Skybus ruins Christmas
Joan Tanner wrote:
I flew back from Columbus, OH to San Diego, CA to only come back home with no
luggage because skybus can’t find them. I waited at the baggage claim carousel
for my luggage and when I noticed that all the luggage was already out, I had a
skybus rep paged to baggage claim to find out what had happened to my baggage.
I waited for 30 minutes and no one came. So, I had to walk all the way to the
skybus ticket counter, with my cranky 14 month old son, to complain. When I
got to the ticket counter, I spoke to one of the reps while the other skybus
reps where standing around listening. When I had told them that my bags were
not at baggage claim, they told me to go back and look again because I’ve
probably just missed it. But when I told them that we’ve checked and my bags
were not there, they told me that it probably didn’t make it on the plane and
suggested that it never made it on because I probably checked in late. But I
got to the airport two hours before my flight took off. They apparently didn’t
know what to do so and told me to come back tomorrow and that my bags would
probably be at the next flight into San Diego. I didn’t want to come back and
find out again that my bags never made it on. So, I had one of the reps call
Columbus to see if they have my bags there. One guy called while another guy
went to baggage claim again to check. When the guy came back empty handed and
the guy on the phone told me that he couldn’t get a hold of anyone, they just
told me to write down my contact information and they would call if when they
get word of my bags. So, I gave them my contact information and one of the
reps says to me, “it’s not San Diego’s skybus fault, it’s all Ohio.” I left
the airport three hours after it had landed. I never received a call back and
I e-mail skybus to complain. I even resorted to calling Columbus airport where
they gave me the number to Skybus’ baggage service department. Unfortunately
they don’t like to answer their phones because I’ve called numerous times and
left voicemail messages and still no call. The only thing I can do is drive to
the airport and keep bugging the reps at the ticket counter. I hope after all
of this they reimburse me for all my airport parking fees.
I’m extremely dissappointed with the service I am getting with Skybus. I now
see that a call center is extremely necessary when dealing with issues like
this. And it’s sad because my son had all his Christmas gifts he received from
his family in Ohio, and now all his gifts are missing. Thanks for ruining his
Christmas Skybus!
Comment by GiveMeABreak
I have flown Skybus numerous times and have never had this problem. Skybus is the best Airline ever and if you think losing your bags is a problem why don’t you go to another airline were they will lose your bags and the delay your flight. I am guessing you chose Skybus because the fares were so low, cut them a break for all you know your bag could have been left behind because you had something in it you weren’t suppose to have. Ohhhhh Skybus lost a bag how many bags do you think other airlines have destroyed or lost. And it really doesn’t matter if your son’s Christmas presents were in there at least you had each other for Christmas there are people all over the country that could not be with there loved ones for Christmas. Obviously being with your family its important to you because you found time to come on this website and complain about your bag being lost with meaningless gifts inside. Get over yourself.
Comment by JoanTanner
GiveMeABreak- I’m glad you had positive experiences with Skybus. I myself have flown with other airlines and also experienced having my bags missing. The difference is that the airline were helpful in finding out where my bags were and sending them to me, unlike Skybus who can’t even tell me what had happened. It’s been one week and I’ve called, I’ve e-mailed and I’ve even gone to the airport to figure out what exactly is going on, and no one is giving me an answer. The Skybus reps would call their supervisor, but there would be no answer, and they even called the Columbus airport where they too were unable to reach anyone. I’m not upset with the fact that my son lost all his presents…it is sad because this was the first time my son has seen his father since he was born and so the gifts do have more of a sentimental value to them. But what I’m really upset about is how all of this is being handled. Wouldn’t you want your questions answered if you found out that all your personal belongings are lost? And by the way, the flight was delayed as well, so I did go to an airline where they lost my bags and delayed my flight. So, Get over yourself.
Comment by Diane
To GiveMeABreak
You must be a “man”. If it was your missing belongings it would be a whole different ballgame, wouldn’t it. You would cry loudest and longest of all.
