LAX Flyaway - poorly run - discrimination to the handicapped

It all started here with a letter to our mayor.  This was published on the official Mayor website more than once, to the LAX Fly Away official website in the comment / customer contact application, more than once, and on Facebook.

Mayor Garcetti,

Today, November 21, 2016, a group of disabled veterans flew to LAX from Chicago.  They arrived at about 5pm.  They have been trying to get on a LAX Flyaway bus to Van Nuys for hours. They were at Terminal 7.  One bus after another passed by.  Some said they were full.   I was called and was at Van Nuys Flyaway waiting for their arrival.  I tried to talk to the people in the office at the VN facility.  They told me to have the people walk to Terminal 1 or they would never get a bus.  I explained that these were disabled folks.  Are you telling me to tell them to walk?  They said yes.  I asked for a company contact.  They would not supply a company name, address, or provide any information.  They would not give their names or any ID information.

You were pretty big on LA transportation issues during the recent election.  I'd like to know who operates LAX Flyaway?  What permits do they hold?  Who are they owned by?  

Please let me know how your office intends to address this issue.  I am looking forward to a dialogue and a way to hold this company responsible at some level.  #ABC7EYEWITNESS 

On 11/29 I received this:

Mr. Rose,

Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is dismayed to hear of the situation described in your post on our Facebook page as well as the Mayor's. LAWA, a Los Angeles City department, oversees the LAX FlyAway Program. The poor customer service you described is not in alignment with our Program requirements. Currently, the LAX FlyAway routes are operated by two contractors, with the Van Nuys route operated by Pacific Coast Sightseeing Tours & Charters. Your post was listed on 11/21. Please confirm the date and time of the incident. Your complaint will be forwarded to the operator for immediate investigation. A formal response with the outcome of the investigation will be sent to you directly by the contractor. In the future, please do not hesitate to send your comments regarding LAX FlyAway services directly to FlyAwayComments@lawa.org. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused by the described incident. Thank you very much in advance for your patience.

I replied by sending again, the information I had sent multiple times before on their official website and on their Facebook page as a message and as a comment to one of their other posts. My reply - I also sent this to you folks on your page on the net in your comment area. Once on the 21st and once again on the 28th.

Hi Myles, We're unsure of what day this occurred, was it November 21? We need to know the date this incident occurred please. What time did they arrive at the Terminal 7 LAX FlyAway stop?

This was on 11/21.  

All the details are in what I have sent already.

I don't know when they arrived. After two hours of waiting we used Super Shuttle as we gave up waiting.

If you ask me for details again I will assume this is just a stall tactic to avoid helping.

Perhaps you'd like to call me so I can have a single point of contact for this issue?


Again, date was 11/21. Time was 5pm to 7pm. Location was LAX terminal 7 for pick up from United Airlines from Chicago. Destination was Van Nuys from LAX. Both employees in the office there told me to tell folks to walk to Terminal 1 for pickup even after I told them, both of them, more than once, that this was a group of disabled veterans. Neither employee would give their name or a card or a phone contact of a supervisor or even information on who runs this service. They should both receive a serious reprimand at the least. Fined or fired would be more fitting. This breaks many laws in regard to handicapped access and service. 

Hi Myles, Please provide an email address and phone number so someone can contact you as soon as possible. Thank you. I have provided my email and phone multiple times on your contact form on your website where it is required, but, I will do it again. xxxx@email.com at xxx-yyy-zzzz.

I also filled out a form such as this on Mayor Garcetti's official website.

I also request the name of the dispatcher who was on duty between 5pm and 7pm on November 21 2016. The fact that for over two hours they left passengers behind at the last terminals shows a profound lack of a basic problem solving skills that any elementary school student would possess, the problem solved easily .... alternate the pickup start from terminal 1 to terminal 4. I await your reply. I am keeping track of your progress and timeliness or lack thereof.

