Gasbiz

I was on US flight 1276 from CUN to PHL on Friday evening 3/16. We were holding at PHL around 4:30 when the captain informed us that PHL had been closed. We diverted to BWI and landed w/o incident.

Around 5PM, we were on the ground and we were told to wait patiently while they figured out what the plan was for us. The captain did a good job coming on the intercom every 10 - 15 minutes to at least tell us that he had nothing new to tell us. Savvy passengers (no doubt flyertalk readers all) were already holding on their cell phones arranging hotels, cars, or flights, as available. According to them, the reservations agents said the "system" showed us scheduled to depart BWI at 7.

Our problem was being an unscheduled international flight. The captain blamed customs and the US government and then that there were no international gates available. All of which sounded like reasonable explanations.

After two hours of sitting on the landed plane, a "people mover" (a bus that can elevate itself to the height of the aircraft loading door) arrived to transport us to customs, 100 passengers at a time. I was the 10th person on the bus at around 7PM.

We drove straight over to a customs entrance where our "bus agent" hopped off expecting to open the door and release us. Sadly, the US agent they had expected to be there was not. Though not a US employee herself, she worked diligently to find out what happened to our host. This continued for over an hour.

At about 8PM we were getting restless. Folks at the back of the bus could not hear any of the radio conversations that I could. The long and the short of it was that customs would not allow the bus to unload without a US rep to escort/answer questions/etc. and this individual went missing.

At this point a woman who had been begging to disembark to use the restroom for an hour could not hold her bladder any longer. Her husband/boyfriend held up a blanket for her to squat behind as she relieved herself on the platform that connects the "people mover" to the customs gate. I saw it. It happened. We all stepped through the puddle when we were finally allowed to leave.

There were some angry and vocal leaders amassing at the front by now and at a little after 8:30PM the doors opened and we were let in. We did not see anyone from US, but our "people mover" agent was giving what could be described as an "ear stain" to someone on the other end of her walkie-talkie. I'm not sure if she was allowed to let us off, but she was our advocate and I think she wanted to do the right thing.

At the immigration line, I was standing next to a couple with a young child. They had run out of diapers and were both soaked in urine.

Once we cleared immigration we proceeded to the customs baggage claim where we would receive our checked luggage and clear customs. We finally found the US agent dispatched to meet us. He was uninformed and unable to do anything other than apologize. He told passengers that if they were unable to make flight arrangements with their cell phones, they would have to leave customs and go upstairs to speak with an agent.

Unfortunately customs would not let anyone leave until they got their luggage. One passenger became so enraged that the customs agent signaled another agent to come over. The second agent put his had on his sidearm and diffused the situation.

It took three hours to unload the luggage. Mine and other "priority bags" were among the last to come down. The story there is that US did not have the proper equipment at BWI to unload a 767. Once they borrowed it from another airline (this sounded suspicious to me too), they only had two customs certified baggage handlers to unload the bags for 200 passengers; hence the massive delay.

The agent admitted that it was a bonehead decision to divert an international flight to BWI instead of IAD. DCA had closed at the diversion time, but IAD was open and capable of disembarking a 767. US presence at BWI is cursory at best.

I have been diverted to BWI for refueling while circling PHL in the past, as recently as January - but never disembarked there. I wonder if the crew just made the decision to park it Friday night. A better decision would have been landing at an appropriate airport.

My story ended OK as I had secured a rental car several hours ago and was less than a 3 hour drive from home. I feel terrible for those who were released from customs at almost midnight to get in line behind all those folks who had been working on new flights for hours ahead of them.

Sadly the plane was full of many spring breakers and ill-traveled vacationing families, all of which were unequipped to handle such a situation.

I'm sure that anyone waiting at BWI for US to complete their itinerary is likely still there. (US has a paltry service at BWI - thank you SW.) The best offer they gave me was for me to "get myself" to DCA, IAD, or PHL and I'd have a chance of getting home on Sunday.

