Please let us know the good and the bad.

My sister-in-law arrived on USAir 21 PHL-LAX yesterday afternoon. She is not an experienced traveler. We put her on USAir because we had mileage that had to be used. We planned the trip before the current flood of bad news from USAir.

As the plane left the gate in PHL, a woman passenger went into a panic and demanded to be deplaned, so the pilot returned to the gate, delaying the flight by 2 hours. Of course (per TSA) this meant her baggage had to be removed. When my SIL got to LAX, her baggage was missing. USAir telephoned last night and claimed it would be delivered today, but we have not seen it yet. BTW, there were stacks of "unclaimed" baggage at LAX when she arrived, probably baggage "lost" during earlier flights.

Other bad news from the flight: she was in the back of the plane and they ran out of food before they got to her! In 25 years of serious traveling, I have never been on a flight where they ran out of food before they got to me, but my SIL had that experience yesterday. They offered her peanuts. For dinner! On a transcon from PHL to LAX.

Good luck, y'all.

(added New Year's morning 5am.) They telephoned yesterday, a day after arrival, and said her baggage would be delivered "within 4 hours." That was 18 hrs ago, and still no baggage. In 3 hrs, my SIL will be sitting at the Rose Parade in 2 day old clothes and my borrowed jacket. I hope her bags arrive before she returns to PVD!

Does the airline owe us a penalty? Refund? Mileage? Peanuts? anything???

(added New Year's evening 6pm.) At 3 pm, 48 hours after flight, bag had not arrived at home and SIL went to airport to seek it. She could not find it, nor could baggage employees help her. Finally at 5:30 pm, we telephoned from home and a baggage employee found it! Despite what they told us yesterday the bag never left LAX. He also told us it would be another 24 to 48 hours before it could be delivered to our home! And SIL returns to PVD in 4 days.

Moral of story: If you ever want to see it again, don't check it, carry it.

(added Jan 2, 3pm.) With USAir showing no signs of ever delivering her luggage, my SIL drove down to LAX (35 miles from here) and collected it herself, 72 hours after her flight arrived.

Is this normal with USAir?

Sorry to hear about the food situation. however in about a month that will the way it will be on ALL AA flights even trans-cons No More Meals in coach-free at least, they are suppose to offer some type of food for a price. The differnce is if one flys AA they hopefully will know to brown bag it, which of cause your SIL hadnt expected to have to do.
As for the bags as hard as they try to get it right, I dont see it happening and they cant blame it all the time on the Union at PHL. Its a combo of Poor Mgmt and Yes the Union workers at PHL. A combo not just one without the other.
Thats why I Hope that the Judge on 1/6 or whenever will VOID out the Union contracts BUT on condition and ONLY after present Mgmt leaves. With a clean slate maybe US can still make it, I wouldnt want to see the contracts thrown out with Present Mgmt staying in place, nor vice versa. It needs to be a combo of both at the same time. IMHO

PHL-RDU-PHL yesterday was empty, with both segments running light and things smooth. Flying on Sunday PHL-MHT-PHL - will let ya know.

Side note - the captain for both segments (same crew) was extremely pleasant and friendly. Probably the friendliest captain that I've flown with to date.

-JC

Dec 30 PIT-PHL-DFW Flight/luggage on time
Dec 31 PIT-LGA Flight/luggage on time

If you are going through PHL this weekend, please let us know what's going on with the "volunteers", aka "Operation Recovery".

(As an aside, anyone remember the Ross Perot "Volunteers"? ;) Just putting those 3 words together makes me think of the parody of "There Coming to Take Me Away that Rush Limbaugh used to play as a Ross update theme. :D )

JAX PHL was on time. No problems evident at PHL.

Daughter and son in law flew back from PIT yesterday with no problems. They left MCO on Christmas Eve with a flight delay but their trip was very smooth. No problems with luggage either.