Comment by Anonymous
Well, folks, let me start by saying I was there when this backdoor hijacking of DOT foreign control laws launched last May. In fact, I was there before it launched. Excuse me while I vomit after hearing someone refer to Skybus as being the best airline ever. Well, I take that back…sort of. If you are the type of person who has a death wish or thinks something like air travel can suffer an even less than cursory focus on safety or security, then by all means, call Skybus the best airline ever. If you’ve simply lost luggage as a result of entirely unqualified and poorly trained employees (or, rather likely, employees of a contracted company), then consider yourself lucky. I can personally attest to the fact that Skybus cares more about being the lowest cost airline - through the mantra of saving every dollar imaginable - than it cares about being inherently safe or secure; let alone being customer-oriented. In fact, I would even second guess myself if I didn’t know for certain that the guy calling all (and I mean all) the shots is Irish. Not even a citizen of the USA, mind you, and Skybus has kept that so well hidden that they are literally getting away with it on the backs of the American consumer public. But you won’t read about that in the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. After all, their parent company has invested several million in Skybus’ ultimate entry into aviation history as a complete and utter failure to execute the most viable airline business model. The question here, folks, is whether or not they will commit involuntary manslaughter before they cease operations. But hey, what do I know, I only watched these maniacal, inexperienced, and money-hungry wolves jump into their sheep costumes and lie better than Enron, Halliburton, Bush, Scott Peterson, and the LAPD combined. By the way, out of the original group of highly experienced cockpit and cabin crews hired, not many are left. Another way to put that is to say that those who have been in the industry long enough to have seen some bad things happen didn’t hang around for the opportunity to have their names engraved in memorial marble somewhere between Columbus, OH and somewhere far from an actually large city. Especially not for half the pay one would expect for professional jobs tending to the safety and security of the traveling public. What is left, I have witnessed, is a collection of cosmotology dropouts, low flight time pilots, and for good measure, a few whose welfare checks were coming to an end and had to get a job at either Wal-Mart or Skybus (Wal-Mart pays more by the way). If that’s not enough, the executives at Skybus have not even purchased a home here in Columbus, but choose the convenience of renting. Sounds mighty permanent, eh? So, you butterfly-pumpers ought to do some information seeking and then consider that if greater odds of winning the lottery prompted you to by more tickets, than naturally, greater odds of becoming an aviation statistic should prompt you to by less tickets, if any whatsoever. God bless the person that created this site!
Comment by DT
Skybus ruined my Christmas. Live in Cleveland-which requires 2 hr drive to Columbus. Going to Biloxi Xmas evening. Arrived at Columbus airport, standing in line, a friend calls me to tell me on the news they say Biloxi flight is cancelled and news shows angry people at Columbus airport. Guess what? We are soon to be one of the “angry people” 5 mins later we are at counter and told “yes, the flight was cancelled and you were sent an email telling you of that”…no email was ever sent and they did have my email adddress as they confirmed our check-in on line that morning. Our entire vacation was ruined–if they had at least contacted us by email, we could have stayed with our family on Christmas Day and not driven 2 needless hours. (This wasn’t a $10 flight either–$130 rd trip).
Comment by Anonymous 2
I would like to comment about the crew experience that Anonymous posted. I have been in aviation for over 20 years, have 7 type ratings, and have over 10,000 hours of commercial flying experience. I have lived in Columbus for nearly 3 years and had applied to Skybus thinking it had a lot of potential. I was called during the first month of operation and offered an opportunity to interview for a First Officer (co-pilot) position. (I was given the initial impression when applying that I would be interviewed for a Captain position due to my experience.) The voice on the phone then explained to me that the training was unpaid and the starting pay was $30,000 per year. For those of you that do not know the starting pay for airline pilots; Southwest, Fed Ex, and UPS start their pilots around $50,000 per year. I politely refused the interview and asked them to call me if the starting pay were raised to industry standard. That was nearly six months ago and have yet to hear from Skybus. I also recently found out they hired a pilot straight into a Captain seat with about 2,400 hours. How safe does that make you feel? If you want to know what is really going on at Skybus, call the FAA and get more information.
