CHAOS on Christmas Eve
Dec 25, 2004, 3:59 pm
#46
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: PIT
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Originally Posted by 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.
You would think it never snowed more than a few inches in the mid west or Ohio Valley. To say the system was "overwhelmed" by the weather sounds fishy. My pc works when it snows outside.....
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Dec 25, 2004, 4:19 pm
#47
Join Date: Sep 1999
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According to an employee over on US Aviation, US had ~11,000 misdirected/missing bags as of 10pm on 12/24. Makes for a great Christmas for passengers 
Dec 25, 2004, 4:26 pm
#48
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Originally Posted by US AIRWAYS FAN
Kudwa says the problem is because of flights canceled due to the weather and regulations that mandate rest periods for flight crews.
And yet, you also posted:
US AIRWAYS SPECIAL BULLETIN REGARDING HOLIDAY TRAVEL
We sincerely apologize for the operational disruptions that have impacted holiday travel. Our efforts to recover from the severe weather on Thursday were complicated when some of our employees chose to call in sick at record numbers over the weekend.
When the FAA issues a traffic stop for PHL "FOR USAIRWAYS ONLY" I don't think it's the weather.
Dec 25, 2004, 7:05 pm
#50
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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Originally Posted by thelostshark
Is this enough to push them into liquidation? tls
----- their employees are either willing to use the airline's pax as a hostage to get the airline to cave into demands or
----- that the employees pretty much just don't care anymore.
Neither choice gives the traveling public much incentive to stick with US, especially those who missed the holidays with families...
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Last edited by chicagorich; Dec 25, 2004 at 7:06 pm Reason: spelling
Dec 25, 2004, 7:59 pm
#51
Join Date: Oct 1999
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Random Muses About Xmas Chaos
I was a tad impressed with their web site message since it did not try to spin the whole thing off on weather, etc. Although maybe they had no choice since there were rampant media reports about sick outs.
However, I still don't think any of the majors do good damage control. Why not dress Bruce Lakefield like Santa, and have him report from PHL, and give all the distressed pax an RTFC, $350 voucher, or the like. It seems they don't have too much to lose at this point and this kind of thing could at least generate some goodwill. Wasn't there a case in the .com boomb when some major toy store could not ship gifts quickly enough, and they gave away millions of dollars in toy store vouchers to appease the parents, etc?
If you have a 1-2 time a year flyer or a once evrey 3 years flyer and they encounter the sort of difficulties that have been documented here, they might vow never to fly US again. Ironically the seasoned jaded traveler is probably more used to this, and perhaps even more forgiving, and they wouldn't say for example take the last flight of the night that might get them home to gramma's for Xmas, and they would realize that with the weather and other factors something like this might happen and leave earlier, etc.
If they did some outrageous or flamboyant thing maybe they could recover and get some good spin, but I don't think posting a little note on the web is enough. Maybe they should hire Richard Bransen as a consultant to think of some publicity stunt to try to appease the distressed pax and to put a good spin on the company.
Maybe Bruce could auction off some grand prizes of a Disney trip at PHL.
I don't doubt either that other carriers had disruptions, look at Com Air.
I'll be flying around the system through the end of the year (20K bonus) so we'll see how it goes, and I won't check any bags
, and I'll hope for bumps.
Also I have family who lives in other parts of the world and as the years go by we don't all get together for Xmas (as much as before), so it happens, and people largely sshould be able to get over it, and thereby they have a Xmas 2004 adventure they can tell their kids stories about or whatever. Hopefully they kept the bars open on the concourses.
However, I still don't think any of the majors do good damage control. Why not dress Bruce Lakefield like Santa, and have him report from PHL, and give all the distressed pax an RTFC, $350 voucher, or the like. It seems they don't have too much to lose at this point and this kind of thing could at least generate some goodwill. Wasn't there a case in the .com boomb when some major toy store could not ship gifts quickly enough, and they gave away millions of dollars in toy store vouchers to appease the parents, etc?
If you have a 1-2 time a year flyer or a once evrey 3 years flyer and they encounter the sort of difficulties that have been documented here, they might vow never to fly US again. Ironically the seasoned jaded traveler is probably more used to this, and perhaps even more forgiving, and they wouldn't say for example take the last flight of the night that might get them home to gramma's for Xmas, and they would realize that with the weather and other factors something like this might happen and leave earlier, etc.
If they did some outrageous or flamboyant thing maybe they could recover and get some good spin, but I don't think posting a little note on the web is enough. Maybe they should hire Richard Bransen as a consultant to think of some publicity stunt to try to appease the distressed pax and to put a good spin on the company.
Maybe Bruce could auction off some grand prizes of a Disney trip at PHL.