Dec 27 PHL -> SFO USAir delayed 2.5 hours, no baggage issues
Dec 30 SFO -> PDX United/US codeshare delayed 1.5 hours, no checked bags.
Dec 31 PDX -> SFO United/US codeshare delayed 1.5 hours so far, still sitting in PDX. no checked bags.

SFO -> PDX was my first time on United; their Economy Plus isn't bad. I had plenty of legroom, at 6'4 tall, even though I was slightly squished in the last middle standby seat available.

Other bad news from the flight: she was in the back of the plane and they ran out of food before they got to her! In 25 years of serious traveling, I have never been on a flight where they ran out of food before they got to me, but my SIL had that experience yesterday. They offered her peanuts. For dinner! On a transcon from PHL to LAX.


They still can't get this right. Just after they started food for sale, I was in the 2nd row aisle in coach and they ran out of food before they got to me. That's a grand total of 9 seats into a 150'ish seat cabin and they were out. Someone's food yield management program needs some work.

On the original topic, I flew PIT-DEN on the 26th, about 20 minutes late and 60 minutes for bags, but everything got here. Return is tomorrow morning.
====

Flight arrive 8 minutes early, bags were on the shuttle bus (all 8 of them) 35 minutes later. Not many people at the DEN airport at 6:30, PIT was still sparse at 1p. I suppose the big crowds will be later and tomorrow.

I flew PHL-CLT-JAX today, leaving Philly about 10am.

Used online check-in and went from curbside to gate B2, through security, in about seven minutes. From a glance at the ticketing area on the B-end, lines were short and the coffee/snacks table was set up and manned, up against the counter down by the escalator to B security. Went down to Special Services to try and get confirmed standby on an earlier connecting flight, and the agent was very helpful: said she would feel bad if she took my $25 to put me on standby for a sold-out flight, so advised checking at the departure gate in Charlotte.

Upgrade cleared 3 days out on the B737-400, had bulkhead aisle. Just about 75 on the flight. On-time with typical great flight attendants.

Moved quickly from C13 to E18 where the earlier JAX flight was leaving in a half hour, was the only stand-by to make it and boarded without a boarding pass or having to pay at departure time. EMB-145 was weight restricted and did appear to have a couple of empty seats in the back. I watched them load, unload, rearrange, and reload bags several times to accommodate the massive amount of checked luggage. Arrived into Jacksonville and was home by the time I was scheduled to leave Charlotte on my original flight.

Typical excellent US Airways today. Helpful employees with positive attitudes. I saw more than a few seeming to go out of their way to be helpful to customers.

Typical excellent US Airways today. Helpful employees with positive attitudes. I saw more than a few seeming to go out of their way to be helpful to customers.

Thanks for the report--phew! Glad it's going well.

All three network news shows spent the last few days talking about US bring in volunteers, harping on the bad news of last weekend. Just finished simultaneously watching NBC and CBS (ABC has Rose Bowl) and no mention whatsoever of US and the "good news" of this weekend's travel.

How typical--how irritating. I'll be interested to see what, if anything at all, appears in tomorrow's NYT.

Media weasles!

Had an uneventful flight FLL-PHL on a sold out 321. Yes my party of 4 were all upgraded. Arrived on time. Checked bags took almost 15 minutes from landing to arrive at baggage claim. WOW. They were giving out cape code chips, pretzels and coffee to the arriving passengers in baggage claim.

Did the first two trips of my 20000 status mile quest. Here are my observations.

Flew PHL-MHT-PHL. Left at 10 am, no wait at security or checkin machines. Flight to MHT was completely uneventful, upgrade cleared in advance (all upgrades did for that matter). Flight maybe 50% full on 733. Saw US execs handing out coffee and food and helping customers (not that I saw too many customers needing help). Great crew both ways. In MHT, ask for return boarding pass and get questioned about how I got through security. Then realizes I'm one of the "promo people"- saw a few last week. Flight back was 90% full. Sold upgrades at gate for the 35 min airtime flight for $50 each. Family of three actually purchased them. Wow.