As for GiveMeABreak, GIVE ME A BREAK! I know most of the first 13 Flight Attendants that were hired at Skybus. There are 5 left. The 8 that quit did so because of many issues at Skybus including SAFETY, pay, low training standards, and supervisor intimidation to name a few. In fact, a new-hire failed her training and a supervisor whose initials are S.R. asked the Lead Flight Attendant Trainers that failed her to change the official FAA paperwork to a passing grade. (That’s called falsifying records and it is illegal.) Skybus used them for their experience to get the airline certified, then treated them like dirt! The majority of the remaining Flight Attendants are nothing more than High School graduates with NO airline experience. In fact one of their Lead Flight Attendants in charge of training was detained in Greensboro Airport by the TSA for bypassing security with 3-4 Skybus Flight Attendants that DID NOT have proper airport identification. (That’s called piggy-backing and it is illegal.) Also, many of the Flight Attendants are earning less than a living wage and some of them have turned to public assistance (food stamps, etc.) to make ends meet. But wait, didn’t Skybus get tax breaks from the city of Columbus and the State of Ohio? Where is that money going? Why then are they paying their Flight attendants so little? Shouldn’t they pass some of that incentive on to their employees?
All I can say is, “You get what you pay for!” Is a $10 seat worth the risk?
Comment by Anonymous 3
You sound like a disgruntled flight attendant, not pilot. I know for a fact that the pilots working for this airline are top notch and safe. I know for a fact that there have not been any reports to the NTSB or FAA about safety violations by the pilots. There have been some incidents with new FAs however, but none worthy of a violation by the government. Call the airline what you will, BUT STAY OFF THE FLIGHT CREWS!
Comment by givemeabreak is a joke
GiveMeABreak,
You obviously have no clue what your talking about… You’ve prob lived in columbus your whole life and have flown skybus once, and it was prob to West Virginia you hilljack. And, to go on a whim and take skybus’ side for losing the gifts…? Oh god ill stop, your probably 18 years old. Why dont you get your facts straight before you start babbling away. You are a complete piece of trash.
Cheers!
Comment by Anonymous 2
Anonymous 3, I am NOT a flight attendant. I have a very close friend that is retired from US Air and is a Captain for Skybus. He has told me on numerous occasions that Flight Crews continually violate FARs.
Comment by Anonymous 3
Well if it occurs on a continous basis then surely the FAA must be all over Skybus…but wait…they’re not. Hmmm, something seems amiss here. I’m sure your friend is the only one that works there that is safe. Seeing as you get on here and tell the general public that it’s a dangerous airline and to avoid flying on them, then by all accounts your calling your friend a dangerous pilot. I would encourage anyone to call the FAA about Skybus and find out the real story. I have friends that work there too, and they have no prior record of unsafe operation nor have they had any since working there. I take offense personally that you feel friends I have known all my life are unsafe when I know the exact opposite is true. So good luck getting your friend furloughed because you’re mad at the company, I’m sure he’ll appreciate that when he’s back at US Air sitting in PHL on the ramp for 3 hours trying to leave.
Comment by Anonymous4
Anonymous,
The leap of faith from FI huh?!?!? Hi Tony!
Comment by Anonymous 2
Anonymous 3 must be the 2400 hour commuter pilot that “landed the big airline job”. I am not mad at the company. I am disgusted with the company. They get low time morons like yourself to wag their tails and sit and beg for your tiny little biscuit. Many of the flight attendants are on public assistance. All the while Bill lines his pockets and buys a brand new Porsche. There is only one member of management (Bud) that has enough belief in Skybus to buy a house here. What does that tell you? The person that runs the show there is Charlie Clifton, NOT Bill, Ken, or Bud! You know, the guy that started Ryanair. Look up Ryanair on wikipedia……”In October 2006, Ryanair was voted the world’s most disliked airline in a survey by the TripAdvisor website, and in November 2006, it was revealed as the subject of more complaints than any other airline in the EU.” With Charlie at the helm (your blind if you think he isn’t) Skybus is fast approaching the same reputation. By the way, I never said that my friend was the ONLY one that is safe…..that was you! Also, when you learn to read, I said my friend was RETIRED from US Air. He has NO plans to go back there, they are run as poorly as Skybus. Check the BBB and see how many complaints there are against your beloved airline. The ONLY thing any airline has to offer is CUSTOMER SERVICE! Without customer service all the $10 fares in the world won’t keep Skybus from going under. I have more important things to do than waste my time here trying to reason with someone of your obvious low IQ. Learn to read and have a great career at Skybus making $65,000 a year!
