mimilou

Recently found out from my cousin that America West offers direct flights from BOS-SFO, and for much cheaper than flying out of PVD. I've never flown them before; anyone have any experiences? Good/bad? I did search through the threads and found some older info on them but nothing recent. Thanks!

jbee

I fly America West and they're always great. The flight attendants and service reps are friendly and knowledgable, and I think their website is easy to use. I always book online and I have no complaints. I think they're slightly better than United and American, simply because they seem like a smaller company and are more focused on the details.

My biggest gripe with them is having a stopover in Phoenix. On one flight, we had to virtually run from the end of 1 concourse to the end of a different concourse, but it doesn't sound like you'll have that problem. I hope this helps!

FlyFish

We used those America West BOS-SFO flights for a short vacation a couple weeks ago. Nice new equipment (A319s), reasonable pitch between seats, friendly and efficient crew, on-time departures and arrivals, etc., etc. All-in-all a great experience and the planes were barely half full. Best part was the $200 RT fare for a non-stop.

mimilou

Thanks both for your replies. I bought the tickets yesterday. They ended up being $268 r/t plus taxes. The daughter of a lady I work with flew into BOS from SFO last weekend and it was under $200; perhaps it has to do with the dates. Anyhow my only gripe is that the tickets were $238 yesterday morning and up to an hour before I bought them. You can view what seats are available on the plane; I checked a few times because I didn't have confirmation yet that I could go but I didn't want the seats on the plane to sell out. Well, when I bought my ticket the prices were up $30 again. I called America West and asked about it. They said that the cheaper seats had sold out. I told them that the same seats/# of seats had been available on their planes all day, so I was not sure how she could say that, but I wasn't going to argue about $30. Hey, it's $100 cheaper than flying out of PVD, and it's nonstop.

rkkwan

Prices come and go, go down and get up; if you see a fare you like, you need to book it. Doesn't matter how many empty seats you see on the seating plan.

mimilou

Yes, I am aware of that...unfortunately the trip wasn't a sure thing when the fare was lower so I couldn't book it then. After it was a go, I booked ASAP to avoid any other potential price increases.

rkkwan

What are your dates? Right now, I see both HP (America West) and AA having non-stops for $256.70, tax included for many of the flights in July.

But AA offers no advantage, unless you're collecting their points, as their 757 is no more comfortable than HP's 319 on this long flight.

mimilou

rkkwan, the dates are leaving 8/6 and returning 8/8. I do know that AA had a flight for something like $262 incl. taxes on that day, but it was an evening flight and I need to arrive in CA late morning/early afternoon. That $256.70 fare was what the flights I'm taking were offered at yesterday a.m. Thanks for the info!

dwoodliff

Here is my experience with America West.

We booked tickets for $248 from Dallas to Phoenix to Seattle. (AA was around $400.)

We have always made it on time for a flight by arriving an hour ahead, but this time (due mainly to the airport shuttle and bad luck), we didn't.

The AW counter person cheerfully booked us on the next flight 1 1/2 hrs. later. We even had seats together. In retrospect, I wish they had showed us available alternatives. (I would rather have had a 3-hr. layover in Las Vegas than Phoenix). We were grateful, though, to be re-booked so promptly.

After boarding our rescheduled flight, an announcement was made that they were overbooked by one, and a volunteer was needed to give up their seat. I held my breath, knowing we weren't "supposed" to be there. People looked around and snickered, waiting for a cash offer. Shortly, AW offered a $300 voucher. No takers. A few minutes later, they offered $300 each for a party of two. Six hands went up. Everyone that wanted to go got a seat, and 2 people knew they'd be flying free next time.

The flight (and our subsequent one) were fine.

Our return trip went smoothly too, except that one of our (inexpensive) bags was irrepairably damaged on the way home. Although a sign is posted that AW is not responsible for damage to luggage, they gave us a voucher which will be worth $50 toward a future flight.

All in all, I was pleased with AW, and would not hesitate to fly with them again.

Donna