PHL-PVD-PHL- car was on fire at PHL outside baggage claim B and C. Outbound was about 90% full although only 3 of us in first. #1 for takeoffin PHL-amazing. Crew took the first row of first and spent the entire flight reading magazines/newspapers and eating. No beverage service aside from water pre-departure or snack service- surprising especially since there were only 4 of us.
Flight back was on an E-170-great aircraft- so much better than the CR7, CRJ, or even ERJ. 70% full, great FA, early arrival (15 min).

All in all, PHL looked well run today with plenty of management presence. No real problems present. Flights, especially PM seemed to be really full.

More fun next weekend.

I showed up 90 minutes early for a 10:55am departure from PVD on Tuesday. As soon as the automatic doors opened, there was a line. I though the unthinkable happened, the US shut down. That though immediately erased when I saw that people were checking their luggage and that it was just that the kiosks were down, and a shortage of people working, was the culprit of the long wait.

There was a 757 PHL flight from 7:30 that got delayed till the same departure time as ours, and ours still left earlier.

My upgrade on the A321 to Philly cleared and we departed an hour late. Many people in first told stories that they had showed up Monday but were told that they wouldn't make their connections and should fly out Tuesday. Inflight service was exceptional from the fine BOS based crew.

PHL-JAX left 30 min late and arrived only 15 mins late.

Thursday December 30 needing to get home from Northern Virginia:

US 909 Scheduled IAD 1025 left promptly, gave us an upgrade on the A319 and arrived CLT on time at 1145.

US 837 scheduled CLT 1215, plane was broken. Airline rolled another 757 up to a nearby gate and got us off about 1400. No upgrade on the 757 (are there ever any on these airplanes?) but coach seats 8D&F were quite tolerable and we got to FLL at about 1600, two hours late, but all in one piece.

No checked bags, no problems and we'll be back to the U this Tuesday going up to LGA. No upgrades confirmed yet, and it does not look good. And I've been telling everybody on the DL board who doesn't like Song that this service is great and GPs get upgraded every time. I guess that I may need to change my tune next week.

I was booked US 806/1434 FLL-CLT-EWR on 12/30. Got to FLL early, asked to be put on standby into LGA instead of EWR. Was confirmed on the spot for FLL-CLT-LGA with no charge, aisle seats on both legs (although sat in coach for the first time in memory because all F/C seats had already been given away to upgrades).

FLL-CLT US 128 - This flight was delayed close to 2 hours due to LAE from PHL. I didn't mind though because I got there closer to its actual time of departure. It was on ship 603, a B757. My only complaint was that there was a disgusting, musty smell on this aircraft. However, rest of the trip was uneventful.

CLT-LGA US 1256 - Flight was supposed to be a 319, was swapped out to a 320 though. Alas, I still was not upgraded as CP. There were other CP's who threw a fit when there were still open seats in F, but instead of getting them the gate agents in CLT told late connectors to "take any open seat," and of course they sat in F. I was put off, but that all changed...

A F/A on this flight was the best I've had in my entire 10 years of US CP. I won't get into what perks I got in Y for fear that the company could use it against the F/A, but I will just say that the frontline employees of US continue to make it worth my while to fly with them.

On this day, the F/A and the ticket counter agent in FLL were golden.

ISP

I was in PHL on both Thursday and Friday. There were no volunteers on Thursday (I was flying on the promo run w/ jcooke and Bison). But, on Friday, I met with pilots, FAs, and upper management from Arlington, including USAIR spokesman, David Castelveter in the baggage claim area. I did not see the Pres. and CEO, Bruce Lakefield. I had to be at PHL because of work. Some of you know I work in the news biz, and we DID a postive report on how smooth things were running on Friday, during our 6pm newscast on 12/31. I also saw the Tastykakes, pretzels, coffee, hot chocolate, chips, donuts, and other snacks that they were handing out. I spoke to a few pax about their experiences, and they were pleased. They even said their luggage arrived at BC before they did! :eek: Overall, it was a nice PR move on US's part.

