hate America West

So I buy a ticket from these jerks to San Francisco, and they have me connect in Phoenix. So far, no big deal. But then, our plane arrives late. I barely had half an hour to connect before, and now I have closer to 15 minutes. I don't know if you've ever been on a plane before, but they expect you to be at the gate at least 30 minutes in advance. Knowing this, I'm hesitant to board. I walk up to the woman accepting tickets, and ask her if we're honestly expected to make the connection. She claims that 15 minutes is plenty of time to get between gates. So then I ask what will happen if we miss the connection: will America West put us up in a hotel for the night? And she actually replies to me saying that they are not required to give us hotel rooms for the night (since the plane was delayed for weather, rather than a mechanical failure), and that we can sleep in the airport. At this point, I'm forced to ask if she's serious; all she can tell me is that plenty of people sleep in airports.

Now, I know that America West is not required to put us up for the night. Thanks, but that's not really the point of customer service. Sometimes, you do things just to make people happy. I dunno, maybe you might want repeat business? Apparently not in this case. So I board the plane anyways, and sure enough our connecting flight leaves without us. It was the last flight of the night, and now I have to wait almost nine hours for the next flight. At least I had something to do; I had to wait in line for an hour or two just to get my new boarding pass. By this point, it's almost midnight and the airport is locked down; we're not allowed to leave until the next day. So, I'm forced to find a quiet bench to sleep on until morning.

Sadly enough, this isn't the worst trip I've ever taken. I mean, flying to California made it all worth it, even though I spent more time travelling than I actually spent there (due to my delay, I was only in the Bay Area for less than a day).