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Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)

US Airways Adds Extra Effort At Philly International

Dec 31, 2004 11:46 am US/Eastern
PHILADELPHIA (KYW 1060) About 50 US Airways excutives are giving up all or part of their New Year's holiday to prevent another baggage debacle at Philadelphia International Airport.

Airline spokesman Chris Sever says it's an effort to make US Airways travelers happier than they were on Christmas weekend, when thousands of suitcases were left off flights from PHL.

"Obviously we're here to meet, greet, provide assistance, direction and help in any way we can. We have refreshments and snacks out. We just want to be out in full force to let our customers know we appreciate their business."

And, he says, they don't want a repeat of what happened during the Christmas rush:

"Absolutely not. And we're not going to have that. And all our folks are ready to serve our customers."

The goal, he says, is to restore traveler confidence:

"Clearly, we had some challenges last weekend. And we're back up to normal operation, and we're booked quite heavily this weekend, and we certainly want to make up for it: put on a great face, and put our best foot forward."

It must be working. Travelers appeared to be happy and forgiving US Airways of its past problems. Baggage claims were flowing smoothly, and the extra help cleared out the large leftover luggage backlog from the Christmas weekend.

A good effort. Im glad to see a positive response from the company in actions. A little of this can go a long way with customers who are used to seeing airlines ignore their company. I havent seen DL doing much in this regard for instance.

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.