If you are going through PHL this weekend, please let us know what's going on with the "volunteers", aka "Operation Recovery".

(As an aside, anyone remember the Ross Perot "Volunteers"? ;) Just putting those 3 words together makes me think of the parody of "There Coming to Take Me Away that Rush Limbaugh used to play as a Ross update theme. :D )

Yesterday SXM - PHL - ITH. Flight from SXM departed roughly on time, at gate in PHL a touch early. One hour 15 before bags were available. No "management volunteers" in sight. Spoke to a couple bag guys who said that they didn't see any management volunteers working bags at all, in any way; they guessed that they were helping GA's and TA's rather than lifting bags. Despite scheduled 2 hour connection time, barely made it... given the panic of the other pax (and the long line to re-clear security) I would guess that there were others that didn't make their connections. Only answer given in int'l arrivals was that you must wait for your bag and take it through customs... even if it means missing your connection. Made me wonder if the folks coming in on the 25th had to wait in bag claim for 3 days? I was about 5 minutes from testing that theory, even if it meant the possibility of never seeing my dirty underwear, t-shirts and still wet swimsuit ever again. Next time - I'll pack lighter and carry on.

They did serve food on the SXM - PHL leg, the most pathetic "sandwich" I've ever seen made of a hot dog roll, some form of mystery meat and a processed cheese product. I was glad I packed my own food. I found it interesting that the two bankrupt airlines coming out of SXM were the only ones where the departure tax was not included in the ticket price, so you had to pay the $30 cash on the way out.

PHL - ITH uneventful other than long typical long ground delay to take off (long taxi + long takeoff queue). I miss hubbing through PIT.

In general I found the FA's to be in good spirits and very helpful and friendly; the bag guys I spoke to were nice, hard working, but really dispirited about the whole labor relations issue. It's clear that there's a lot of ill will there towards the company and management. They said that they were short-staffed again, that the crews had been told that they had mandatory overtime that night, but that they had heard that a bunch of the workers were just going to go home at their scheduled shift end time anyway. It did look like many of the other Carib flights arriving at that time got their bags more timely, I think we may have been the "short straw" flight without a bag crew to unload when we landed.

A-West is always screwed up when it comes to arrivals. In every international terminal in the USA, you always have to pick up your bags and re-check for connections. :(

This morning I boarded US1212 at ORD.
I think the flight left on time.
Folks were acting like they never put a bag in the overhead bins before!
This was a full flight as UA's 06:35 ORD-PHL flight was cancelled so all those folks came over to US.
Not a single seat empty in Y nor F.
After I deboarded and began to make my trek through Terminal B to the R1, I couldn't help but notice the MOUNDS of luggage on the tarmac under the wings/bellies of the US livery.
Only reason why I chuckled when I saw this was because I remembered something had posted on here last week about the baggage situation.

Hope this helps!

I should add that it was total amateur hour the whole trip, especially boarding and getting settled in SXM. I'm not trying to be unnecessarily snide... I can imagine that boarding a totally full flight when you fly once every 10 years or so can be a complicated and intimidating process. It did, however, make me appreciate even more the patience, good humor and professionalism of the flight attendants.

A-West is always screwed up when it comes to arrivals. In every international terminal in the USA, you always have to pick up your bags and re-check for connections. :(

Most of my CLT-PHL flights lately have been arriving into A-West (B767-200s and A319 EOWs). What a pain to go from A24 to friggin F, or even to walk out to curbside.

Made a PHL-MHT-PHL run today.

Used OLCI, but went to the FC line for paper BP's. Checkin was about a 3 minute wait for the FC line, and the normal checkin lines were crazy full. Coffee was avail downstairs with someone with a US nametag (presumably an exec) helping people out as well. Security for B was backed up like usual - no FC line of course. Took about 15 mins or less.

Inside the terminal it didnt look too too bad, but still a fair amount of passengers. My flight was darn near empty and uneventful. I was the only person in FC and there were 24 passengers in the back of the 319 for the outbound flight. Still, one too many crying babies.

