So last night (that's June 7) I was scheduled for my first flight on one of US' new shiny E-170's (flight 1627, ATL-PIT). I was actually kind of looking forward to it, just to see what it was like.

Well, I'm still waiting, and might be perfectly happy waiting forever.

The 70 we were supposed to be on was late coming in. Originally they got on the PA and announced that there had been a mechanical problem of some sort, but the plane was on the way. However, passengers with connections leaving before 10:20pm should see him at the podium (our flight was supposed to leave ATL at 7:45pm and land in PIT around 9:30pm).

The plane landed about an hour late, they got on and said they would service the plane and get us underway quickly. Now, I'd never seen one of these jets in person before, so I don't know for sure if maybe it's just shaped that way for some reason or it was a weird reflection, but I swear the body near the tail looked dented. (#N809MD, by the way)

We're sitting there, waiting, and waiting, and waiting. The guy on the podium was on the phone, walked over to the gate, disappeared for a minute. Walked back to the podium, got on the phone -- I figured it wasn't good, and so I started edging over there. Sure enough, he got on and said "Ladies and gentlemen, the pilot has indicated there's still a problem with this plane. I don't know yet how long it'll be, but I'm currently grabbing as many seats as I can on a Delta flight that leaves for Pittsburgh at 9:40."

Let the mad dash begin. While waiting (a few other people got there before me), I heard the guy asking someone on the phone for the number of a hotel there (forget which) -- not a good sign. The woman working with him commented "we only put this plane into service 3 DAYS ago!"

Made it. We had to dash from the D to the B concourse, where the Delta flight was already loading (but if Delta loads ALL their flights that slowly, we didn't need to worry). Ended up with a middle seat (can't remember the last time I was in one of THOSE! ;-) ) and found out from the girl at the podium that they had 17 seats available for the 36 people US had stuck.

Delta takes forever to load. 9 boarding groups for an MD-88? Sheesh.

I checked this morning, and not surprisingly the flight shows as cancelled for yesterday. I feel bad for anyone who was stranded overnight.

Not a good sign when a brand-spanking new jet that US is pitting their future on goes down that quickly. Anyone have any idea what was up?