The Flyaway Weblog

sounds great.

My husband and I scored $10 tickets from Columbus to Los Angeles (Burbank) – the way out to L.A. was fine. But when we got to Burbank Airport to leave L.A. at 6:00 AM we found out our flight was cancelled. We checked in and printed out our boarding passes at our hotel prior to leaving for the airport – not a hint on Skybus’ Web site about the cancellation!!!!! We actually went ALL the way through security and to the gate only to see a big “CANCELLED” sign and a few bewildered fellow travelers. We left security (ugh) and returned to the Skybus kiosk area where there was a woman in sweatpants and a Skybus t-shirt who said “yeah, your flight is cancelled” and then offered NO explanation, NO assistance in finding another flight (her response to us was “I have no idea what other airlines fly to Columbus”), and NO hotel or food vouchers (although their Web site does say that’s not an option if you read the fine print). The Skybus rep LITERALLY shrugged her shoulders and said “I can put you on one of our other flights in a few days or you can get a refund for this portion of your trip”. Um, yeah, thanks for the offer to refund our $20 – that will be useful in covering our $750 ticket on Southwest in order to get us home!!!!!! So $750, 16 hours, and several cities later (L.A. to Phoenix to Chicago to Columbus), SOUTHWEST got us home. But we got the last two tickets on that Southwest flight – I’m SURE there are STILL fellow passengers from that cancelled Skybus flight still stuck in L.A.! So, our el-cheapo $130 tickets (two tickets with taxes, priority seating charges, etc) ended up costing us $880. That’s because apparently there’s no way to receive a Skybus refund! There’s no 1-800 number and there’s no link on their Web site. I contacted their Help Center on the Skybus Web site, but the fine print states that due to their volume of emails (mostly complaints, I’m sure!) that it’s unlikely that they will respond. So, they got my money and screwed me too.

I am an experienced traveler and HAVE experienced flight cancellations on other airlines. However, ALL other airlines I’ve experienced this with have offered (and succeeded) to find me another flight ON ANOTHER AIRLINE at NO COST TO ME. Since Skybus is all about being super cheap, they cannot afford to offer such lovely customer service nor do they have relationships with other airlines that would facilitate such service. Instead, they choose to leave their customers stranded at the airport. You get what you pay for.