US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - First Time on US Airways

Well, today I had to go ALB-PHL on business and since the ticket was paid for by another party, they got US Air ticket's instead of the usual United for me. Boy, I can tell you now that after today, I don't think I'll ever ride US Air again!

My flight was to leave in the morning at 7:30AM and of course, forgetting it was a Friday, I arrived at the airport about 45 minutes before my scheduled departure but that turned out to be fine, considering ALB is a relatively small airport, but it was very busy considering. For the first time ever, going through security in ALB, I had to take my shoes off and get wanded which it seemed everyone else had to go through so I thought nothing of it -- needless to say I had perfect timing and arrived at the gate just as boarding started and got to my seat in time. Here is where the fun began....

The pilot started the flight by telling us the estimated flight time, and that in PHL it is about 70 degrees and overcast but visability is fine and we will make it there on time, and then he proceeded to taxi away from the gate. As we arrived at the start of the runway, the plane proceeded to do a 280 degree turn and parked in a little off section and the PA came on. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news..." began the pilot "but we have just recieved word that PHL has grounded all flights due to a lack of visablity and the next update won't be untill 8:30AM so we will sit here and wait to hear news on when we can take off, which hopefully will be before too long. For the moment we will shut the engines to conserve fuel and apologize once again for this inconvience." Now, I got a little frustrated as I had a meeting in PHL for 9:00AM but after a quick phone call, things were worked out, although it was an inconvience for me and certainly isn't a good impression to leave but you couldn't really blame anyone really because you can't control the weather. Things from here just started to get better! :rolleyes: (please note HUGE contents of sarcasm in that sentence)

In the row ahead of me there were two single mothers going to ORD with 3 children -- two girls, 2 years and 1 year old and a 2 year old boy. I knew things weren't going to go well after I saw the one mother had her son on a leash. Not to get too off topic but that is one of my pet peeve's -- parents who leash thier children but of course, that isn't my business. What really ticked me off was the fact that these women were changing these kids diapers IN THIER SEATS -- I'm sorry but that is just repulsive and then to mask the smell they would dump half a bottle of perfume in the air, inducing a headache to me but I didn't want to speak up as I really hate confrontations. Let me just say though, I don't know HOW many times they changed the kids diapers but it had to be a record.

At 8:30AM our good captain came back on the speaker and told us that the grounding rule was still in effect at PHL and another update will be issued at 9:00AM. Sitting in this metal tube, enduring the smell, stories of bob the builder and screams was driving me nuts. I thought this would be a quick and fun flight seeing as how the flight was only about half full and is less then an hour long. Let me add now that the FA's on this flight were as rude as you can be. The whole time they were talking to each other and paying no attention to the passenger's, except a couple guys who came up to use the bathroom and would chat with them for a moment. I would of thought they would hand out snacks and a beverage but apparently that was not so. Well, at 9:00AM the captain came back on and said we still can't fly in because the lights on the landing strip were out of order making it difficult to land planes in the low visability weather and we would have to wait for them to be fixed. Finally after this, one FA made her rounds and handed out either coffee or very very bad "juice" as she called it. Seeing how I didn't eat breakfast and was planning to when I arrived in PHL I was very hungry but I suppose this was my fault after all. Finally, around 9:30AM we left ALB after getting clearance to leave. As I said, I really can't blame US for those delays but I can blame them for the horrible sense of caring for the patrons on the airplane and for my seat not reclining...grrrrr

-Skipping my meeting details...the return flight-

It seemed my luck just wouldn't pick up today and boy...did it get worse. My flight was to leave PHL to ALB at 1:30PM and I arrived at the extremely packed PHL airport at 11:30 -- boy it was a zoo! I imagine because of the weather....the line to check in took about 45 minutes to get through which seemed like forever but I dealt with it. I made several calls to US Airways phone number which was like running into a brick wall, backing up only to run into another one, etc. All I wanted to do was see if I even had to check in or if I could do self check in or some other way to avoid the line but I could NOT get a live person except for one time I got the reservation desk and the guy I got said he couldn't help me and transfered me to the automated line so I just gave up.