Comment by Anonymous 3
Wow, are you sure you aren’t a flight attendant? You whine like one. You trade insults faster than you traded your pension. I’m sure glad congress passed that act to let us fly with you “experienced” guys, five more years of moaning and complaining. You are right on one thing in your little rant there, I am a commuter guy, and will be for about another year or so. Also, you forgot the part that Ryanair pilots are the highest paid in the EU. Aparently, you have nothing better to do with your time than come here and insult me like a sixth grader. Now me go to stoody mor of mi hokked on phoneics stuf
Comment by Anonymous
To Anonymous 2: I couldn’t have said it better myself.
To Anonymous 3: You’re outnumbered buddy. Even worse, you are drunk on Skybus kool-aid and you will not be invited to my Skybus Tanked Jamboree later this year! Fool. How can you so vainly argue with two people who obviously know a lot more than you do about the reality of Skybus and the clowns in charge of it? Ever hear of hindsight? It’s 20/20. Always. We have it, you don’t.
Comment by Anonymous
Oh, and your attempt to form words that illustrate phonics had me in gales of laughter. How about…
YOO AHR RIL-LEE STEW-PID AND DUM! AHR YOO RIL-LEE AH CAHM-YOO-TAR PIE-LUT? AYE DOO NAHT BEE-LEEV YOO!
Comment by Nikki Banks
I do work there and work as a crew member and let me tell you to all get a life and grow up and you are all full sh*t!! Why do you care how much I make. Assholes. Worry about your own!
Comment by Anonymous 3
lol…nice
Comment by Anonymous
I think you mean you work as Nikki the flying sales girl. Last I checked, crew members don’t get hand-held like toddlers through a half-assed training program and they don’t tolerate things like not getting a winter coat from their employer or being pushed to bend safety rules for the sake of being out of the gate on time. Go ask some of those real crew members you see strolling professionally through the airport. They’ll let you know where you stand, sweetie-pie. Silly rabbit. Skybus tricks are for kids.
Comment by Skybus Flight Attendant
I find it really funny that you all think that you know what you are talking about. I am a flight attentant with Skybus Airlines and by no means have I been on a flight that has been unsafe. How stupid would that be? And I am in my thirties with a family and two degrees. So obviously I am by far STUPID. If you don’t like Skybus then don’t fly with them….simple as that. But just a warning…..I have flown MANY, MANY airlines and they all have their problems. Lets see….about a year ago my daughter was sitting on a UNITED AIRLINES flight with a seat that broke in the middle of flight. When we rang our call button the Flight Attendant YELLED at her. The best part was when we landed and even with the seat belt on she flew off the seat due to this problem and the incompitent FA came back and once again yelled at my daughter. SAFE…………yeah real safe. So please….before you want to talk poorly about the airline and their Flight Crew then you better know the facts before you do.
Comment by D.O.
ALL and I repeat ALL of the Skybus hype is a bunch of CRAP! I just spoke with a good friend of mine at skybus that informed me that the FAA is all over Skybus like stink on $?#*! Just wait until the media gets wind of the check airman that flew to Stuart Newberg, NY and “spun” the airplane onto the over-run of the runway! This “safe” check airman spun a 270 degree “doughnut” on the over-run of a 10,000 foot runway with an airplane full of passengers! But wait there’s more, he then taxiied the airplane to the gate, loaded up a new load of passengers including the CEO (Bill Diffenderfer) and flew the airplane back to Columbus. What the “safe” check airman failed to mention to anyone is that he injested ice and snow from a snowbank into the engine and the engine cowling was also damaged by some taxiway lights! The only way Skybus management and the FAA found out about it was when the Stuart Newberg tower called Skybus management and told the what had happened and that Skybus would be billed for the taxiway lights. The sad part is the First Officer didn’t have the bollocks to get off the airplane and refuse to fly it back to Columbus, and the Flight Attendants in the back of the airplane are too inexperienced to realize the flight crew had screwed up really badly! I wouldn’t buy my worst enemy a ticket on Skybus because of the sakety issues going on there. Check the records in the near future. You will find the accident report from the NTSB and you will read about the fine they receive in the national newspapers! To Bill, Ken, Bud, Chris, Scott, Denny, Becky, and Racheal….you are ALL A BUNCH OF SELLOUTS! Remember, what goes around, comes around!
