Our us airways flight from Santa Barbara to Phoenix was on time, smooth, without delay and renewed my faith in the idea of flying versus driving, etc.   \n\nHowever, my return flight shook my faith in this mode of transportation. We arrived to check in at sky harbor only to be told that it was too late to check in.  Our flight was for 5:49pm. It was 5:10pm.  We were told by our eye-fluttering attendant typing at the keyboard with a fake smile that we needed to arrive at least 45 minutes prior to departure.  We lost are already paid for seats.  Resisting the urge to grab him by the neck and bang his head on the counter to see what would fall out, I politely asked for options which he responded with two: 1) wait until 9:00 pm to fly standby 2) or depart the next morning at 8:30am.  Not wanting to wait fora hours to see if we could board an oversold flight, we chose the latter option. \n\nWhen we arrived in the morning to a chaotic crowd of passengers, there was little direction by us airways employees.  Instead they only contributed to the chaos by giving vague directions.  They wouldn't last five minutes in my classroom.  Clearly some employee training is overdue here. \n\nWhen we finally checked ourselves in, we faced gates changes, delays due to maintenance, and an ever increasing amount if disgruntled travelers surrounding us.  I'm glad it's over.  No more US Airways.