Airline Mergers

USAir and America West have changed their websites and their phones to state how the merger is a great one for their customers.

It does look good on paper:
- combined they service many domestic destinations I like to visit (without having to connect via all those US Airways hubs!)
- frequent flier miles from both programs can be combined
- one call and they can check availability on both airlines

However, my experience has not been great. On my return from Vegas last weekend, the AW did not even check out available USA flights. I walked over to the USA counter and the friendly guy did in fact help me out and move me to the next available USA flight.

And then there is the situation with using frequent flier miles. No. Nada. Nope. There is simply nothing available from today through Jan next year! To anywhere! On either airline! What???? Never had this problem before. Are they simply not allowing FF travel until they figure things out? In the meanwhile, it's a real pain.

And Susan found out that her USA FF miles are expiring. After endless phone calls, discovered that both airlines use www.points.com, and I could transfer her expiring miles elsewhere. At least that problem solved. Now if only I could find a flight outta here.