*UPDATED* Airline Taking Advantage of a Military Man

*UPDATE: First of all I wanted to thank those of you who took the time to write U.S. Airways. I really appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedules to help a member of my family and a Marine! Now for the update! U.S. Airways has been in contact with my in-laws and are in the process of having a $150 voucher sent out to them. Great news, right!? In light of this news, if there are people who come across this post wanting to write an e-mail to the airline, there is no need to anymore. The situation has been taken care of and everyone is satisfied with how it all worked out. U.S. Airways was very helpful and understanding....after all the e-mails they received ;-) Thank you again, enjoy this holiday season and have a very Merry Christmas! :-)

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I am angered tonight. I typically wouldn't write a post like this, but it has angered me to tears and I feel like everyone should know what happened.

My brother-in-law, a U.S. Marine, recently found out that he is to be deployed soon to Afghanistan. So when he was granted leave, he booked a round-trip flight home with U.S. Airways to spend time with his family before being overseas for a year. Not having his own vehicle on base, he depended on another Marine to get him to the airport, but that Marine took his time and got my brother-in-law there late. By the time he made it to his terminal, it was only 20 minutes before his flight was to leave. No one was at the desk and he was unable to find anyone to get him on his plane....he ended up watching his plane take-off without him on it.

Alaska Airlines was able to get him on a flight with a one-way ticket, which cost as much as his round-trip ticket, and assured him that he would still have his ticket back to base with U.S. Airways...but now, 2 days before he is to head back, we find out that isn't the case!

Apparently if you miss your flight, they automatically cancel your flight back on a round-trip ticket and they charge another $150 to reinstate that ticket. I don't understand it! If you pay for 2 tickets and don't use your first, you should still have the second one that you paid for, right?

So, my mother-in-law ended up calling the airline to see if there is anything that they can do...at least wave that fee. The woman she talked to was rude. She acted like my mother-in-law should have known that's what would happen. My mother-in-law insisted that they never fly and there was no reason for them to think that he'd lose his ticket back to base....the woman at U.S. Airways HUNG UP ON HER!!!

My mother-in-law ended up calling the number again and got someone totally different in a totally different call center, so there was nothing he could do about the first person my mother-in-law talked to. He was very kind about the situation and apologized saying that there really was nothing that she could do by calling....the only thing she could do was get as many people as possible to write the airline at their website and maybe if enough people were upset by what happened, then U.S. Airways would do something for my brother-in-law.

If this had happened to just anyone, I'm sure I'd be upset, but not to the extent that I am knowing that this is my brother-in-law, who is a U.S. Marine, who just came home to see his family before being deployed to risk his life for our country...that's the part that makes me cry. How could the airline NOT do what they can for him? And what is $150 dollars to an airline?

I am going to be writing U.S. Airways in hopes that they will work with my in-laws and help them out. I would appreciate it, if you have a minute and are as upset about this as I am, if you could also write the airline? It would really mean a lot to me :-)

This is the information you will need to fill out their complaint form:

Link to form: http://www.usairways.com/Forms/CustomerRelations.aspx

Departure City: Palm Springs, CA

Arrival City: Detroit, MI

Departure Date: November 13, 2010

List Names of People Traveling: Please e-mail me at khmorgan_00@yahoo.com for his name.

If you would like to just copy and paste what I wrote to U.S. Airways, this is my e-mail:

"I was recently made aware of a situation where a U.S. Marine, missed his flight home on your airline. He was going home to see his family before being deployed to Afghanistan. He was able to get a one-way flight through another airline and was under the assumption that he would still have his ticket back to Palm Springs...since it WAS already paid for. Turns out your airline cancelled that ticket and wants to charge him $150 to reinstate it....even though he already paid for it? This man is about to go overseas to fight for our freedom and I feel that we, including your airline, should be doing what we can to thank him! Your airline was already called by his mother seeing if there was any way you could wave that fee and she was hung up on by one of your employees who was being rude to her throughout the conversation. We are only asking that you be kind enough to wave the fee to reinstate his ticket back to Palm Springs. PLEASE consider this request to help a U.S. Marine."

The rest of the information that they ask for will have to be your own personal info if you were to take the time do this for me. Again, I would really appreciate any help that I can get with this. Also, you have my permission to re-post this on your blog as well, if you would like to do that or share on facebook or twitter.

Thank you again! And remember, on this Thanksgiving, to give thanks for our service men and women who are risking their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom!! :-)

***I also wanted to let you know that despite all the negative elements around this situation, there were some positive. When my brother-in-law was trying to get on his plane, Alaska Airlines actually paged U.S. Airways several times for him trying to get someone to get him on his flight. And, when he missed his flight, an older couple, who had seen what had happened, gave him $200 out of their pocket to help him get home! The kindness and generosity of these people really warmed my heart! :-)