Took them about 10-15 minutes to bring stairs to our Express flight at DCA this morning. Captain seemed quite annoyed. He ended up helping with the bags. I've found Chatauqua (sp?) crews to be quite excellent.

Was supposed to travel last night but couldn't make my connection thanks to the TSA mess in PHL.

Could be worse...last week at PHL F-terminal, a Mesa flight deplaned in the pouring rain and when the pax walked over to the gate, there was no agent to greet them. They were left standing outside at the door in the rain for five mins before another pax in the gate area went and dragged another GA down to our gate to let them in. Another guy and I "greeted" the flight, helping people find the C-gate shuttle and flagging down an electric cart for a gentleman with a walker.

That group may have appreciated a delay on the plane until someone was available to let them in the building and out of the pouring rain.

Could be worse...last week at PHL F-terminal, a Mesa flight deplaned in the pouring rain and when the pax walked over to the gate, there was no agent to greet them. They were left standing outside at the door in the rain for five mins before another pax in the gate area went and dragged another GA down to our gate to let them in. Another guy and I "greeted" the flight, helping people find the C-gate shuttle and flagging down an electric cart for a gentleman with a walker.

That group may have appreciated a delay on the plane until someone was available to let them in the building and out of the pouring rain.

Heads really should roll for that. Ack.

On a vaguely related note, I have found that US waits too long to post delays in Sabre as compared to UA. Often US won't post a delay until after the departure time. I have been on many US flights where it was obvious that it would be delayed, but Sabre still showed it on time. Conversely twice in the last month with UA they posted delay information early enough that I could leave later on to get to the airport. The big airlines should be less optemistic in forecasting delays. They are often not proactive enough about pre-cancelling and delaying flights with snow and tstorms. Interesting story about the pax acting as the ga :). Sounds like a PHL thing though.

On a vaguely related note, I have found that US waits too long to post delays in Sabre as compared to UA. Often US won't post a delay until after the departure time. I have been on many US flights where it was obvious that it would be delayed, but Sabre still showed it on time. Conversely twice in the last month with UA they posted delay information early enough that I could leave later on to get to the airport. The big airlines should be less optemistic in forecasting delays. They are often not proactive enough about pre-cancelling and delaying flights with snow and tstorms. Interesting story about the pax acting as the ga :). Sounds like a PHL thing though.

A couple weeks ago I was going STL-PIT-LGA. There was an announcement about a short delay waiting for an aircraft which showed up when I checked Sabre from my phone. Then I checked a few minutes later and Sabre was showing a 1+ hour delay. I went over to some of the US flight crew personnel in the gate area and asked them if they were flying the PIT flight. An FA and I believe first officer said they were so I asked them about the added delay but they knew nothing of it. Ended up getting off the ground at around 2 hours after scheduled departure and I ended up at the Hyatt in PIT for the night. Turns out we wer missing a crew person and the crew on the ground werent aware of it yet, but Sabre apparently did know.

That's a bit surprising. I've been doing PIT-STL for about 8 months and they have NEVER posted a delay on anywhere near a timely basis. I have had several instances where I'm calling to check the status while on the Metro, checking the in-airport monitors, sprinting through security, and getting to the gate 10-12 minutes before departure, only to see the a/c not even on the ground yet.

My family flew in over the 4th and circled for about an hour. Updates were never provided until after the last update time had passed. And after they had deplaned, waited for gate-checked stoller, stopped at the bathroom on the way out, and met me (a good 20 minutes, with 2 kids), I called again and the actual arrival time still hadn't been updated.

An interesting aside - I got a gate pass to go with them down to the plane. As boarding was finishing, they called me to the podium to get my non-rev boarding pass. :) I wonder if I could actually have flown before they noticed it.

I have found that US waits too long to post delays in Sabre as compared to UA. Often US won't post a delay until after the departure time. .

This is an historical procedure at US. I have always observed that flight delays have never been announced on a timely basis by this company. In the early eighties, when I used them much of the time, I attributed it to being part of a business practice engaged in so that the customers could not walk down the hall to another carrier because it was then too late to change. Of course, this was in the days when almost all business travel was on unrestricted fares and there were lower penalties for changing or cancelling advance purchase tickets.
Nowadays, in this changed environment, I guess we can attribute this practice to habit and inefficiency.

Over at Express, it adds to the excitement. Besides, its more fun to do it to you after all the alternatives have left (in my case, if I'm going to White Plains, New Haven or LGA will still work, although less convenient). As for wait times, a few months ago we waited 20 minuutes in Philly, to get a jetway operator for a 737. No special treatment for Mainline in that department.

That's a bit surprising. I've been doing PIT-STL for about 8 months and they have NEVER posted a delay on anywhere near a timely basis. I have had several instances where I'm calling to check the status while on the Metro, checking the in-airport monitors, sprinting through security, and getting to the gate 10-12 minutes before departure, only to see the a/c not even on the ground yet.

My family flew in over the 4th and circled for about an hour. Updates were never provided until after the last update time had passed. And after they had deplaned, waited for gate-checked stoller, stopped at the bathroom on the way out, and met me (a good 20 minutes, with 2 kids), I called again and the actual arrival time still hadn't been updated.

An interesting aside - I got a gate pass to go with them down to the plane. As boarding was finishing, they called me to the podium to get my non-rev boarding pass. :) I wonder if I could actually have flown before they noticed it.


Oh, just to clarify. No one on the ground in STL knew anything about it, or at least they werent telling us. I had the happy chore of informing some of my fellow passengers they were posting the added delays. And this was happening after scheduled departure time. GAs told us like a 10 or 15 minute delay I as I recalled then disappeared. So it wasnt that atypical of US ;)

Over at Express, it adds to the excitement. Besides, its more fun to do it to you after all the alternatives have left (in my case, if I'm going to White Plains, New Haven or LGA will still work, although less convenient). As for wait times, a few months ago we waited 20 minuutes in Philly, to get a jetway operator for a 737. No special treatment for Mainline in that department.

It does add to the excitement, I had checked on my flight from STL to see if there was a later departure scheduled for EWR since I knew my LGA connection was screwed. EWR was shceduled at leaving 10 minutes before LGA. Right before leaving for PIT, while on the plane I checked Sabre for both LGA and EWR. Upon arriving I only checked LGA on Sabre and it left PIT 3 minutes or so early so I was out of luck. After being in line at special services for 25 minutes to get a hotel room (it ended up taking an hour and 20 minutes but that is another thread) I was bored and decided to check for White Planes, ISP and EWR again. On checking EWR I noticed it was departing out of the gate I had arrived at, I put 2 and 2 together and said **** and called the CP line since there were a lot of people behind me and I didnt want to lose my place in line. They called the gate in PIT for me but it had just pulled off. That was a lot of excitement. Oh well, another Hyatt visit, another step closer to the next tier on Hyatt for me and on USAirs nickle instead of an extra $60 or so to the limo service on my company's nickle to pick me up at EWR instead of LGA.