woody1173

I flew a segment run (need to requal CP!) yesterday PIT-DCA-PIT-MCO, and on monday go MCO-CLT-DCA-PIT-EWR. When planning, I avoided PHL out of habit. Glad I avoided it yesterday. PIT did not seem to be a problem - I was actually surprised how calm everything seemed - I expected crowds/chaos, etc. I didn't see much of DCA - the plane I got off of turned out to be the one that went right back to PIT. That flight and MCO were 100% full. I did not check luggage. I have a lot of tight cnx monday, so we'll see how that goes.

gercohen

My 18 year old son was flying BWI-PHL-RDU Friday due to cancellation of his BWI-CLT flight the day before, the friend he was staying with in Baltimore came back to the airport Thursday night and put him up for another night. This was my sons first time flying on his own. The BWI-PHL leg was running an hour late, and he made the mistake of checking his bag. He got to RDU 4 hours late (well, 20 hours late if you count the cancellation the day b4) and no bag.

I rmember flying RDU-ATL-FLL in 1982 on EA, was taking my fiance to meet my parents, there was a baggage handler sick out at ATL that day, the bags finally got to FLL as we were about to leave to return to RDU two days later. I never flew EA again, and was glad to see them liquidate. That was a week after (or was it a week before?) several EA baggage handlers were arrested for smuggling drugs, I guess the baggae handlers were too busy with drugs to bother with the fare paying customers bags.

I'm 36 miles short of requalifying for US Silver in 2004, was planning a R/T RDU-PHL this week for $78 to make it, now, why bother?

phlwookie

Flew STT-PHL yesterday after a nice week, the niceness ended upon landing in PHL. The inbound aircraft was late out of PHL by about 55 min, but no problem, although it was full on the way down, only about 70 on a 757 on the way back, so it turned quickly and we were off only a few late.

Landed in Philly, and we did the left turn after a 27R landing (never a good sign) and we were #13 in line for a gate, and being a 757, we can't use every gate in the airport. Experience showed that this would take about an hour, and indeed it took about 75 min to get to gate B11. The captain was seriously non-plussed.

Terminal was chaos. I feel for everyone there and was glad to be destinating in PHL, and the baggage claim area was worse. Thankfully I pack lightly ...

US AIRWAYS FAN

If you go over to the UAL boards on FT. Looks like the FA's had sickouts on UA as well. I see a few FT's got stranded as well.

CPRich

I was on a flight a few months ago, sitting across from the jump seats. The FA's were talking about their planned "sick days" over the holidays and the various strategies for not getting caught. I just wanted to slap them silly.

JAXPax

Some of you seem to be discussing flights operated by US Airways Express. Remember, these flights are not operated by US Airways or its own personnel, but are independent contractors with their own crews, who are not (for the most part) under the same labor strains as mainline US Airways. Lack of crew on some of these flights is understandable..... like Chautauqua with their IND/CMH/SDF crew bases under the weather and PSA with its HQ and primary base in DAY. The closure of some of these airports is probably a contributing factor, plus some of these pilots are also timing out for the year (airlines like Chautauqua can't hire enough pilots right now.... got a few friends who fly for them who are very close to maxing out for the year). Before somebody says it, there are plenty of pilot and flight attendant jobs out there and most regional carriers are hiring like crazy. However, they are entry level and not jobs for folks like furloughed US B737 pilots.... would you go from a $120-150K a year job to $20K? I don't think so.

sassamanlaw

It is the people not the facility. This could have happened in PIT, and may have for all we know, except that so few people O&D from it that it doesn't really matter.

dgreen12

I flew into CLE on UA via Denver Xmas Eve... and my luggage didn't make it. When I arrived in CLE, there were lots of misconnected bags everywhere, from every airline. AA, DL, HP, UA, etc.

Went back last night to see if my bags had made it in yet (they were in ORD). And even more bags that were trying to catch up to their owners from all the airlines.

I think the weather was the principal contributor.

fazak38

Fox news reporting airline to run special flights of just luggage no passengers to try and clear up mess. It was the main news story at 1pm,what a disaster 60 people deciding to destroy the airline,at the worst possible time.

fazak38

Sorry noon not 1pm

ClueByFour

The baggage system itself won't meltdown in PIT.

The weather means nothing to PIT in terms of terminal airspace and runway delays.

The labor can happen anywhere. PHL is still the "Crown Jewel."

ByrdluvsAWACO

I'm just wondering why people would gamble with their holiday travel by flying US? Ok, I can understand if US was the ONLY option to your destination, but not if you have other choices.

chicaloca453

With the weather bad in many areas, it could actually be a lack of crew. The available crews (and aircrafts) could be stranded in Cincinnati or Indianapolis or some other midwestern airport that is still chaos after the snowstorm.

Case in point, this morning Cincinnati was still not operating because it was so cold that planes were basically stuck to the runway.

With displaced crews, I can imagine that it wasn't jus US Airways who was experiencing chaos. Trying being stuck in CVG for 4 days without any impending options on actually getting home.

I don't think you can totally blame the airline or the employees on this one. This could just be a side effect of a major uncommon midwestern snowstorm.

US AIRWAYS FAN

Some of it is to blame and some of it is not. Like I said UA had many sick outs yesterday as well. And yes there were many FA's and pilots stranded as well because there was no aircraft for them to get on and they could not connect.

I talked to my FA friend again today and she had talked to some of her co-workers who were trying to get to work yesterday but could not. Many people are based out of PHL but they live in different locations like upstate NYC or in the mid west and they commute to work and could not get to PHL because there was no aircraft in their originating destination because other crews had manditory rest time they had to follow. Looks like there was alot of domino effect yesterday as well.

I just got off the phone with reservations just now and made sure everything was still fine for my flight tomorrow. She told me to make sure to get to the airport EXTRA early because the next few days US is packed. She said there are no open seats on almost any flight especially going to the carib.
She said the next few days is going to be a real mess. She was telling me that she has even tried to rebook many people on other airlines with no luck. Everyone flights are full.

Anyone who is normally bump happy, this would not be the time to do it unless you like being stuck at the airport.

Here what is posted in the UA thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...6&page=2&pp=40

70 Flights cancelled yesterday due to sick outs.

GadgetFreak

I had to fly my dad from CVG-PIT yesterday and return him to CVG tomorrow. I wasnt untrusting of US but since they didnt had non-stops booked him on Delta aka Comair. Take a look at what was happening there and still is. They are shut down. Totally shut down. Yesterday only delayed about 8 hours and I couldnt get any information for hours. US at PIT seemed to be in a lot better shape than Delta. Since his flight from PIT tomorrow was cancelled on Comair I bought him a one way ticket on US. Thank god for the CP line. They came through again.