Pushback was quick and ontime despite a slightly late crew arrival. We took off on 9L after being #3 in line- always a treat taking off the "other way" (winds were out of the NE). Flight was relaxing, with a friendly crew. They pointed out when we were flying over Manhattan and got a good view of the city.

Since my flight arrived ontime at 9:45, I had about 45 mins for the 10:45 return. I got my BP from the gate agent - the usual "how'd you get here" question applied when I asked her for the BP :). Went to the gift shop and picked up airdiva1 the usual keychain, picked up some breakfast, and then went back to the gate.

The flight back had more people, about 1/3-1/2 full in the back and FC was full. I got some sleep on the way back and then woke up right before final approach. Again, landed the "other way" - this time on 9R. It looked like it was starting to get busy as they had about 10 planes lined up for departure but the terminal was another story.

When I got into the terminal (end of C) the first word that came to my mind was empty. It was 11:30 and it was a ghosttown in the C terminal. The security lines at C looked to be a mess as 3 lanes were opened. I walked over to B and it looked almost as dead as C but still a little bit of life. The checkpoint at B had a small line, but nothing like what it was at 7am.

I'm hoping that it was a lull for flights but the gates that I walked by were supposed to have flights coming up in an hour or so but there wasn't even the usual super-early birds.

-JC

PHL-MHT-PHL Left 8:30 PM on 12/30. Upgrade cleared at 72 hrs. Coach was full but there were 5 empty seats in FC. Left on time and arrived about 20 mins early. Returned today on 3:10 PM flight. Upgrade did not clear and I sat in 12D which is fine. Slept most of the way. Left a little late because check in was so backed up that they held the PHL flight and another one so that they could get all passengers on board. Only arrived a few minutes late. I had a carryon so I can't tell you anything about the luggage situation.

Flew DCA-PHL-LAS on Friday afternoon the 31st to meet the girlfriend for New Year's. Everything went wonderfully. DCA was deserted at 3 pm Friday---no wait even in the regular check-in line, and security was a breeze. The F seats on the 737 to Philly were pen-mark city, but we were all offered both a predeparture and inflight drink (not bad for a 22-minute flight!)

We arrived at PHL 13 minutes EARLY for a change, and on my walk from the end of B to the end of C, I fought my way through the masses of travelers. PHL was as crowded as I've ever seen it.

When I arrived at the gate for my 757 to LAS, boarding had already commenced and the gate agent greeted me with a BP for seat 2F. I was #1 on the upgrade list (and only one F seat was still open) by virtue of checking in 23:51 early. The crew on this flight was exceptional. The purser had a great sense of humor and, during boarding, told everyone on the PA that despite the airline's financial troubles and the Christmas baggage fiasco, that he still loves his job and assured us that the vast majority of US Airways staff are still dedicated to serving customers professionally and efficiently.

The first class FA, Barbara, was extremely attentive, coming around at least six times during the flight to refill drinks. She served a full hot dinner with salad and a cheesecake dessert; I chose the pistachio-crusted salmon and it was quite tasty.

Please, everyone, whenever you witness great service by US Airways employees, rip out those comment cards from the back of Attaché magazine and send them on to Winston-Salem. My flights to LAS still proved to me that US employees are still the best in the biz, by a long shot. They deserve recognition from us!

LGA-CLT-GSO on the 2nd. No problems. In fact, the person at the club in LGA moved me to an earlier flt at no charge and called the baggage room to get my bag on the earlier flt also. The FAs were great and I was upgraded the whole way. I did bring cookies as the FFOCUS guys suggested. I gave them to the FAs and said " Happy New year. I know things are tough but we appreciate the efforts". They are seemed pretty touched.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences. The media is more concerned about entertainment - its great to hear the good and bad from FT members.