Some dialogue between the Mayor's office and myself which took a while to be initially received after my contact with them:

Hello Myles, we’re very sorry that this happened. We’d like to make things right. We’ve been talking with LAX and we would like to reimburse everyone for their cost. Can you please let us know the name, address, and phone number of the person/people who were charged for the service? Thank you for being patient and for alerting us that this happened.

My reply:

Thank you for the offer. I am currently working with the flyaway folks. Reimbursement is not a viable response, holding the two women on duty that night is something that will help many rather than simply appease a few. Let's proceed on this tack.

Received a few minutes ago on 11/30 at about 9:20pst.

Hi Myles, Thank you for the information. Someone will be contacting you for action. Thank you for your patience, we will get to the bottom of this.

The end at the moment ....

December 6, 2016

The following letter was received by me. The apology is is nice but since it did not address any of the points I requested to be addressed I find it somewhat shallow.

December 5, 2016

Mr. Rose- 

Please see attached apology letter addressing your concerns with our service on 11/21/16.  

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions. 

Thank you, 

Kristin Martinez 
General Manager 
Pacific Coast Sightseeing Tours and Charters, Inc., a CoachUSA Company 
Southern California Gray Line 
800-828-6699 
714-507-1116 (direct) 
714-507-1169 (fax) 
kristin.martinez@coachusa.com 

Myles Rose




Dear Mr. Rose,

Thank you for caring enough to share with Los Angeles World Airport your frustrations, issues and concerns as it relates to the FlyAway service on November 21, 2016. Most guests do not take the time to “complain”; and, as we both know, if you are not aware of problems, you can’t fix them.

I humbly apologize for our failure to provide timely service to your group at LAX and the lack of customer service that you received from our ticket agents at the Van Nuys station. Providing professional, outstanding customer service is a top priority at Pacific Coast Sightseeing Tours & Charters, Inc. Our company philosophy is to do everything possible to ensure that each trip is a positive and enjoyable experience. Although problems do occasionally occur, we strive to minimize their effect on our guests. I am extremely disappointed and apologize that was not the case with your group.

I understand from my discussions with Robin Brown, our Compliance Supervisor, that you had two issues on your trip; overloaded buses and unhelpful ticket agents. Allow me to address the overloaded buses first. As the FlyAway service is a “first come first serve” program, we do have a procedure in place to alert the guests on the curb when their expected bus is overloaded. Should a bus overload, the drivers are to contact our Dispatch to alert them of the overload. Then they are to stop at all remaining terminals to alert the waiting passengers of the overload. Dispatch then contacts the next arriving driver and instructs them to begin their service at the overload spot. In your instance, because of the Thanksgiving holiday travel, the 17:30, 18:00 and 18:15 buses were all overloaded. The second issue, as I understand it, was the lack of information and customer service provided by our ticket agents at the Van Nuys station. Although I cannot share the details of our investigation and results, rest assured that we have taken the appropriate disciplinary action necessary with the employees involved.

Again, I sincerely apologize for our failure to provide excellent customer service to you and your group. It is my hope that this incident will not prevent you from traveling with FlyAway in the future. In an effort to gain back your patronage, on behalf of Pacific Coast Sightseeing Tours & Charters, Inc., I would like to provide complimentary roundtrip transportation to your group for a future date. Please contact Robin Brown at robin.brown@coachusa.com or 800-828-6699, ext. 71081.

Kindest Regards,

Kristin Martinez

General Manager

My response to the above letter which I sent:

Thank you for the apology.  It really did not address my points on the employees who told me to have folks to walk to Terminal 1 from Terminal 7.  

The explanation of what you do in high volume situations which you explained on the phone to me and explain a bit here, as a secondary point, did not work and was not followed.

The apology from the two people on staff would have been a bit easier to accept.  The fact that they did not take responsibility makes me feel even less of them as individuals and makes me question your administrative practices including hiring.

I hope this is not the end of this incident or dialogue but would not be surprised if I do not hear from you again in a step to actually answer my concerns.

- the end for the moment -