BizJet
Apr 23, 01, 2:45 pm
I've been a defender of the US Airways PHL staff in the past. Everyone has said how awful they were, but before yesterday I never had any bad experiences. Some good staff, some decent staff, some poor staff, just like any other city, but no one really rude or unbelieveably incompetent. Until yesterday.
I was on a 10:00am flight from PHL back to Tampa. The gate agent oddly doesn't preboard handicap passengers. He boards First Class, Dividend Preferred, and rows 20 and higher. HUH? It wasn't like this was an empty flight. Being First Class, I get in line to board. Ahead of me is an elderly passenger whose wife is in a wheelchair. The gate agent pulling the tickets asks if he needs a special wheelchair for his wife to get on the plane. He responds yes. The gate agent proceeds to yell across the gate area to three agents standing around chatting at the Special service center desk. They get into argument about who should have to deal with it. The man gets annoyed and proceeds to wheel his wife down the aisle. The gate agent continues boarding passengers (by this time they are calling 10 and higher even though only four others have gone through the jetway -- the agent at the desk handling the PA had no idea what was going on). The elderly man is having trouble handling the wheelchair and all his papers, keeps dropping the latter. By now I catch up with him in the jetway and see that he has bent down to pick up his papers, while his wife in the wheelchair is rolling down the jetway, so I run up to help her. By now the man, his wife, and I are all at the edge of the jetway. Her wheelchair can't fit in the Airbus aisle, and the special wheelchair hasn't yet appeared. SIX gate agents appear in the jetway with a wheelchair, arguing over who should deal with her (quite rudely, insulting the woman's weight and physical condition). Meanwhile two flight attendants, the husband, and myself are helping the woman get up and walk into the plane, since it is apparent that the gate agents are too busy arguing. The gate agents see this, say that she can walk fine (we are holding her -- she can't walk), and walk away. The passenger behind me realizes that she can't walk, runs up to talk some sense into the SIX gate agents. Now the woman has fallen (uninjured) and we try to pick her up. Finally one of the SIX gate agents decides to stop arguing and help the woman into a wheelchair and to her seat.
Unbelieveable experience. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif
On a separate note: I guess the PHL based F/A's are too used to taxi times of 30 minutes. Yesterday our taxi time turned out to be only 10 minutes. The three FAs were all chatting in the forward galley. The captain comes on the PA and asks them to be seating, but they keep talking away thinking they have a while. The plane takes the active runway and begins accelerating, their faces turn white, two of them jump for the jump seat while the third literally sprints down the aisle (keep in mind that we started accelerating when she began her sprint). She later said that she strapped in moments before wheels up. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif
[This message has been edited by BizJet (edited 04-23-2001).]
I was on a 10:00am flight from PHL back to Tampa. The gate agent oddly doesn't preboard handicap passengers. He boards First Class, Dividend Preferred, and rows 20 and higher. HUH? It wasn't like this was an empty flight. Being First Class, I get in line to board. Ahead of me is an elderly passenger whose wife is in a wheelchair. The gate agent pulling the tickets asks if he needs a special wheelchair for his wife to get on the plane. He responds yes. The gate agent proceeds to yell across the gate area to three agents standing around chatting at the Special service center desk. They get into argument about who should have to deal with it. The man gets annoyed and proceeds to wheel his wife down the aisle. The gate agent continues boarding passengers (by this time they are calling 10 and higher even though only four others have gone through the jetway -- the agent at the desk handling the PA had no idea what was going on). The elderly man is having trouble handling the wheelchair and all his papers, keeps dropping the latter. By now I catch up with him in the jetway and see that he has bent down to pick up his papers, while his wife in the wheelchair is rolling down the jetway, so I run up to help her. By now the man, his wife, and I are all at the edge of the jetway. Her wheelchair can't fit in the Airbus aisle, and the special wheelchair hasn't yet appeared. SIX gate agents appear in the jetway with a wheelchair, arguing over who should deal with her (quite rudely, insulting the woman's weight and physical condition). Meanwhile two flight attendants, the husband, and myself are helping the woman get up and walk into the plane, since it is apparent that the gate agents are too busy arguing. The gate agents see this, say that she can walk fine (we are holding her -- she can't walk), and walk away. The passenger behind me realizes that she can't walk, runs up to talk some sense into the SIX gate agents. Now the woman has fallen (uninjured) and we try to pick her up. Finally one of the SIX gate agents decides to stop arguing and help the woman into a wheelchair and to her seat.
Unbelieveable experience. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif
On a separate note: I guess the PHL based F/A's are too used to taxi times of 30 minutes. Yesterday our taxi time turned out to be only 10 minutes. The three FAs were all chatting in the forward galley. The captain comes on the PA and asks them to be seating, but they keep talking away thinking they have a while. The plane takes the active runway and begins accelerating, their faces turn white, two of them jump for the jump seat while the third literally sprints down the aisle (keep in mind that we started accelerating when she began her sprint). She later said that she strapped in moments before wheels up. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif
[This message has been edited by BizJet (edited 04-23-2001).]