GOOD LUCK US :cool:

All weekend on the all-news radio station in Philly I heard about how the airport situation is OK this weeken, but boy did last weekend sure suck! Let's recap that once again in case you didn't hear how FAs and baggage handlers called in sick and screwed up Christmas for lots of passengers... :rolleyes:

Flew from LGA to CLT on January 2; flight was delayed over 3 hours. There were some pretty angry people on the flight and on other flights. Flight was full.

01/02/05:

LGA - IND
900p - 1118p US 3069

Left 915p. Arrival into IND 1146p. Very slow luggage arrival.

US Airways Express Embraer 145 Regional Jet.

Chautauqua Airlines.

Flew PHX-PIT-PHL on 31st. The first flight was full but the second was empty. Lots of non-revs on the PIT-PHL sector. Crew empasized that PHL was running smoothly.

Everything OK except the baggage came on a different belt at PHL than had been been displayed on the screens; something that's historically par for this airline.

The Christmas day PHL-PHX was a totally different story.

Flew DCA to PBI on US 381 around 8:30am on Christmas morning. DCA was a zoo (long term lots were full) but flight was on-time and full. Flew US 1488 around Noon from FLL (an even bigger zoo than DCA) to DCA on 2 January. Announced as oversold and offered US/Canada tickets as bait. Left the gate about 10 minutes late, waiting for baggage to be loaded.

The wait on the taxiway for takeoff was over 1.5 hours! FLL was operating with only one runway and the pilot said he'd never seen it so congested --- no reason given. Trip to DC was fine but wait for luggage was about an hour.

However, staff were terrific and all luggage made the trip both ways.

Tom

January 4th and the FLL-LGA flights are still 100%.
US324 pushed back about 5 minutes late at 1130 and arrived LGA about 5 minutes late.
Every seat was filled but we don't check bags so no report there except that at LGA we did not notice any of the bag pileups such as those that we have been seeing at US baggage locations over the last week or so.

Flew PHL/FLL on 30th and returned on 2nd. Outbound flight @7am departed on time and seamlessly; we were worried that PHL seemed too quiet- but it was 5:30am when we arrived and no lines at security. Return went perfectly too but we did not check any luggage and since we had purchased F tickets we knew we would have overhead bin space for carry-ons.

All in all, it seemed like everyone had agreat attitude, was helpful and efficieent, even TSA. Seemed like the clock was turned back and all was well. On the negative side; a colleague said his negative experience at PHL baggage claim waiting for just one bag convinced him why US Airways SHOULD go out of business.

Sorry no flight #s

DEC 30 DFW - CLT - LGA around 6am

First flight was one of the new Embraers. Guess it was OK but I'd prefer an A319 with FC. Flight attendants were fine, overheard they were only offered something like 7 'meals' to sell and they sell out fast.

We landed on time or early but it took over half an hour to get to a gate, which was changed. Original story was that someone was at our gate, but then they changed our gate and when we got to it we were waiting for ground crew. The delay was extensive enough that i had to run across the terminal and almost had a misconnect.

FAs on 737 CLT-LGA were great and service was excellent. I had no checked bags.

Returned Monday 1/2 ROC - PHL - DFW Flight 991 2 crews direct 1 stop

1. Security, check in, baggage with TSA was a nightmare and I nearly missed the flight for that reason alone, but not US fault.

2. Enroute i requested water - was quite astonished to learn the flight had not been catered with water and they also ran out of ice. FAs were fine but I could tell they weren't well supported.

I gave a FA a gift basked and asked her to distribute it among the crew specifcially - she took it home herself - didn't quite realize what happened until I saw her deplane. I made sure the 2nd crew shared their goodies and everyone was friendly.

i stayed on the plane during crew change. One of the FAs (she wasn't even the FC FA) introduced herself to me and crashed in row 3 to eat her breakfast.

3. When ground crew came on board the kid was *****ing about being 80 ppl short, did cursory cleaning of plane, then used restroom.

4. FAs were making a mad dash to find paperwork for liquor and finally someone found some paperwork.

5. Flight service was fine, departure/arrival was fine.

6. One FA told me (this makes no sense to me) that part of the reason why catering is incomplete often is because the catering crew ends up having to help out with baggage? It seems that most of my flights were delayed or nearly delayed due to baggage delays.

