After misconnecting 3 consecutive tries on US and trying CAL once (which was actually very nice), I foolishly came back to US for a flight tonight. Only the miles brought me back, the status is becoming increasingly meaningless (like others, I didn't get upgraded in advance on this trip).

I left for the airport as late as I could, 1 1/2 hours before flight time, and the flight was showing on time. I get to the airport and they have posted a 45 minute delay. I ask the CSR at the ticket counter why in EWR they don't post delays on a timely basis, and she shrugged her shoulders and said they just posted it (45 minutes before flight time) and that "everybody was in the same situation". I'm not sure if this was supposed to make me feel better, but it didn't.

So my 1 hour 35 minute layover has become 50 minutes, still plenty of time, right? However, this CSR is asking me if "I want to chance it". She gives me the spiel about not being responsible for me if I misconnect, etc, laying it on thick about US having no responsbility for hotel, ground transportation. Well, obviously she is telling me indirectly that she has no faith in the information her company is supplying. Its like playing poker and not looking at your cards, you have no idea what you are up against, how can you make a decision that way?

I get to the gate and decide to call the CP desk. The guy looks at my flight and tells me "you'll never make it, you have an 8:22 departure getting into CLT at 10:19, and your flight is at 10:20." All this while I am staring at the FID above the phone, it says the departure time is still 7:40 (the original dept. time = 6:55)

I get rebooked for tomorrow at some god-awful hour and head home. It is an unnecesary, expensive 50 mile round trip, a wasted 3+ hours and a $10 parking fee. All of this because of ineptitude that seems to be more and more prevalent at US.

In your post you state "I foolishly came back to US for a flight tonight" and "All of this because of ineptitude that seems to be more and more prevalent at US," so I guess that it is obvious that you don't like US. Why do you continue to fly US?


the status is becoming increasingly meaningless
Most airlines will gladly match your status. In fact, if you would like to join the award winning nOnePass program, they would be honored to have you and will eagerly bestow Platinum status upon you, based on your CP status at US.



Only the miles brought me back
Most airlines have frequent flier programs, and a lot of them are mileage based. You can certainly earn miles in the award winning nOnePass program, and in fact, as a Platinum you will earn a 125% bonus, so you can earn a lot more miles than you would flying US with a 100% bonus.




You seemed to like CO, describing it as "actually very nice," so why don't you fly CO instead?

If you lived someplace controlled by US (for example, CLT) I would understand your displeasure with being "forced" to fly US. In your case, the opposite is true. You live in EWR of all places, a city where US does not have a strong presence. Why don't you fly CO? They serve a lot of destinations nonstop from EWR, so if you fly them you don't have to worry about such things as "misconnecting 3 consecutive tries on US."

I'm sorry that you have had such bad experiences on US. I myself have been fortunate and haven't missed a connection recently.

Do I think that US is perfect? Absolutely not!
Do they have their problems? Absolutely!

Fortunately, there are a lot of airlines to choose from. Personally, I feel that US is one of the better options. Since you don't share my view, do yourself a favor and fly another airline. There are lots of airlines out there, hopefully there is one that is right for you. Personally, it seems foolish to me to continue to fly US, yet each time complain about how horrible US is.

Sorry to hear of your experience...

FWIW in PHL last night there were severe storm warnings, including a tornado watch. A colleague who works for US said PHL was closed for a bit of time last night. Naturally this plays havoc on anyway east-coast based network.

Whenever I decide to launch a complaint with US, I always do a bit of research to find out if other airlines were also having similar delays. If this is not the case and the problems seemed restricted to US, or I received poor service, then I launch the complaint.

All of this because of ineptitude that seems to be more and more prevalent at US.
So there was bad weather and your flight got delayed. Then the delay got longer. Bummer, huh?

"US = pitiful"

If US is so bad, I'd suggest another airline then to avoid the angst. It's that's simple.

Market economics = choice

Barry

Sounds to me like OP was complaining more about the lack of communication regarding the delays (he had to call CP line to even find out how late the flight was truly delayed) than the delay itself.

As for me, I probably would have switched carriers already if I thought I could fly enough on one airline out of PHL to accumulate status. As it is, I'm halfway between gold and silver and doubt I'd have enough flights on multiple carries to get even silver-level status if I have to apportion flights to more than one airline.

Sounds to me like OP was complaining more about the lack of communication regarding the delays (he had to call CP line to even find out how late the flight was truly delayed) than the delay itself.


That's a surprising factor - Res having more information regarding delays than the GA's. Typically its the other way around and you're waiting for Res to get the info on the flight delay or cxl so that you can rebook.

My connection last night from PHL-AVP was supposed to have departed at 8:30PM. When I checked the monitors at the club at 7:55, I saw the flight was delayed until 9:25. The "story" I got from the agent at the club was that the incoming flight was delayed from ORD due to weather. He said the flight was in the air, but not due to arrive at PHL until 9:15. Well, how did they expect to turn it around in 10 minutes? The flight was delayed once again, to 9:35.

