Great.. Thank you.

Ok folks....

I've got a black notebook I'll start as a log and will try to leave somewhere at the airport tomorrow where it won't be tampered with. I'll post instructions Thursday upon my return as to where it's left.

Also I'm taking a quantity of hard plastic US Airways luggage tags which I'm going to try to leave with the US Airways folks there and see if they'll pass them out to travelers.

If any of you happen to want one of these tags, feel free to e-mail or pvt message me and I'll be more than happy to send you one. I've got hundreds.

I find it strange that a USAirways Beech would be at DFW.


Jay

It isn't operating for US Airways.... Air Midwest (the company who operates the B1900Ds for US) has/had several EAS routes out of DFW. Sometimes US Airways painted planes get rotated into the mix. It isn't a US Airways flight though.... sold as Mesa.

Has anyone ridden the cab service yet? What was the rate?

Has anyone stayed at the Econo Lodge yet? How'd you get there?

Does anyone know about sleeping on the picnic table, seriously (I know vagrant laws may be an issue)?

Also, what is Vinnie's number at Enterprise?

And one more, how early should one be at ART before their next flight?


Thanks to all, this is what makes FT great!

JaxPax, I sure hope the weather improves from Tuesday's wind shears and storm at PIT. The A320 even had a tough time of it. Otherwise, I don't think it wise to fly it. We had a very strange and unnerving landing at LGA (on the LEB flight) on Tuesday, with just a bit of wind. No shears, storms or anything really out of the ordinary.

More pictures of parking lot, washroom, lobby, runway would be very helpful.

I did not make it to Watertown today.

The Watertown Airport is presently closed to commercial flights. A contractor yesterday doing work at the airport dug up part of the ASOS (automated weather reporting system), knocking it out. Without that, and as there is no ATC at the airport, commercial ops had to cease. They didn't announce it wasn't fixed yet until 10 minutes before our departure from PIT when they said all ART passengers would have to fly to Ogdensburg where they would deplane and would be responsible, at the passenger's expense, for their own ground transport back to Watertown as "This isn't US Airways' fault." My group of three approached the podium and explained we were just going there and back, so that wasn't really an option for us. The agents there laughed and said they knew all about the $2 fares and wished they had bought some. Told us we'd be "trip in vain" sent back to our origin and rescheduled for another day, but Special Services has to do it. Of course due to staffing issues, the counter on the Express concourse is only open at peak times and wasn't scheduled to reopen for another 90 minutes. We were directed over to the mainline concourse (B at PIT) to an open special services counter.

Going there was a mistake. First of all, the agents blew up at us because "Express should stop sending us people.... they should fix their own messes" and then rudely repeated the same to the supervisor (the third employee to arrive at the counter). I calmly explained our situation, and what we were told by the gate agent. The male agent pulled up my PNR and saw the fare paid. He then went off on a rant about that, and how "at that price, you are at our mercy" and told us we had no choice but a full refund and to be sent back to Jacksonville. Protesting did no good, not even to the supervisor. It took them thirty minutes with three of them working and one on the telephone to trip in vain us back to JAX and process the refunds. The fare basis was what confused them as the computer didn't want to accept it and all of the taxes.

Even though we were all three Preferreds (two Gold and one Silver), the rude male agent told us "At this price, you deserve to stay in coach" and wouldn't even put in upgrade requests. We did clear on the flight to CLT after requesting at the gate, and only one of us did on the CLT-JAX leg. Oh, and where did our dear agent put us? Center seats in the last two rows of the A320. Also, we were told we would not be getting any mileage credit at all.

I went back up to the US Airways Club and asked the agent for the consumer affairs phone number. I called them (they called ART for me and asked what the exact reason was for the flight cancellation, and why it wasn't cancelled more than 10 minutes before departure) and explained the situation. They were apologetic but didn't seem empowered to do much of anything. I kept my calm through all of this, and my travel companions later complimented me on my professional demeanor despite the circumstances.

So, looks like my money is coming back, I'm getting no miles, and was offered none of the options that Trip in Vain entitled us to choose. While I understand that I cannot expect much (and I don't expect much, other than US to honor the tickets like they said publicly they would and to follow their own rules/procedures) for this fare paid, I still find it quite angering and disappointing.

Folks on complex itineraries.... be warned. If things go wrong, just hope it doesn't happen in Pittsburgh.

JaxPax, that's a pretty amazingly bad result!
Congratulations on staying cool with the people--I think that would have been tough for many of us (though my one rule when dealing with airlines has always been "life is too short to get mad")

Did they give you any idea when Watertown will be up and running again?

Could you have gone to Ogdensburg and back, since I assume the turn would have been similar, or did you have a long layover in ART?

Please do post about whether any miles show up. I'd be tempted to ask for them, but also not necessarily willing to rock the boat. Somebody did post a quotation from the DM terms and conditions that said, essentially, USAirways reserved the right to change the fares on which miles accrued at any time. If I worked for USAirways, and legal told me I had a leg to stand on, I'd have knocked these fares out of the mileage earning category immediately. I certainly am sure there are greatly mixed feelings about these fares throughout the organization, as shown by the different attitude of the Express employees and the mainline SSD.

Oh, one final question: do these 1900 flights still operate out of the E(?) gates (the ones attached to the main terminal, not via the train)? I thought they were shutting those gates down as US downsized.

