jetsetter
Aug 15, 00, 8:54 pm
I was going to visit a friend in PHL, and booked the $120 US E-saver. Convenient that they were offering PHL on the weekend I wanted to go! I specifically picked out the one BOS-PHL flight on an A319.
Sat Aug 12 US1589F BOS-PHL A319 3D
I took the subway to BOS (saving $25-$35) in cab fare, and they had some construction (buses rather than trains) on the green line, but blue line/airport were normal. Got to the US terminal, and checked in at gate 8. They took my upgrade cert, gave me my boarding pass, and added me to the volunteer list for the flight overbooked by 10. I figured not too good a chance to get bumped, and sure enough, they did not need volunteers. Boarded the A319, and it seemed very modern. Notebook empower ports, headset jacks, etc. I usually fly CO, and CO's new planes do not seem this modern. We pushed back from the gate just about on time, taxied out a bit, and were told that PHL had a ground stop due to thunderstorms over the field. They shut off the engenes to save fuel, and said we would have an update in 45 minutes. They allowed us to use computers/cell phones, and had a full drink service in first. Glad I got that upgrade. Was sitting next to a FA who dashed on at the last minute, and he was working later that night. We talked about how these ground stops were more the rule rather than the exception. I thik US has one of the better beverage flight services. They have the snack basket, rather than just say a small bag of nuts. I always get the Melano cookies, and then something else. Like they had trail mix, different nuts, chips, fruit bars, etc. You don't get that on CO. We did take off in about 45 minutes, and the pax were all worried about missing connections. At one point, they made an announcement to "don't worry about your connections right now." I joked with the FA that it would be funny if somebody got on the PA, and said "folks, we know you might miss your connection, there is nothing we can do about it from the air at 35,000 feet (so stop asking about them), no we're not going to call and have them hold your flight, and just have a few stiff drinks and don't worry about it, do you understand me?" The way flights are operating these days, one should figure on delays. The FA went back and helped the crew serving coach pax, even though he was not officially working the flight. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed in PHL.
PHL has a connection with the rail system that takes you into center city as its called. There is a station for this train at each of the concourses. Basically, you just exit security, go down some stairs, out some doors, and you have a platform. The fare was $5 into the city (Suburban Station). The trains were like commuter rail cars. It took about 20 minutes or so, and tickets were sold on board the train. I got off at Suburban Station, and it was just a few blocks from the Westin PHL.
The Westin PHL is located at 17th & Chestnut. It is near a Club Quarters hotel, and seems to be in the main down town. I had thought about staying at the Rittenhouse Hotel (seemed nicer), but figured maybe another time.
Got a rate of $115 for 1 night at the Westin. First, they put me in a room on 6, then after asking, upgrade to SPG 15th floor (top). The floor has no club level, but perhaps rooms a bit nicer. Hotel seems kind of older....e.g. parts on shower are lose. Water pressure in shower is OK, not bad not great. I think the water pressure is key in a shower...the more the better.
Was going to meet my friend for drinks at the Westin bar, but it was closed around 11:30PM so we just went up to the room and had a couple of beers out of the mini bar.
Sunday had breakfast/lunch at the Club Quarters next door. The food was quite good, and they had some jazz playing in the back ground. It was an a la cart type menu. Apparently the Club Quarters is a membership hotel, and you must be a member to stay. They have a machine that checks you in and out. A friend from DCA was staying at Club Quarters, so we met him for brunch at his hotel.
Then hung around in PHL for the rest of the day. Tried to get one of those shared shuttles back to PHL ATO (but they couldn't book it with like 20 minutes notice). I joked with my friend that they expect people to plan thing out, e.g. call six months ahead of time, and that they catered to people that were less spontaneous. I was booked to fly PHLBOS on the 8:30pm US1090. I thought maybe I would just go standby on the 9:30PM....but then figured I wanted to try to get home at a reasonable hour, and the US1090 was overbooked by a few so maybe slim chance I would get bumped. Since the Lady Libery Shuttle could not accommodate my procrastination, we checked with one other too, I took the rail back to PHL. $5 again, and actually probably easier, because it takes you right near the gate area. I think the Lady Libery shuttle is good....so long as you have a bit more time to book. It's about $12 or so.