I finally went to the gate about 9:15. I overheard a US employee (non-rev) on his cell phone stating that the RJ to Binghamton had been cancelled because they couldn't get a pilot, and that they don't staff enough pilots for all the RJ routes. Nice. The gate agents were frantically re-booking the Binghamton pax onto the AVP flight. Then they announced that the Binghamton pax would be transported by bus to Binghamton airport from AVP. About 9:30 they made a very firm announcement that we were going to begin boarding immediately, and to board when your row was called & immediately stow your luggage, because "if we don't take off in 20 minutes we'll have to cancel the flight." It turns out the crew was about to hit 15 hours.

As I was waiting to exit the aircraft, I overheard an FA tell the pax at the very front of the line that we pulled up to the jetway within 4 minutes of violation, and that they let our aircraft cut to the front of the line to take off so we would not have to wait behind a line of 20 planes.

The luggage for the Binghamton folks was taken straight to the bus, which considering the nonsense those poor people had to put up with, I thought was a nice touch.

The last time I encountered irregular ops, the CP desk was a godsend. US local airport personnel insisted my delayed flight would make the connection in CLT and had no authority to rebook or endorse over to another carrier as yet. As the clock ticked on, I became anxious.

A call to CP - they called the CLT Tower for the latest update and told me my connection to LAS was going to be "tight". I asked, "Could you hold the plane for me?" (no harm trying, right? :) ) Of course we can't do that, came the reply. Well, do the next best thing then, I said, and get word to the pilot that delayed pax would appreciate any consideration he could give to a late departure. All I know is that CP arranged for a motorized cart to meet me at Terminal E for a quick ride to B gate, just in time before the plane door closed. I was later told that the pilot had made an announcement on the plane, something like, "Folks, this is the last flight to Vegas for the day and there are delayed connecting pax due to weather. Having to overnight in CLT is not as much fun as being in Vegas, so I'm going to wait just a little to see if we can get them on. We'd make up the time in the sky."

I know I was lucky then. If things hadn't turned out well, I would have just resigned myself to the "joys of traveling". Whatever else about US (and I do my fair share of griping), the CP desk is like a guardian angel in the sky - they do whatever they can, within reason, but bad weather, long delays and lack of timely airport communication are not unique to just one airline.

kudzu

nice to hear the accomodation.

it cant hurt that 90% of the people on that flight probably had LAS as a destination, and so the worst case of being 10 mins late to LAS is marginal.

unfortunately, when you're headed to a hub they rarely take such chances.

US local airport personnel insisted my delayed flight would make the connection in CLT and had no authority to rebook or endorse over to another carrier as yet.

The gate agent in STT announced yesterday that "nobody needs to worry about their connections." This was on a flight that was scheduled to leave 1 hour late (mechanical delay). Guess she got tired of having to deal with (legitimately) concerned passengers.

the CP desk is like a guardian angel in the sky - they do whatever they can

hmmm...i wish the gold desk could do something other than "please hold while i transfer you"........

Sounds to me like OP was complaining more about the lack of communication regarding the delays (he had to call CP line to even find out how late the flight was truly delayed) than the delay itself.

As for me, I probably would have switched carriers already if I thought I could fly enough on one airline out of PHL to accumulate status. As it is, I'm halfway between gold and silver and doubt I'd have enough flights on multiple carries to get even silver-level status if I have to apportion flights to more than one airline.
Well its good nufu hasn't had to fly through ATL in the last six weeks. I've flown DL for the last six weeks and ATL has been a mess both morning and night. I've had flights three hours late, missed a couple of lights and had to run yesterday to make a connection that we were all assured on the plane was running an hour and half behind just like ours. The sun was shining and no evidence of the mythical thunder storms that shut the place down for an hour. As advanced as DL is in the area of technology, they still can't give you accurate information. On one flight I asked the T/A if the flight was on time, was told yes, only to get to the gate to find it delayed two hours. (The plane was still on the ground in ATL and it was a 90 minute flight). The T/A had to know that the time of my question. During several of the flight delays, I had wished I could call the CP desk. I have never had a bad experience with these folks, so to post otherwise tells me all I need to know.

I think if you read all of nufu's post you may come to the conclusion that attitude comes into play. If you travel it is going to happen to you regardless of who you fly. My experience is that US does as good a job, if not better, than most of the airlines, especially if you’re a CP. That’s coming from some one who has 112 segments on them so far this year.

But then I seldom fly through PHL. :p

I fly about an average of 1 RT a month for business or pleasure on either DL or US.

While that doesn't hold a candle to any of most of you, I don't ever have these problems. I actually like traveling, (because I don't do it for a living).

I think that if you do anything enough times you are bound to see the entire spectrum of possible outcomes. I just don't have the negative opinion of US that most of the posters on this board. I know that the nature of this board can tilt towards RANTs, but for now, I am on the postive side.

We need US in the carolina -- I really like flying non-stop to the west coast without having to go through ATL (as mentioned above) or DFW on DL.

If you want to try another airline -- we have consultants who we work with, for the last year their Thursday night flight back to ORD (from CAE) has been ontime 3 times on UA express! It used to be FLYI, now it is AWAC. It seems like it is worse!