This story included 7 hours of waiting without hardly any information, and way more urine than I imagine US would like to have talked about in a forum.

I have spent almost 4 hours holding for 3 phone calls to US. All have ended in disconnections. I have yet to get any credit/voucher. I hope I get something for the troubles. I understand weather delays, but they blew it on everything that they _could_ control.

Gasbiz

I almost forgot. As we were leaving customs, I found out that there was a diverted flight from Frankfurt waiting for our passengers to leave before they could begin the whole process.

What are the odds that either our 767 or thiers flew out with any people on it Saturday morning?

PhillyPhlyer40

Call a news station NOW! This has to be documented...although im sure you will have some chime in who will say that this would happen to any airline...BUT IT DIDNT!

UScareways needs to be called on the carpet on this one!

hazelrah

[QUOTE=Gasbiz;7430705]
I'm sure that anyone waiting at BWI for US to complete their itinerary is likely still there. (US has a paltry service at BWI - thank you SW.) The best offer they gave me was for me to "get myself" to DCA, IAD, or PHL and I'd have a chance of getting home on Sunday.[QUOTE]

BWI is a good airport, however it is a mediocre international airport. Keep in mind that all international travel is scripted and they just don't have the staff to work this kind of unplanned diversion.

To all PHL flyers: REMEMBER BWI has an excellent. comfortable, inexpensive, Amtrak service that runs trains to PHL on the hour. A short,free shuttle bus takes you to the BWI rail station, and one hour later you can be in downtown PHL.

Boraxo

Excellent story. I don't wish this horrible stuff upon anyone, but the more it happens, the more likely we will see a strong passengers bill of rights.

Thanks for doing a **** job, US - you kept the momuntum going.

warreng24

From what I understand, the ENTIRE plane needs to be unloaded for inspection. This includes cargo and bags. It's either all or nothing. For bags, they can use any belt-loader that is certified for a 757 (a 767 is about the same ground height as a 757). However, they need one of those fancy cargo loaders to remove the container-ized cargo from the belly of the 767.

So, I could believe that US didn't have a container cargo loader at BWI.

gj83

I think i'm going to use every available airport bathroom from now on. Too many reports of people peeing in random places this past week. I guess I should bring a funnel with me also so I can pee anywhere with greater accuracy.

Gasbiz

The information given that night was that they sent the bags to the baggage claim one container at a time as they removed each individual container from the plane. That is the explanation for the hour it took between batches of bags.

They called the final container (with my bag) "tricky".

Who knows what really happened on the other side of the wall.

deyulia

Yeah there are a few on this board who think that US can do no wrong and stuff like this is just what happens when you fly. I have a lot of things that I like about US air but I also have a lot of things that I hate also. I post about them equally and have no bias one way or the other. I let the facts do that for themselves and the fact here is the way they were treated was horrible! Poor people. I cant imagine going through that.

DWilliamson5002

I hate people that just Bash US. They dont make you fly on their planes. So if you got a problem with them stay off their planes...please.

Anyways, It think they did what they could. What if the flight had to be diverted to an ORF or RIC with no international customs on site? How do you get off the plane?

Why didnt the plane just go to CLT? That would have solved the problem at lot better.

me4yankees

CLT was a disaster this weekend, so that would not have solved anything.

amartin1979

The TSA would probably confiscate any yellow-looking liquid that made its way into a container anyways.

PHLstudent

BA is the only carrier that brings a 767 into BWI. They must have had to get an agreement with them to barrow their baggage loader. I am not sure what time their flight leaves off hand, but it could have been around that time, which is why the bags took so long.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal, hopefully you can get in contact with US and get some sort of compensation.

flyingcat

The hub is long gone and a US 767 is at BWI is not the norm it would be like UA at MIA having a 777 loader on standby.

If I would have to guess the 767 loader probably came from BA.

hazelrah

The flight from London arrives between 4 and 5:30. It returns around 9:00 PM