I called US to check the gate for 1090, so I'd know which stop to get off at. I think US has one of the better telephone automated systems. It gives you departure/arrival gates, and tells you how many minutes ahead or behind schedule the flight is. I put in my flight number, and it said gate A9. I thought A was the international concourse. Could it be mistaken? I thought? I called a couple of more times to see if it changed, but the female automated voice kept saying confidently "gate A9, A as in Adam 9, on time." So I got off at A., went through security, and A9 was at the end of the concourse. And a chaotic A as in Adam 9 it was. There were at least 30 to 40 people in a line that was not moving. They kept shifting the check in line from A9, to A12, then back to A9. They announced that the crew that would make up US1090 was not yet in PHL, that they were "in range," and that once they arrived the flight would board and leave. It was now 8:40PM. After waiting for about 30 minutes, and going back and forth between these gates, I got up to a male check-in agent. He quickly took my ID, typed into his computer, and gave me my boarding pass (with no request for an upgrade cert.) I asked him to put me on the volunteer list, and after a couple of more keystrokes, he said they would let me know.
I went over (no seats) and was standing talking on my cell phone. Still they had not started boarding, and that crew was nowhere to be found. There were also never any announcements about needing volunteers. Then out of the blue, the check in agent comes over "you volunteered right," "yes," "well we're going to be able to use you, you can come right up to the podium and we'll get you rebooked!" He said there was no F class available on the 9:30 and I said that was fine. I would receive a round trip flight credit, and they would put me on standby for first on the 9:30PM. I was rebooked, and then they had to wait for the superviser (who was helping someone else) to issue the RTFC. The superviser was rebooking someone PHL-LFW-MAD. The guy asked about his bags, the superviser got on the radio, and could not reach anyone in the ramp area, and basically told the guy he was sorry but they really didn't know if his bags would make it. I didn't catch why the guy was rebooked. Still they were not boarding at 9PM. It was unusual they had bumped me before the boarding even started. The agent said the flight went over by 2, and he was showing another agent fields on the computer where you could see how overbooked or how many people were checked in. The superviser issued my RTFC, and I signed one of the copies. It basically lookis like a ticket, and says "exchange coupon." Then I asked them to put me on the standby list to be bumped from the 9:30PM which was also overbooked. They had trouble getting me on the volunteer and upgrade list at the same time, because both lists are part of the standby list. They tried to call the gate, but the line was busy. Then the guy tried some more computer entries, but could not get it to add my name to the volunteer list, apparently because I was on the upgrade list. He said there probably was a way to do this, but they could not figure it out. The agent said he usually did not work domestic flights, and this flight was only on the A concourse because it came in from GCC I think. He said to just head over to D4, and he would try to call them again to add me to the US1742 volunteer list.
I headed over to D4, and found it was 9:16PM, and started running down to the gate in case the flight was actually on time. Got to D4 and it was not even boarding. Checked in with the counter agent, and indeed, they had me on both the upgrade and volunteer lists! Good work US! The gate area was not at all crowded, and they started boarding at around 9:30. They announced the final boarding call, an still had not told me either way. The suspense! Two agents were just typing into their computers "click, lick, click," and still no word either way. Then a male pax and male agent got into an argument, could not hear exactly what it was about, but they were not going to do whatever the guy wanted. Then I went up to the counter, and they said to go right on board the aircraft, they would not need any volunteers. They were getting standbys on the flight. I asked about my upgrade to first, the two agents conferred something like "we have 79 and 11," and then I was given a boarding pass with 3A! I think I got the last seat in first....thats what the 11 meant....11 out of 12 seats.
The flight was uneventul, and left at 9:45PM. The crew was good about making announcements, e.g. "we're about 40 miles from BOS, and we're going to intercept the runway 4 right ILS approach." It was almost as good as being on UA with the ATC!
I got to BOS, and took the US Shuttle (ground van service) back home. It is about the same as a cab in BOS, but probably saves you more if you live in suburbia. Had to wait a while for the approprate van. Like 45 minutes. The web site is www.us-shuttle.com (http://www.us-shuttle.com)
if you want to check it out or 877-shuttle. While waiting, I called the automated system to check whatever happened to 1090 that I left at A9. And you know what? It arrived 15 minutes later than the 9:30 flight I took.
So I got bumped, got a free ticket, and arrived BOS 15 minutes before I would if I had not volunteered! I was talking to someone who was also waiting for the shuttle who was on US1090. She said each seat was full, and they never made any announcements about needing volunteers later in the boarding process. Such luck! "Oh what do you get when you get bumped?" she asked. And when I told her, she said "oh I should do that!"
