Has anyone flown US Airways from Gatwick...Any good?

Answer 1

Hi

I have flown them a few times they are good if you get a connection through Charlotte but Philidelphia is not so good. Good leg room 34 inches in most seats and the Sony entertaiment system is good but you do have to pay for your headsets. The crew are professional and do their job if not over chatty but in my opion one of the better USA airlines. Bussiness class is not in the same league as BA or Virgin with no flat beds just the old style business seats. But it depends on the price if its a good option
Try to book on the A330 as these have the most leg room over the 767's they some time fly.

Answer 2

I'm a travel agent so I get invited to see aircrafts sometimes.
I've seen the US airways aircraft and they are pretty good. Especially if you're going business class.
The staff are really friendly which is one of the most important thing. Who want's a grumpy air hostess?!

Answer 3

I've never flown USAirways to Europe but I fly them domestically a lot and they're a decent airline.

Answer 4

I haven't flown that route, but these people have:

1) LGW-CLT, CLT-MCO in economy. Check-in was fine and quick although despite us arriving as soon as it opened, they had trouble sitting my family (three kids, two adults) together, they couldn't seem to explain this? Onboard, cabin crew friendlier than United and American, but I had to payfor 5 sets of headphones! Even more of a choker when we found that only three of our screens worked! Needless to say we were refunded and we just had to swap around a bit! Not much you can do there - food ok, alcohol had to be paid for (although the steward gave us a few cocktails for the duff TVs, he seemed a bit embarrassed on the airlines behalf). Also the claim to have 34" of seat pitch is a blatant lie, I would say 32" at most. Uniteds 35 in economy plus much better and if flying alone I'd take that. Connection effortless and friendly at Charlotte and a great short flight down to Orlando with plenty of room. Just need a bit of attention to detail in my opinion and if they want to keep a certain customer base, dont go 'low-cost' as they claim!

2) London Gatwick to Houston via Philadelphia for our Easter holiday. The outbound flight was fine with no incidents, however our return flight was something else altogether. There was bad weather at Philadelphia on 22nd April so US Airways couldn't be blamed for the late arrival of the plane taking us from Houston to Philly. However they should be blamed for their failure to inform us that the flight was leaving 2 hours earlier than our tickets and itinerary stated - no-one from the airline had even considered to contact us and tell us, despite them being in possession of my husband's e-mail address and cellphone number. Also, once the plane had finally arrived and we had all boarded 90 minutes late, we were held up by air traffic control and sat on the tarmac for a good 50 minutes before the pilot informed us his computer system had crashed. We then limped back to the gate and sat there another 45 minutes or so while the computer was switched off, along with the engines and therefore the air conditioning while we all sat there sweltering in the unseasonally hot Texas air. We finally took off and we asked the cabin crew about catching our connection in Philadelphia. We received information to say we would catch our plane with "loads of time to spare" but this was nonsense because we had to get to a different terminal at Philly to catch the London flight and if anyone has ever used Philadelphia Airport they will know how large it is. Upon landing we requested a cart to take us to the international terminal from a desk agent at the gate and she said "it's too busy you'll have to walk" and left it at that, despite us having 20 minutes before our London flight was due to depart! We were appalled at this but had no choice but to start walking (despite my husband having a heart condition). We were very fortunate and flagged down a US Airways staff member driving an empty cart who didn't have to take us but did - for which we were very grateful. Of course when we got to the gate the flight was delayed another 45 minutes but US Air hadn't bothered to post this information on the boards at the airport. I don't blame US Air for the bad weather at Philadelphia but their inability to provide a complimentary beverage on a flight delayed for so long at Houston was petty and mean in my opinion. Also unforgivable was their inability to inform us of the schedule change - it was pure luck we arrived at IAH early that day. Little things like this go a long way in forming positive opinions about a company and it strikes me that US Air don't actually care about the customer once they have their money. Not a good experience.

3) LGW - Charlotte - Nashville and return. Journey out uneventful. Check in friendly & quick, cabin crew friendly & efficient (not too not glamorous), Airbus 330 clean & comfortable, IFE not bad with seat back screens & individual controllers, food more than edible & hot, no free alcoholic drinks (but is that a bad thing sometimes?). Charlotte to Nashville bit of a squeeze but clean & all on time. Return journey from Nashville check in was self service, I think it must be new, a bit confusing & check in staff under pressure. Flight was delayed, eventually by about an hour, but kept informed by gate staff. Missed the only connection of the day from Charlotte to LGW. They had already booked us onto the next flight 24 hours later & were sent to the Customer Service desk. Without needing to ask they booked us into a more than adequate hotel with breakfast & gave us $60 vouchers for food between us both. They were very apologetic, & polite - as were we. Next to us at the Customer Service desk a man was venting his anger at staff - he ended up with a discount voucher for a hotel! We chose not to reclaim our luggage & were given over night "essentials". Eventually the flight home was on time, clean, friendly & food good. IFE was same as on way out (with 1 film less) so I found it a bit disappointing, I have trouble sleeping on flights. Much to our delight (& surprise) our luggage arrived with us. For a cheap flight we have no complaints - our expectations are realistic. Obviously the days delay home wouldn't suit everybody, but we were treated fairly. This was our 2nd time with US Airways & there will probably be a 3rd later this year. Perhaps we were lucky, but I can only judge as I find.