Have a great day!
Comment by Skybus Flight Attendant
Dear D.O……You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about…nor does your ignorant friend. What about all the safety items that grounded Southwest who were them fined over 10 million dollars for flying UNSAFE planes with passengers. I am not defending our pilot in any way if he did do something wrong. I do not know the complete story yet….all I know is that most of us are not unexperienced and we are not stupid enough to fly on something that could potentially kill us…..now that would be stupid. If you don’t want to buy a ticket on Skybus….GOOD!!! Cause we don’t want people like you on our aircraft. What goes around does come around and you will learn that more than anyone else. We work very hard to keep our aircraft and passengers safe…I think I would know that better than you. So now you have a good day and try and do something constructive other than talk crap anout things you know NOTHING about!!!!
SMILE
Comment by D.O.
Skybus Flight Attendant,
How’s the weather there in your universe? Get a clue! Wake up and smell the coffee! I know more than 7 of the Cadre Flight Attendants and THEY have experience! Oh, and did I mention they quit because things had gotten so unsafe at your beloved airline. Your management had no clue the pilots were organizing a union vote! They are out of touch and clueless! As far as the details of the accident, they will come out in the NTSB report don’t worry!
As far as me riding on a Skybus airplane…NEVER going to happen! I value my life too much!
Enjoy the weather in your universe!
Comment by D.O.
Oh, by the way Skybus Flight Attendant…….when do the flight attendants at Skybus vote to unionize? I hear it is very soon. But if your are a member of management you wouldn’t know that would you!
Have a great day!
Comment by Skybus Flight Attendant
The weather is AWESOME in my universe….thanks for asking. And no I am not a member of management and at this time there is nothing about unionizing, although I wouldn’t doubt that maybe in the future that may be a possibility since a lot of the airlines are unionized. And as far as the “accident” that you talk so frequently about….I would like you to name ONE airline out there that doesn’t have an issue. I never said Skybus is perfect….but…..I would not be doing this job if for one minute I felt unsafe…..now that would be ignorant. You obviously feel very strong about not flying with Skybus and that is totally fine but you may as well write on every other airlines “Boycotting” webpage as they all have faults at one time or another. Now you have a wonderful day and remember that everyone has an opinion but you shouldn’t insult peoples intelligence.
Comment by Joan Tanner
When I posted this article, I was just voicing my frustration with how my luggage situation was handled. Sure every airline has problems, but never have I ever experienced such bad customer service before in my life. But just an update, I did end up getting my bags back (one month later and both bags were returned at different times). Before getting my luggage back, I’ve written numerous e-mails to skybus, which none of them have been answered. I’ve physically gone to the airport a couple times to speak with a skybus representative but for some reason evertime they try to contact their supervisor, the supervisor was not returning any of their calls or the supervisor was out of town and experiencing car problems and couldn’t make it to the airport to help me out. I’ve even called Columbus everyday and left messages and my calls still were never returned. It wasn’t until my fourth week of trying when I actually got thru to a representative in Columbus. Apparently one of my bags was in Columbus the entire time…why, I have no idea and they themselves had no idea why my bag never made it on the plane even though it was properly tagged. The following day, I returned to the airport to pick up my bag that was left in Ohio and to my surprise my other back was also there waiting for me to pick up. According to the San Diego skybus reps, the second bag has been waiting for me in the San Diego airport for a week. This puzzled me because I left the representatives my contact information and my both my bags were still tagged by my own identification tags as well as skybus’ tag….so why wasn’t I notified? How come they didn’t ship my bags to me, like what other aielines would do. It seemed like I was the one that put in all the work to find my two missing bags. I didn’t get any appologies from skybus. Despite all my complaints, all my questions and concerns, I never heard anything back from skybus. Some of my son’s gifts in one of the bags did break during the flight and I feel as though I should be compensated for something: airport parking fees for the times that I physically went down there to talk to someone to get answers, as well as picking up my lost luggage, and for the damaged items in my bag. I guess I did get what I paid for. I wouldn’t even mind paying an extra $200 to a another airline with a decent customer service department. I learned from my mistake and will never fly with skybus again.