I have to admit here, the guy I dealt with at the desk was the ray of light in the sky of darkness. After a pleasant greeting, he asked if I had any luggage to check in to which I replid "I have no luggage but a huge love for first class" followed by a shot chuckle. He then replied, i'll see what I can do for you sir and check the seat avaliability -- he said thier was a waitlist and said he added me -- and then he asked me if i'd like and exit row seat in the meantime, and of course I couldn't refuse! After thanking him, I proceeded to security. OH LUCKY ME, I've been selected for the "special" search -- grrrrr. Thankfully I didn't have any luggage or bags -- just my Philly Cheese Steak I picked up earlier which was getting cold...I must admit, seeing the TSA squeezing my sandwhich made me laugh throughout the whole wanding and seaching process, haha.

I then proceeded to my gate and sat down...it was around 12:30 -- around 12:45 a US Airways employee came to the podum and announced that our plane has a mechanical malfunction and that we will have to go to another gate that will be announced shortly. Well, come 1:00PM she comes back on and says they are going to take the plane away and we are just going to wait for an incoming flight arriving at 1:45 and we will be boarding around 2:30PM and leaving soon thereafter. Of course, frustration ensued, esspecially from me. The plane was late arriving and we were later leavnig and finally arrived at 4:00PM in ALB only to be greated with the news camera's and a bunch of soilders returning from Iraq -- big news I guess....I went up to one of the cameramen and told them I just returned from Phillidelphia but I guess he didn't deem that newsworthy, show's how much he knows :p As far as the flight from PHL-ALB, I have to admit I was sleeping during it because I was so frustrated and exhausted from my trip where I should of been back home around 11:30AM.

I'm sure I missed details and a lot of these things i'm sure were out of thier control but I have to ask, is this a typical US Airways flight acurance or was I just being unlucky as always. Too bad my ticket was free or else I would of called and complained about everything -- I must admit I did call and complain about the seat and the mechanical error and all I got was that she asked for my seat I was sitting and said she'd file a report and that the mechanical problem was unforeseeable by US Air and wasn't thier fault -- she was a bit rude, but I wasn't looking for compensation, just an explanation and a heads-up about the seat.

As I said, I guess I'm really just asking is this a normal occurance for US Air or was I just unlucky. Thank you for taking the time to read this post and sorry for any grammical or spelling errors in the post. Thanks again.

Your bad experience was certainly caused by the weather delays that US's system had to deal with today. As you mention, you can't help the weather.

However I've experienced similar morning "ground delays" flying into PHL on nice days with no rain throughout the system. PHL is just in a bad location with limited airspace. The O/D numbers are nice (LUV thinks so too), but to rely on this location as your main hub is the death knell for US Airways.

As far as the mothers with kids and diapers......not much any airline could do here. They have a right to fly and have to attend the the kid's needs during such a delay. I've resorted to an MP3 player that I can crank up to drown out any ancillary noise in the cabin! :D

Sorry to hear you a had a terrible first experience. Well... if you ever get "stuck" on a US flight again - make sure you review the recommended check-in times on the US site:

http://www.usairways.com/travel/airport/

I find that they over-estimate by a little...but its great to figure out "peak" airport times.

Per US' site, Albany's recommended check-in times are:
Peak (6-8:30am): 1 hour 30 mins
Off-Peak: 1 hour

-Chris

You bad luck was unfortunate, however only two of the misfortunes that you experienced were the fault of US. The first was the non recling seat, and the second was the mechanical delay of your flight.

Your inbound delay to PHL was inconvenient, however PHL is quite delay prone, and there isn't anything US can do when no planes are allowed to take off. In this case, you were travelling to PHL, so it wasn't as if US' choice of a hub made you miss your connecting flight or something of that nature. You would have had the same delay on any airline into PHL. It didn't matter what airline you were on that day, no flights were allowed to take off bound for PHL.