4) Flew US Airways to and from Orlando out of Gatwick for our Easter holiday - the service was really good! Flights on time - transfers smooth and friendly cabin crew. Food was just edible - but no worse than we've come to expect. I would use this airline again and that's with two young children! The inflight entertainment (Sony passport system on Airbus A330) was a god-send and easy to use too.

5) LGW-PHL-MCO return Y-Class. Checked-in at a very busy LGW. Fortunately have Star Alliance Gold so managed to speed the process a fair amount by using business class desk. Also was very happy for a bump to J-Class for transatlantic sector. Very efficient cabin crew. Not overly friendly but lacking the attitude that many US carriers seem to have these days. Not flat seats, but comfortable for transatlantic day flight. Food decent enough, thought the AVOD IFE system is limited and doesn't have a map facility. Connection in PHL painless and a quiet lounge with plenty of space. Onward flight to MCO was uneventful. Return transatlantic to LGW via CLT was efficient. Cabin crew seem mostly to be hard-working and professional. If you have to travel economy across for a flight of this distance then the A330s used by US Airways have a 2-4-2 config which is good if you are travelling in a party of two. Overall I think US Airways are one of the better legacy carriers in the US and would certainly use them again.

6) First and last time with US Airways! LGW to Charlotte and return. The second half of the trip was nine hours late: first loading and then unloading the first plane, then with a lot of fudging and fibbing to make sure we didn't ask for accommodation; club class lounge was closed promptly at 11:00pm meaning we were left on the floor with everyone else until 4:00a.m.. Club Class cabin crew (when the flight took off) admitted that they'd never been in club class before. It was 1.5 hours plus before we were offered any refreshment of any kind, for the rest of the flight the crew stood gossiping in the galley.

7)My wife and I flew USair for first time transatlantic, and most likely the last time. Check in at LGW for economy was very lengthy and fairly slow. Aircraft an elderly Boeing - not the Airbus scheduled. IFE was dire. No seat back screens - only a couple of screens for the whole of the economy class and the projector kept losing syncs and the picture kept rolling. Sound quality on one of my headphones was 99% distortion and unusable and the other poor; no excuse these days. Seat pitch was better than I expected, but as we had the rear seats, they did not recline, great on a 8+ hour flight to Philadelphia! Food was acceptable, nothing special and chicken as usual! Drinks were served freely, by generally middle-aged flight attendants, why does this seem to be the case on all US airlines? Flight arrived more or less on time. Collected cases - why no free trolleys as at LGW & most European airports? Through efficient formalities, then got rid of our cases for the domestic flight to SFO. Moved to terminal right down the other end of Philadelphia airport, then the disgusting security search for the domestic flight. Considering we had already flown international and had had several searches, the staff had no idea. Taking belts off, shoes off, and being dreadfully slow and unhelpful when the detector seemed to go off for no reason. Slow personal search resulted while my belongings just sat around for anyone to help themselves to. This eventually took well over an hour from joining the massive queue to reaching our new gate. They need to get their act together for international passengers transferring to domestic to avoid this spectacle or speed this up, or people will miss connecting flights. We only just made it, with over two and a half hour gap. Domestic flight was on an Airbus, and we were lucky to have seats by an emergency exit. We feel hard done by, that after an 8+ hour trans-atlantic flight, then a 6+ hour domestic we had to buy our food, how mean! Flight was smooth and service of drinks was adequate, again by ageing flight attendants. Arrived on time and bags came through quickly. Then we had to find our way through SFO for the first time to the car rental area. Some sensible clear signs and directions would help, especially after 17+ travelling and pouring rain. I look forward to the return flight and see how we make out with a tight change of planes in Philadelphia of only 1 hour 50 minutes, time will tell. Not impressed so far with USair, but it was cheap!

8) London/Pittsburg/Phoenix. Had a meal between London and Pittsburg. 3 hour delay to my onward flight and I couldn't believe that they serve drinks and snacks only. Apparently internal flights in the States under 4 hours do not serve food. Having left London around noon I arrived at the hotel in Phoenix around 22.30 local time (6.00 UK time) starving hungry only to find the kitchen closed. It would have been nice to know this when I booked my ticket that US Airlines starve their international travellers.

9) A friend and I have just got back from London-Miami [via Charlotte]-London, our first transatlantic trip on US Airways. And likely to be our last. Male staff seemed consistently friendly and helpful, but the middle-aged female staff were surly and, on occasions, downright rude. Food was far from impressive and some elements were past their sell-by date. In-flight entertainment was OK, but was a 75% repeat line-up on the return flight, despite a change of month. Planes themselves were acceptable, but 'minor' technical hitches resulted in delays to three of the four flights. Yes, yes, you get what you pay for but I would always pay that bit more for the likes of Virgin after this experience, given the choice.