PHL

Flight 11, PHL-LAX 10/4.

Flight was already delayed 2 hours. As the anticipation grew, the usual gate lurkers started assembling around the door. Who really knows how many of them qualified for the standard pre-boarding.

But, before any of that, the entire band and staff of "Earth, Wind and Fire" was escorted onto the plane. Is this normal?? Why did they get on before anyone else?

About 10 minutes later, the parents/small children boarding began, followed by the First/Elites. It was utter pandamonium. Wife and I were queued up in the proper line, yet a pretentious older man starts trying to make his way from the back with the 'Excuse me...excuse me' comments as he fights through the line. His wife folllowed behind, saying "We're in first class".

At that point I almost lost it, but my wife held me back and told the woman "So are the rest of us". That couple was sitting behind us in F. I asked them if jumping ahead of us made them feel any better now that we're both on the plane in the same cabin.

TTT103

Two comments:

1) I would assume that the band was loaded first to ward off any potential fans. I've seen American do this as well.

2) The USAir crew in Philly is the absolute worst out of any airport or airline I have flown. Unless absolutely necessary, I do not fly out of Philly anymore. Allentown, Lancaster, and Newark are much better. Quite honestly, I also try to avoid USAir unless I'm redeeming miles. My past stupidity had me accumulate several thousand on USAir which I have been trying to burn up.

syzygy8

My wife made a comment to me this morning related to this. Given the success that our protest against the tier mile changes brought, why don't we band together again and demand better customer service from employees at Philadelphia. Frankly, I wouldn't mind trying to start another firestorm with these folks on, perhaps, a quarterly basis, just to remind them that we're still here and we're still watching what they do for us.

trvlr64

What the true answer for the PHL gate agents is to use COMMON SENSE. If any flight is delayed and they see the people getting ansy about boarding the plane, they should board them in a more appropriate manner.
There was a time about 4 years ago that PHL gate agents wouldn't even call the US3's to board with US1&2's. And don't ya just love the gate lurkers. Do they think standing at the podium makes them feel important? I have watched the security checkers actually grab those people and pull them aside for a search. So being first is not always the favored position anymore.
In general I think the PHL agents need a course on common sense and customer service. Something that lacks in this airport.

PersonalCareChemist

Most of the folks that work in Phily are yankees. Why would you expect anything but rude behavior? The US Airways employees in CLT are always polite.

kv99

I'm sorry that PHL had a bad experience on Friday night, and I definitely agree that USAirways agents in CLT are among the friendliest in the system.

But as I've said before, I take issue with the constant bad rap PHL agents get. In my experience, PIT agents are equally if not more unpleasant, and I've more than often had PHL gate agents go out of there way to fix things when my flights go wrong.

In PIT I've actually been yelled at.

Most of the problems I've had in PHL have to do with a strained facility (terminal and runways), not PHL staff. Just my opinion.

FWAAA

Because That's the Way...Of the World...

As mentioned above, AA routinely does this for VIPs who pay full-freight first class fares - I doubt EW&F was flying on cockroach fares.

pitflyer

Nature or nurture?

I don't think most of us give a **** if its the environment that makes those PHL agents a royal PITA. Whatever it is, they are consistantly poor, with a few good apples. I've had bad and poor experiences in PIT and CLT too, but I like many others, take that as luck of the draw rather than a consistant experience like PHL.

Most of the time I've seen celebs board last, rather than first, but that's just my own experience.

sbtinme

I'll throw my ring in to this hat, too. Like most of you, I'd rather chew glass than fly through PHL. I find it to be an exceedingly dull facility with poor dining options. Add to that a mix of lousy attitude employees, and you have one less than marginal operation.

In their defense, however, let me rush to add that things have markedly improved over the past 6 years or so. Back then, the gates and terminals looked liked they did in the early 1970s with low (and I mean LOW) drop ceilings and bad lighting. All around crappy. IMHO, the employee situation was far worse then than it is now.

JanePond

I live in Philly, and I can honestly say I have never noticed rude or impersonal behaviour in the USAir staff. They appear to me to be accommodating to the rudest passengers. This includes the nights, we have returned from our trip to LGW and had to spend the night in the terminal while a new plane was obtained. Seemed to me that most people complain to hear themselves talk.
Perhaps the fact that I used to run an inner city ER has made me more tolerant.

Jane in PHL-and yes, most of my travel is leisure.

TomBascom

I fly through PHL a lot.

It's not so bad as some of you are making it out to be. OTOH I'm a dedicated off-peak cockroach so I don't see much of it in its prime

Arrzee

Poor dining options? When was the last time you were in PHL? Not only are there many decent options in the food court area in the B/C connector, but there are some excellent choices in the concourses themselves. Cibo (excellent!), Sky Asian Bistro, and Le Petit Bistro are some good examples.

As far as PHL staff, well, I find them no different than many others at large airports. Some are bad, some are good. But overall, I don't share the sentiments most of you here seem to have. Perhaps, originating in PHL rather than connecting through PHL is the difference?

PineyBob

Go after US Air over Customer Service in PHL would be like attacking Russia in Wnter! You wanna take a shot, count me in but Russian Winters are long and harsh! And beside where do you start? Gate? Counter? Baggage? I mean you have baggage handlers who DELIBERTALY unload the Priority tagged bagage last. I did a test over 6 segemnts to prove I wasn't losing my mind. Han the outbound city put the "priority" tag on ever other time and sure enough no Priority first out. Priority last out. What about "Special Services" Which provides nothing "special" and litte service. I have witnessed much of the legendary PHL Attytooode but luckily very little of it first hand. Not sure why? maybe I have a "Reputation" as someone who takes name and documents "incidents" to Consumer Affairs or snag a supervisor at the airport if I have time.

I am amazingly patient with things like weather, ATC, FAA crap that delays flights but I am a real pit bull over how I am treated during face to face contacts. After all that's what US can control! So let me know when the war starts! But keep in mind that IMHO the US - PHL staff are charm school grads compared to the NW staff in DTW. So it is relative.

us2

Well, compared to that, PHL and its problems are a walk in the park.

dreadmon

Hmm...didn't have a stopover in Boogie Wonderland (BWL) did you?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I feel your pain though. I never understood why people going to the same place feel the need to jump in front of others. Like going to a concert with assigned seating. What gives? Is it a Yankee thing?