I don't doubt either that other carriers had disruptions, look at Com Air.
I'll be flying around the system through the end of the year (20K bonus) so we'll see how it goes, and I won't check any bags
, and I'll hope for bumps.Also I have family who lives in other parts of the world and as the years go by we don't all get together for Xmas (as much as before), so it happens, and people largely sshould be able to get over it, and thereby they have a Xmas 2004 adventure they can tell their kids stories about or whatever. Hopefully they kept the bars open on the concourses
.
Dec 25, 2004, 8:10 pm
#52
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Pennsylvania
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Originally Posted by jetsetter
Why not dress Bruce Lakefield like Santa, and have him report from PHL, and give all the distressed pax an RTFC, $350 voucher, or the like.
Dec 25, 2004, 8:11 pm
#53
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 9
Originally Posted by 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.
Dec 25, 2004, 8:41 pm
#54
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chicago
Programs: UA 1K, AA Gold
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I flew STT-PHL today and my 767 flight was cancelled - fortunately they run two flights on Saturdays so I was rebooked on the earlier 757 delayed flight (which went out really empty, despite two flights being consolidated, likely a northbound issue) - baggage came out within 30 minutes - which was surprisingly quick. Looks like I dodged a bullet, because the delayed 757 flight was basically at the same time as my cancelled flight.
The F/A announced that the staff shortages were due to diversions and weather earlier in the week - basically implying this was not a sick out.
I dunno. I'm flying back to SEA on AA tomorrow so no more US in PHL adventures for me.
The F/A announced that the staff shortages were due to diversions and weather earlier in the week - basically implying this was not a sick out.
I dunno. I'm flying back to SEA on AA tomorrow so no more US in PHL adventures for me.
Dec 25, 2004, 8:50 pm
#55
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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Originally Posted by das
I flew STT-PHL today and my 767 flight was cancelled - fortunately they run two flights on Saturdays so I was rebooked on the earlier 757 delayed flight (which went out really empty, despite two flights being consolidated, likely a northbound issue)
The F/A announced that the staff shortages were due to diversions and weather earlier in the week - basically implying this was not a sick out.
The F/A announced that the staff shortages were due to diversions and weather earlier in the week - basically implying this was not a sick out.
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Dec 25, 2004, 9:10 pm
#56
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Athens, WV, USA; a US cockroach long before it was in FFOCUS; now a lowly US5 for only the 2nd time in 20 years.
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Originally Posted by BillMorrow
According to an employee over on US Aviation, US had ~11,000 misdirected/missing bags as of 10pm on 12/24. Makes for a great Christmas for passengers
There were bags all the way out to the checkin area (looked like the one in B/C). I don't think anyone could walk in to checkin if they wanted.
There is no excuse for this. I'm going to be very interested to see what spin management puts on this in the coming days. As others have noted, those who did not show up should be fired and replaced with people who want to work. There's too much at stake for these jerks to take it upon themselves and screw it up.
It is looking that weather is the main reason for crews not showing up the last couple of days... nothing US can do about the weather. The baggage issue is another however.
Dec 25, 2004, 9:37 pm
#58
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: RDU
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In RDU at 6 pm on Christmas Eve, there was one person working in the US baggage claim office. The door was kept closed with a note "one person at a time". The queue was about 20 people deep and appeared to be moving at the rate of one person every 10 minutes. You do the math.
Dec 25, 2004, 10:40 pm
#59
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: PIT/LAX
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Originally Posted by woody1173
PIT did not seem to be a problem - I was actually surprised how calm everything seemed - I expected crowds/chaos, etc.
More stunning irony. This would not (and did not) happen to this extent at PIT and CLT.
PHL: even when its good...ITS BAD. I avoid PHL like the plague on normal days. I can only imagine what it was like yesterday.
Last edited by Wave1; Dec 25, 2004 at 10:44 pm
Dec 25, 2004, 11:15 pm
#60
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Well I guess the only silver lining in the PR department for US in all this is that Comair, the Delta Express unit (I believe a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta now) managed to lose its whole computer system and cancel at least ten times as many flights as US did Friday, stranding at least 30,000 and no doubt nuking tons of mainline connections as well. Apparently Comair's not flying again until Monday. This is pushing some of the media coverage of the US baggage issues down lower in the "travel woes" articles.
Now, with lots of travel for myself coming up, and probably some snow to throw in the mix in the next 6-8 weeks, I wonder how US's PHL ops will top the Comair incident?
Seriously though, I really feel for those people affected by this.
Now, with lots of travel for myself coming up, and probably some snow to throw in the mix in the next 6-8 weeks, I wonder how US's PHL ops will top the Comair incident?
Seriously though, I really feel for those people affected by this.