As for the mechanical delay, I understand that it is a pain, but all airlines have mechanical problems, and often times it can take more than the hour it took in your case to fix them. At least US operated your flight (albeit delayed by one hour) instead of cancelling it.

PHL is just not that great of airport. There are constantly delays, and even on good days there are long lines. If you were travelling on an eticket, you can checkin online or at a kiosk (some of which are located just outside security, allowing you to skip the checkin lines). I imagine that the lines were made worse by the bad weather.

One certainly can't blame US for either the TSA or flying mothers, so while you may not have appreciated them, they were in no way US' fault.

The experiences you had were unfortunate, undesirable, and inconvenient but I really don't think that very much of them are unique to US.

Well, I am going to be more critical here. The OP acknowledges that much of the problem, ie the weather wasnt the fault of US. However, I have found their percentage of delayed flights to be very high compared to UA and AA. Some of that is PHL but I suspect not all. Moreover, the original post in several places pointed out rude and unattentive service by US employees. That is certainly not my experience as a CP or in first class for the most part. However, I have certainly observed and heard from other passengers a very different story. And I would certainly argue that the treatment in say Envoy vs UA business on international or first on UA versus first on US on average goes to United. I also earlier this year had occassion to go the the regular check in line at LGA (I was checking in someone else) and was treated rudely, given multiple types of absolutely false information and then ignored by the person at the counter (they just walked away). I think a number of us pointed out the mistake in emphasizing PHL when that occurred, but the too often shoddy treatment by people is really inexcusible. It is all the more fustrating since so many of the employees are so great. But it just takes one bad occurence to lose a customer. I have run into people that completely despise US because of some treatment at one time or another. I dont know then answer, but something has to be done to the consistency of service. I would argue most of us are not as attuned to it because we are treated very differently by and large.

Your flights aren't typical US; I've taken probably 250 flights on US in the past five years and have had only one that was delayed and as problem-filled as yours. A 249 out of 250 success rate is good.

-NYCommuter

Your flights aren't typical US; I've taken probably 250 flights on US in the past five years and have had only one that was delayed and as problem-filled as yours. A 249 out of 250 success rate is good.

-NYCommuter

I dont want to be a doubting Thomas here but exactly what do you mean by "was delayed and as problem-filled as yours"? I had been a CP for years and decided to stop flying US unless I got a double EQM invite. Sure enough, with 2K miles after about 6 years as a CP I got an invite in June. So I booked and flew 50,000 miles from late June to early Sept. About 28,000 on internatinal, the rest on domestic. I really need to keep a log, but I would estimate that about 50% of the domestic segments were significantly delayed (hour or more). On several occassions this was due to no crew. On the 6 transatlantic segments I had one that was delayed over 2 hours and one that was cancelled and rerouted leading to a delay. I think one other one was late as well but not as much so.

3 years ago I think it was I was flying 100 segments a year and had a period of about 5 or 6 months where I did not have a single flight on time out of LGA and very few all around. When US shifted their reservation system in the fall of 2000, I believe it was, their ontime rate dropped to way under 50%. It has recovered but it is still a real issue in my experience. In the case of my LGA-CLT-LGW flights I always take one flight earlier than recommended for the LGA-CLT leg because I dont trust them to get me there on time on the recommended connection. At this point I actually take notice of a US flight being on time, especially into or in any way related to, associated with or possibly in connection to PHL.

I fly to and from LGA on weekends (on 6 or 7AM flights, usually, to avoid congestion on the runway) and almost always buy my tickets the day before I fly, so if the weather looks bad, I don't fly that weekend. Thus I avoid congestion and bad weather, so the only things that could delay me are mechanical problems. US has lots of flights to where I go for my commute, via various other hubs, so if the plane I'm scheduled to take has mechanical problems, I make a beeline for the Club and change to another flight that leaves at about the same time as mine.

The only bad flight I had was from PHL during a thunderstorm; it was not pleasant waiting at the gate for an eternity with mobs of people. Thus I got a Club membership.

So I'm pleased with US. I'm sure that US is pleased with me, buying tickets the day before I fly (as they aren't cheap!).