So another weekend trip on the east coast. May the luck continue.
gate
[This message has been edited by jetsetter (edited 08-15-2000).]
Sat Aug 12 US1589F BOS-PHL A319 3D
I took the subway to BOS (saving $25-$35) in cab fare, and they had some construction (buses rather than trains) on the green line, but blue line/airport were normal. Got to the US terminal, and checked in at gate 8. They took my upgrade cert, gave me my boarding pass, and added me to the volunteer list for the flight overbooked by 10. I figured not too good a chance to get bumped, and sure enough, they did not need volunteers. Boarded the A319, and it seemed very modern. Notebook empower ports, headset jacks, etc. I usually fly CO, and CO's new planes do not seem this modern. We pushed back from the gate just about on time, taxied out a bit, and were told that PHL had a ground stop due to thunderstorms over the field. They shut off the engenes to save fuel, and said we would have an update in 45 minutes. They allowed us to use computers/cell phones, and had a full drink service in first. Glad I got that upgrade. Was sitting next to a FA who dashed on at the last minute, and he was working later that night. We talked about how these ground stops were more the rule rather than the exception. I thik US has one of the better beverage flight services. They have the snack basket, rather than just say a small bag of nuts. I always get the Melano cookies, and then something else. Like they had trail mix, different nuts, chips, fruit bars, etc. You don't get that on CO. We did take off in about 45 minutes, and the pax were all worried about missing connections. At one point, they made an announcement to "don't worry about your connections right now." I joked with the FA that it would be funny if somebody got on the PA, and said "folks, we know you might miss your connection, there is nothing we can do about it from the air at 35,000 feet (so stop asking about them), no we're not going to call and have them hold your flight, and just have a few stiff drinks and don't worry about it, do you understand me?" The way flights are operating these days, one should figure on delays. The FA went back and helped the crew serving coach pax, even though he was not officially working the flight. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed in PHL.
PHL has a connection with the rail system that takes you into center city as its called. There is a station for this train at each of the concourses. Basically, you just exit security, go down some stairs, out some doors, and you have a platform. The fare was $5 into the city (Suburban Station). The trains were like commuter rail cars. It took about 20 minutes or so, and tickets were sold on board the train. I got off at Suburban Station, and it was just a few blocks from the Westin PHL.
The Westin PHL is located at 17th & Chestnut. It is near a Club Quarters hotel, and seems to be in the main down town. I had thought about staying at the Rittenhouse Hotel (seemed nicer), but figured maybe another time.
Got a rate of $115 for 1 night at the Westin. First, they put me in a room on 6, then after asking, upgrade to SPG 15th floor (top). The floor has no club level, but perhaps rooms a bit nicer. Hotel seems kind of older....e.g. parts on shower are lose. Water pressure in shower is OK, not bad not great. I think the water pressure is key in a shower...the more the better.
Was going to meet my friend for drinks at the Westin bar, but it was closed around 11:30PM so we just went up to the room and had a couple of beers out of the mini bar.
Sunday had breakfast/lunch at the Club Quarters next door. The food was quite good, and they had some jazz playing in the back ground. It was an a la cart type menu. Apparently the Club Quarters is a membership hotel, and you must be a member to stay. They have a machine that checks you in and out. A friend from DCA was staying at Club Quarters, so we met him for brunch at his hotel.
Then hung around in PHL for the rest of the day. Tried to get one of those shared shuttles back to PHL ATO (but they couldn't book it with like 20 minutes notice). I joked with my friend that they expect people to plan thing out, e.g. call six months ahead of time, and that they catered to people that were less spontaneous. I was booked to fly PHLBOS on the 8:30pm US1090. I thought maybe I would just go standby on the 9:30PM....but then figured I wanted to try to get home at a reasonable hour, and the US1090 was overbooked by a few so maybe slim chance I would get bumped. Since the Lady Libery Shuttle could not accommodate my procrastination, we checked with one other too, I took the rail back to PHL. $5 again, and actually probably easier, because it takes you right near the gate area. I think the Lady Libery shuttle is good....so long as you have a bit more time to book. It's about $12 or so.