Comment by Anonymous
Joan, you have chosen wisely in avoiding this pathetic airline. Although, I am sorry it took such a bad experience for you to reach that decision. I hope your future air travels are worth the money spent.
Now, Skybus Flight Attendant, you should seek professional help. You have been told more than once that highly experienced flight attendants - who were among the first hired (to certify the airline I understand) - left the company; citing safety issues. I happen to know this to be true and factual. Now, take the Stewart incident for example. I have heard of pilots making errors in judgement, but never to the extent described above. If a pilot responsible for the mentoring of newer pilots can engage in such blatant dereliction of duty, then I am terrified to hear what the average line pilot would do to stay out of The Man’s sights (and you know damn well that he did what he did out of fear for his job). There is CLEARLY enough reason for you to be scared for your very life at Skybus, yet you choose not to see it. If you were paid thousands of dollars per hour, I might understand your resolve. But I would not trust my life to this check airman (or anyone he trains) at Skybus for $900 per hour, and you only make one percent of that. I suggest that you are, in fact, being quite stupid. As for Southwest, I read the reports. Southwest thought it was in compliance with FAA guidance. Interestingly enough, local FAA thought they were compliant too until some FAA higher-ups clarified for all. If you had read the reports, you would have seen that this was as much an FAA problem as it was Southwest’s problem. Maybe you are the one in need of facts?
Comment by Skybus Flight Attendant
Well you guys all got what you wanted today!!! This is a sad day!! I stumbled across this website while searching for something else and when I read some of the complaints I couldn’t help but not respond. Alot of these complaints I can understand. If they had happened to me I would be upset too but there are just some people who don’t have a legitimate complaint and just do nothing but talk crap that they have nothing to back it with. Skybus had its faults…..there is no doubt about that but all in all Skybus gave it there best shot and it just wasn’t good enough. And I can’t speak for anyone else but I can sure as heck speak for myself and say that I gave it my all. I am sorry to those who had a bad experience on our airline but I must say that I think each and every one of us has had a bad experience at one time or another at any airline. I have enjoyed being a flight attendant at Skybus and I wish things turned out different. As for you D.O and anonymous I just want to tell you that you are pathetic. In no way was I ever rude or degrading to either one of you yet you just had to be complete asses in your responses. You both must be miserable people. With that said I would just like to say that I was a proud employee at Skybus….I may not have agreed with a lot of things that they did but we all tried our best (at least most of us.) Anyway I am sure you are both happy to hear that Skybus folded today so you both should go out and celebrate………together. So D.O in case you are wondering the weather is not too good in my universe but thats okay….tomorrow is a new day!!!
Comment by Anonymous
Well, I’m glad you gave it your best shot. I’m sorry you got suckered into that job too. Skybus, however, did not give it its best shot. Certain people there were so full of their own dillusional expertise that you and 449 other employees along with countless unsuspecting passengers paid a hefty price for it. You can call me an ass and tell me I am patheitic for being brutally honest if you want to. Don’t care. I wouldn’t care if you were rude or degrading either. The only reason I posted here was to expose Skybus for what it really was and hope one less person got screwed in the end. I don’t remember asking for your opinion anyway. So deal with it. What is pathetic is that you think you know something because you worked there. You don’t know the half of it. In any case, good luck. Hope you land in a better place, which shouldn’t be hard to do.
Comment by Skybus Flight Attendant
Well ANONYMOUS….its obvious that you only cared about one thing and that was for Skybus to go down. You don’t care about the pax that were stranded or the other 449 of us that lost our jobs. Skybus was not only a job to us but we became family….at least the greater part of us. This last week and a half has been very tough to see my fellow co-workers who were on the front line day in and day out be so upset. And it was hard for me to rest easy the next few days knowing we left people stranded. I wish it were different and I wish Skybus at least stayed on board for another week or so, so that we could have brought our pax and fellow crew members home. Hell, I would have volunteered to work for free if I had to. So call me pathetic or whatever you like but I know what I brought to the table with this airline and I know I did the best job I could do with the tools that were given to me by Skybus and I don’t regret it a bit!!!! So congrats on being #1 ass of the year cause thats exactly what you are. You really are a jerk!!!! Sincerely - A PROUD Skybus FA