No, the people at the PIT airport were fairly clueless. It looks like the ART flight this morning cancelled the stopover and I'm sure the afternoon flight will cancel shortly before departure as well.

That I don't know, and didn't think to ask. Only had 2.5 hours in Watertown, and not sure how they would have reacted to changing our destination to enable us to just turn around at OGS or even MSS. We were more concerned with simply a.) getting home that night and b.) getting rescheduled as the Express folks told us that's what would happen. In hindsight, probably a question I would have asked, but when all this is going on at 10 minutes prior to departure and there's people actually needing to go to ART who are being angry, it didn't occur to any of us.

We were told no miles would show up, but I and my two companions intend to contact the DM Service Center after three days. I talked to Consumer Affairs again this morning, and first without giving them details asked for the Trip in Vain rules. Now with an official version of that, I proceeded with stating again what happened yesterday and asking for clarification. CA was unsure how airport agents had been told to deal with these fares, as handling them seems to be a bit of a grey area. Were told that had it been a normal, everyday fare, they probably could have sold me a ticket at that same fare for travel sometime in the near future otherwise regardless of availability of the same fare. But with these error fares, they aren't empowered to do that. Additionally, since the guy in PIT intiated a refund, and even called to make it go through in a hurry, that messed up any hope of recovering the trip.

I can't say I'm wholly disappointed as this was basically trying to get something for nothing in the first place, and did get a free airplane ride and a few drinks out of it, but I would have rather had the miles because the rules state we technically were entitled to that.

The Pittsburgh supervisors are hearing about this though. If anything, the attitude of the agent needs to be checked.

No, E is closed and you can't even go there. The B1900 flights depart out of the A concourse, primarily down toward the end... A20 and higher. Most Saab flights go out of there as well.

Speaking of the gates, here is a shot of the podium for yesterday's ART flight which cancelled.... Anybody notice what the Express people seem to think of US Airways (and this has been up for at least 10 days as I saw it last time through)?

Pittsburgh Gate A20

Ok I have the scoop on cabs.....

I took a Yellow Cab yesterday. I asked the driver about "Fat Man". He said the people are fat, smell and crawled out of the sewers to drive cabs. (sic)
The cars are junk, smell and are falling apart. I think we have seen photos....

Yellow Cab had a 1998 Dodge Intrepid.

Also, Drum Cab should be avoided. I had these two guys approach me and they looked like they had not bathed in weeks.

Also, I noticed that dental hygiene is not that great in the taxi industry in Watertown.....

Oh, I negotiated a $20 fare to Sackets Harbor off meter when I called and ordered the cab. Not sure if that's a great deal. It's only about 8 miles to Sackets.

p.s. No problem getting to ART on the 29th. Quite a number of people on the flight. 16 of 19 seats.

I am staying a a nice B&B ($95 a night) in Sackets. I am not going to mention it because the owner told me that she does not want to advertise it too much because they don't want too many guests in the off season. (I'll ask her if she wants it mentioned at breakfast tomorrow and may then edit the entry.)

I just took a chance on it. It has free internet from a neighboring house in the corner of my room.

The brew pub (www.1812ale.com) was not that great but I am very fussy. The food was mediocre. The only beer that was decent was the IPA.

There is a comedy club here that attracts national names like "Sat Night Live" cast like Jimmy Fallon. Someone like that is performing tonight. Not my cup of tea but odd for a town of 1600.

Hmm... I flew in to ART on the 29th as well. Were you on the last flight (arrived at 10pm)?

Anyways, here's some more info. Off hours pick up/drop off of the rental car is done by the guys at Purdy Air Service - these are the guys who also fuel the plane when it gets in, so you might have to wait until the flights leaves before getting the rental car.

I took my rent a car and drove it to Ottawa, walked around and drove back - that's how I killed my 10pm-6am layover.

In my case (and I imagine it's the same all the time), the sole US Airways Express agent that works the 10pm arrival also works 6am departure the next day. He can also be the guy that collects your car rental keys if the Purdy Air Service guys aren't there. When you arrive, let him know that you'll be back the next day and he'll let you know when to show up the next morning.

The entire station (which consists of the US Airways agents, a police officer and TSA people) knows about the $2 fares and are perfectly fine with it. I think the screener I had this morning (Apr 30) knows all about JAXPax and co. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of US agents at PIT once they see that you are on this fare.

And yes, to triple confirm, the terminal does close a bit after the last flight. And to confirm again, everyone gets the very thorough security screening. This includes going through the metal detector, wanding of the entire body (even if ya don't beep), shoes, and that explosive chemical trace detector thing (the one where they swab your stuff)... they are all very nice about it and there really isn't anything else to do anyways, so...

One thing to add, bring your own water. There are no water fountains and the sink in the washroom has a sign indicating that the water is nonpotable, so unless you want to be drinking Pepsi from the vending machine, it'd be a good idea to bring your own water. And of course, there is no beverage service of any kind on the flights.

Well for $19.99 plus tax, you can relax in a rental car. Even drive down to the water!

I wanted to post on "that other thread" where someone mentioned the Wall Street Journal: you should write to the WATERTOWN newspaper. They would eat this up! Especially after the other newspaper article that was posted. You know, something like, "here we are trying to get some nice business and USAirways is being mean to potential travelers".

I dunno. An idea anyway.