I called US to check the gate for 1090, so I'd know which stop to get off at. I think US has one of the better telephone automated systems. It gives you departure/arrival gates, and tells you how many minutes ahead or behind schedule the flight is. I put in my flight number, and it said gate A9. I thought A was the international concourse. Could it be mistaken? I thought? I called a couple of more times to see if it changed, but the female automated voice kept saying confidently "gate A9, A as in Adam 9, on time." So I got off at A., went through security, and A9 was at the end of the concourse. And a chaotic A as in Adam 9 it was. There were at least 30 to 40 people in a line that was not moving. They kept shifting the check in line from A9, to A12, then back to A9. They announced that the crew that would make up US1090 was not yet in PHL, that they were "in range," and that once they arrived the flight would board and leave. It was now 8:40PM. After waiting for about 30 minutes, and going back and forth between these gates, I got up to a male check-in agent. He quickly took my ID, typed into his computer, and gave me my boarding pass (with no request for an upgrade cert.) I asked him to put me on the volunteer list, and after a couple of more keystrokes, he said they would let me know.
I went over (no seats) and was standing talking on my cell phone. Still they had not started boarding, and that crew was nowhere to be found. There were also never any announcements about needing volunteers. Then out of the blue, the check in agent comes over "you volunteered right," "yes," "well we're going to be able to use you, you can come right up to the podium and we'll get you rebooked!" He said there was no F class available on the 9:30 and I said that was fine. I would receive a round trip flight credit, and they would put me on standby for first on the 9:30PM. I was rebooked, and then they had to wait for the superviser (who was helping someone else) to issue the RTFC. The superviser was rebooking someone PHL-LFW-MAD. The guy asked about his bags, the superviser got on the radio, and could not reach anyone in the ramp area, and basically told the guy he was sorry but they really didn't know if his bags would make it. I didn't catch why the guy was rebooked. Still they were not boarding at 9PM. It was unusual they had bumped me before the boarding even started. The agent said the flight went over by 2, and he was showing another agent fields on the computer where you could see how overbooked or how many people were checked in. The superviser issued my RTFC, and I signed one of the copies. It basically lookis like a ticket, and says "exchange coupon." Then I asked them to put me on the standby list to be bumped from the 9:30PM which was also overbooked. They had trouble getting me on the volunteer and upgrade list at the same time, because both lists are part of the standby list. They tried to call the gate, but the line was busy. Then the guy tried some more computer entries, but could not get it to add my name to the volunteer list, apparently because I was on the upgrade list. He said there probably was a way to do this, but they could not figure it out. The agent said he usually did not work domestic flights, and this flight was only on the A concourse because it came in from GCC I think. He said to just head over to D4, and he would try to call them again to add me to the US1742 volunteer list.
I headed over to D4, and found it was 9:16PM, and started running down to the gate in case the flight was actually on time. Got to D4 and it was not even boarding. Checked in with the counter agent, and indeed, they had me on both the upgrade and volunteer lists! Good work US! The gate area was not at all crowded, and they started boarding at around 9:30. They announced the final boarding call, an still had not told me either way. The suspense! Two agents were just typing into their computers "click, lick, click," and still no word either way. Then a male pax and male agent got into an argument, could not hear exactly what it was about, but they were not going to do whatever the guy wanted. Then I went up to the counter, and they said to go right on board the aircraft, they would not need any volunteers. They were getting standbys on the flight. I asked about my upgrade to first, the two agents conferred something like "we have 79 and 11," and then I was given a boarding pass with 3A! I think I got the last seat in first....thats what the 11 meant....11 out of 12 seats.
The flight was uneventul, and left at 9:45PM. The crew was good about making announcements, e.g. "we're about 40 miles from BOS, and we're going to intercept the runway 4 right ILS approach." It was almost as good as being on UA with the ATC!
I got to BOS, and took the US Shuttle (ground van service) back home. It is about the same as a cab in BOS, but probably saves you more if you live in suburbia. Had to wait a while for the approprate van. Like 45 minutes. The web site is www.us-shuttle.com (http://www.us-shuttle.com)
if you want to check it out or 877-shuttle. While waiting, I called the automated system to check whatever happened to 1090 that I left at A9. And you know what? It arrived 15 minutes later than the 9:30 flight I took.
So I got bumped, got a free ticket, and arrived BOS 15 minutes before I would if I had not volunteered! I was talking to someone who was also waiting for the shuttle who was on US1090. She said each seat was full, and they never made any announcements about needing volunteers later in the boarding process. Such luck! "Oh what do you get when you get bumped?" she asked. And when I told her, she said "oh I should do that!"
So another weekend trip on the east coast. May the luck continue.
gate
[This message has been edited by jetsetter (edited 08-15-2000).]