Those of you familiar with the reputation US Airways has may think you misread that title.  I assure you, it is correct.  In our recent trip to a friends wedding in Grand Cayman we had a truly great experience flying US Airways.  I had always heard mixed (at best) word-of-mouth reviews and had generally avoided them.  In addition, my wife and I are both gold elite on Continental, so we’d fly Continental or one of their affiliates.

Recently, however, Continental switched to become a member of the star alliance, making US Airways an affiliate partner (shared benefits for elites and mileage credits for flights).  In addition, our flight window was tight due to our schedules and the wedding.  US Airways had by far the best connecting service through Charlotte that put us there in the least amount of time from Austin.  Continental had a non-stop from Houston, but it only went on certain days.  Here are some things I encountered that, looking back, made me very pleased w/ US Airways:

1. Initially we were going to leave our 9-month old daughter with her grandparents for the wekend (a first and big step), but after re-considering and finding out the wedding would be fairly baby/kid friendly we decided to bring her along.  We had assigned ourselves in exit row seating w/ extra leg room.  The flight from Charlotte to Grand Cayman was completely full except for the exit row.  In other words, there was no place else to seat us given children aren’t allowed in exit rows.  I explained to the agent at check-in and again to the gate agent that there were several other friends going to the wedding on the same flight and that they’d be happy to switch with us.  They said that was fine, but they needed the computer to issue a boarding pass for our daughter which it wouldn’t do because we were in the exit row.  So, it was a bit of a computer catch-22.  Instead of blindly following the computer like many agents due, the gate agent actually used her head and issued a hand written boarding pass.  It was easy, we got on board, switched seats, everyone was in compliance and happy.
2. When we deplaned in Grand Cayman my wife accidentally left her iPhone in the front pocket of the seat she was sitting in.  She discovered this the next day.  After reading horror stories about US Airways lost and found, I was sure it was gone forever.  Low and behold a day later I received a voice mail from the Grand Cayman airport letting me know they had her phone.  This is pretty incredible for two reasons.  One, the phone was completely out of batteries and they went out of their way to charge it.  Two, they looked through her contacts to find her “In Case of Emergency” contact listing to get in touch with me.  I called them back to let them know we’d pick it up upon our departure.  They kept it locked away and when we went to leave, we received the phone back.
3. When we booked our ticket there was no valid connecting flight returning to Austin.  Instead we booked to Houston and were planning to catch a late night one-way continental flight back to Austin.  A couple of days before our departure I checked the Charlotte – Austin flights.  Sure enough they’d added a later flight that would be an easy connection.  I called the US Airways customer service team and explained our situation.  At first they asked for a $150 / person change fee, but after re-iterating that the flight literally was not available when we booked our ticket they did a one-time courtesy change at no charge.
4. On the way out, seeing we were star alliance gold members and traveling with an infant, the check-in agent went out of her way to put us in the bulk head row and block out the middle seat so we could have the entire row to ourselves.
5. Upon arrival in Charlotte we were all able to access a very well appointed US Airways lounge and enjoy a delicious glass of wine together before heading our separate ways.

So, thanks US Airways, for making our trip an enjoyable part of our wedding vacation; as opposed to something we had to grin and bear.  I will gladly fly your airline again.

Often times I use this blog as a bully pulpit of sorts when companies act in a negative way.   The thought is two fold that it helps to vent a bit and it also helps everyone when the public holds companies accountable.   The first step in that is for people to share their experiences.  It goes without saying that anything I write here is just my experience and others may have had completely different experiences.

That said, it is much easier to write a blog post when something negative has happened and much more difficult to remember and write about all the positive things that happen numerous time each day.  This week I had one incident that clearly stood out and made me pause to say – now that is how customer service is done!   That company, Room and Board, is somewhat known for their good customer service.  We’ve been to their store in SoHo numerous times and have many pieces of their furniture in our apartment.  Since moving back to Austin, there is no store so we rely on their website.  Recently, we were buying some chairs for our office.  These chairs happened to be on special 15% off when we ordered them.

Unfortunately, when they arrived we had ordered slightly the wrong ones.  They did not have adjustable arms – something which makes a huge difference in comfort, in my opinion.  The ones w/ adjustable arms were not much more and it was a simple oversight when we clicked order.  And, in my mind, one of the downfalls of web shopping – had we been present we surely would have sat in, tried out and picked out the right chairs.

I called into customer service to arrange a return and hopefully to get the correct chairs sent out.  When I talked to the CSR she informed me that while she’d be happy to place the order for the new chairs, she would not be able to honor he sale price as the sale had ended the day before.  I understood why she couldn’t do it, but some how it just felt wrong.  After some discussion, I told her to just go ahead and process the return and that we’d get the chair someplace else or another time.

After I hung up the phone I was sitting there feeling bad about the entire thing.  If I had just paid more attention we would have gotten the right chairs.  If Room and Board wasn’t so inflexible.  etc, etc.  Just then my cell phone rang.  It was the Room & Board customer service rep.  She explained that she had just not felt right about not being able to give us the sale price and that she’d gone and presented our case to her manager.  They’d agreed that despite the policy, in this instant, it made since to go ahead and extend the sale price for the replacement chair, if I’d like to order it.  Absolutely, I said…. and the rest is history.

There are a few things about this that make this customer service done right.  The foremost is that a customer service rep actually looked at the situation as the unique set of events that it was and was able to step outside of the rules to make an exception.  The second was that she actually used her head to make this decision instead of just blindly following the computer screen.  And finally, that she actually cared enough to take the time to see if she could make things better.

It was a small effort, but it went a long way and in my mind they’ve earned serious points and they’ve earned a customer for life.  Anyone looking for quality home or office furnishings should seriously check them out.  Online at http://www.roomandboard.com