7. Unloading baggage back in DFW took forever, like 30 minutes. The baggage office at US was only intermittently staffed but my 'priority' bags finally were offloaded among the last batch almost 30 minutes after arrival.

8. Oh, I forgot, on outbound CLT-LGA one of the pilots actually brought two full pots of coffee from another aircraft over during boarding because our coffeemakers were malfunctioning.

In summary, all ticket counters seemed understaffed, gate agents were not very friendly, one didn't even look at me or make eye contact when taking my ticket, but in flight crew were excellent. Ground crew seemed mediocre to poor everywhere. I hate to say it, but the FAs can't hold up the entire airline. It feels like its being held together by scotch tape and they do not appear to have adequate ground crew.

In a time when pax are discouraged from mid-December, the FAs need more support from gorund crew to instill confidence in travelers. I respect all those who care and work hard, but without having a complete airline that operates effectively, my confidence continues to erode by the day.

I continue to be ASTONISHED that a smaller union at U seems to have a passionate desire to drive them into bankruptcy - they have the ability and apparently the desire to do so.

Flew UA SFO-ORD-PWM with fiance on 12/22. I am Premier, she has no status, but helpful Customer service got us seats together in Econ Plus. Flight was uneventful with a slight (1 hr) delay in ORD due to big storms in Cincinnati area.

Return flt. PWM, IAD, SFO, on 12/28, was a bit of a PITA. We had an equipment change (smaller plane and lots of people got stranded in IAD, more than 40) in IAD, and fiance and I were separated. She got a window seat and I got a middle seat in Econ Plus (and I have the status). Thought that was strange, but didn't matter as I would have given her the seat anyway. Flight was also delayed. No problem with that but the Chief FA was a total a****le. Not just to me but to the passengers around me. Ask him what the dinner choices were, and he acts as if I have just asked him to go downstairs and get my luggage. Lots of other snide and catty remarks from him throughout the flight. When I asked who the Chief was so I could complain about his behavior, was told that HE was the Chief. Not happy to hear that.
Oh, well.

When we arrived in SFO, we got our luggage quickly, but fiance and I got separated looking for my brother at the curb. Surprisingly, there was very little traffic at the Arrival Zone. I got to the car first and loaded my bags, and walked back inside to look for fiance. No sooner had a left, than the Parking Nazi's arrived at my brother's car, telling him to keep moving. As he clearly was LOADING baggage, as I approached the car I explained that I had lost fiance on the way out, that she had her bags and would be here any moment. Parking Nazi would accept NO excuse and kept harassing my Brother, even as fiance walked up with her bags. As she was loading bags, PN kept harassing us, and telling us that "we must think we are SO special."
At this point, after almost 10 hours of travel, I lost it and told PN that, "I explained to you the situation, now use your f***ing head. We aren't trying to act 'special' we are just loading our bleeping bags." With low traffic and us spending at most 2-3 extra minutes while I found fiance, I cannot fathom that we caused any problem nor did PN need to bother with us.

Any one else have this problem at SFO or other airports?

FDuvall

Was on the 10 a.m. Shuttle from BOS to LGA on Jan.2 and it was very quiet at BOS, no lines at check in, only one person beside myself in the nice and light club lounge there.

Actually visited the club at LGA for a quick coffee and phone call and after getting back to the carousels there was a huge line ( about 20-30 people deep ) at the lost bagge counter, but fortunately was bag was waiting for me next to the office.

Returned on the 11 a.m. shuttle flight one day later and while checking in at 9.27 a.m. the friendly agent working the F/Coprorate/ actually no * Gold signs line offered me to go on the 10 a.m. flight ^

Again only a few guys at the club at LGA and nobody in BOS, luggage came out, after I got back to the belt, again after making some calls in the lounge, so easily 30 minutes after arriving.

Service on the shuttle was actually pretty nice, club lounges very clean and friendly staff !!

I, like hundreds of others, gave up my days off over New Year's and flew an extra trip. The trip only went through PHL once, but it was a smooth operation in and out. This was an airbus trip, and over the course of 3 days we flew the 319, 320 and the 321. Several of the flights were full, but we put our luggage skills into overdrive and managed to rearrange bins and find space for every single bag brought on board. I didn't blame folks for not wanting to check their bags, and we were happy to utilize every nook and cranny overhead that we could find.
I was home one day and then went out on my regular 3 day trip, on the 737 this time. As it went with the airbus trip, every flight was either on time or a little bit early. Didn't have to check any bags on the boeing trip either, but I'll admit that it's a bit more challenging to shuffle bins on that airplane.
Even though the flights were all on time and we didn't have to check anyone's bags, we still seemed to get a lot more complaints than normal. These ranged from having to wait for someone to bring the jetway up to the airplane (we had arrived about 10 minutes early and probably waited about 4 minutes for the jetway), to having to ration ice when catering wasn't available to us (we had ice for everyone, just couldn't fill the cups), to someone suggesting in a very rude way that the f/a's should take more responsibility and personally take the curtains on the airplanes home with us to wash. I know that the airplanes aren't the cleanest in the industry, but please...I think I'm just tired of saying "I'm sorry" for things that I have absolutely no control over, and apologizing for everyone else's failures.
Things ran very smoothly in the system over New Year's, and I'm very happy about that. We did get some positive press for a change and that's good too. However, I don't think anyone will be quick to forget about the mess over Christmas. I don't blame them, I would be furious too if my plans had been ruined. One of the few times I've lost luggage was on my honeymoon when Piedmont lost our bags. We were able to make do and buy the bare neccessities until the bags were returned to us a few days later, and now we can laugh about it, but I know that a lot more people were affected by the "meltdown" and it will take a long time (if ever) for them to forget.
I have been flying for 26 years (first at Piedmont, then US after the merger) and today was the first time I've seriously taken out the classified ads in the paper and circled a few. I realize that I can't save the airline by myself and frankly I'm getting tired of trying. I'm tired of all of the rude comments and accusations about something I had no part in, but unfortunately I am guilty by association. I voted "yes" on the contract today, taking my 3rd round of concessions, and I'm pretty sure that it will pass. Sadly, I'm now realizing that no matter how many paycuts we take it will probably never be enough. Tomorrow the judge makes his decision on the IAM union, and if he agrees to throw out their contract they will no doubt make life miserable for the rest of us. It's so sad, 95% of the employees at this company have given their hearts and souls to it and tried everything to make it work, but that other small percentage will be the ones to deal the final blow.
What made me finally decide to throw in the towel? As I was getting off the airplane in DCA yesterday a woman that I had never laid eyes on walked right up to me and got in my face and started screaming obscenities about "US Scare". She wasn't even on my flight, and I have no idea what she was so upset about, but then and there I decided that I've had enough.
When I find a new job (and I know that I will) I will be so happy to finally have more quality time for my family. My husband has over 20 years at US as well, and I can count on one hand the years that we have both been home over Christmas. At least with one of us out of the industry our odds increase that we'll both be home next year.
Most of you on this board have been wonderful assets to US. Without you I doubt if the company would have lasted this long. I thank you for your continued support and patronage, and thank you for continuing to choose US for your travels. I know that many of you stand to lose a lot if the company does fail, and for that I apologize. I hope that your future travels are safe and happy.

GalleyWench,

I'm sorry you're planning to leave US. Their loss is somebody else's gain, I'm sure. I'd like to thank you publicly for all your years of dedicated service with a smile.

GalleyWench,

Please don't leave us.

EB

Galley Wench
I can't imagine how exhausted you must be. We really hope that you will stay and that the we will all have lots of US flts to come!

Galley Wench, sorry to hear that it has come down to this. You or other f/a's don't deserve to be the brunt of flyers frustrations. I am sure you will find something great and be able to enjoy life. Good luck.