PHL

Planned or unplanned, there are a lot of sick-outs today. That's it folks. I'm cashing in my remaining 130K for a Star Alliance trip and saying See Ya. Almost 20 years with USAirways. Over 1 million lifetime points in the program. It's been real great, but it's apparent that the employees are simply fed up and don't really care who they pi55 off now.

Case in point:
PIT to PHL today(12/24):

flights 1101, 390 - ontime
flights 374, 234, 332, 188 - cancelled for lack of crew(per usairways.com)
flights 366, 1279 - cancelled with no reason given(on usairways.com)

Thanks, USAirways, for stranding my parents who were trying to get to PHL to visit their son for Christmas. Now they can drive the PA turnpike on Christmas day. At least the traffic will be light.

Thanks, USAirways, for listening to all the signs that there would be sick-outs through the holidays and planning for them.

photog72

Perhaps not. As seen here they claim that "the issue is not a result of a work stoppage but instead a combination of bad weather elsewhere and high traffic volume. The airline is reportedly working to correct the problem." YMMV.

Though, you may want to see this report from the PHL ABC station, it has both sides, including some angry passengers. Click video: Amy Buckman at PHL.

PHL

It's not weather now. It's an extremely high number of employees, specifically Flight Attendants, calling out sick. Lots of threads over on usaviation.com about this.

pitflyer

Dunno, my mom and sister flew LGA-PIT today and everything was fine, and the baggage claim was for both an inbound PHL and LGA flight and it looks like everything was fine. But sorry to hear it went south for you!

GalleyWench

I know that it was a royal mess in PHL last night. 2 of my husband's legs were cancelled today (and usairways.com said that it was because of lack of crew). I guess that's partially true, because they didn't land until 3:00 this morning and they had to delay their takeoff this morning to get legal rest. They cancelled their 2 middle legs today to try to get the airplane back on schedule and not run everything 5 hours late.
I'm sorry it's been such a nightmare in parts of the system. I looked on the reserve screen for DCA today for f/a's and there were very few sick calls. Most of the problems today were the fact that the f/a's were already flying or out of time for the month. I don't doubt that they had a high rate of sick calls throughout the system though. Lots of folks with over 15 years still on call and still having to fly all through the holidays probably are fed up. I know, that's no excuse.
I hope the remainder of everyone's travels over the holidays are uneventful. I'll be flying over New Year's, and promise not to call in sick.

US AIRWAYS FAN

I find that odd. I did 2 MR's today from DCA to PHL. There were some flights that were delayed. But on the monitors (I kept a closeful eye on them) there were only 2 flights that I saw canceled. I am sure there were a couple more but nothing that was not out of the ordinary.

Many of the delays were from yesterday bleed over.

USAvation.com time and time again has been proven wrong.

PHL I am sorry to hear about your parents though. I hope this is not truly your last time with them.

I have also heard some horror stories with ORD and ATL today and mostly is from the winter storm clean up from yesterday.

mersk862

A bunch of CSAs called in sick today in BOS, and the local ABC affliate reported that the Arrival/Departure monitors "strangly" went sour this morning right before the airport opened.

US AIRWAYS FAN

The DCA monitors were not being kept up to date today either.

US AIRWAYS FAN

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=2732677


PHILADELPHIA Travelers at Philadelphia International Airport are separated from thousands of bags. Officials say it's because of weather-related diversions, cancellations and missed connections.

At Richmond International Airport, bags sat unclaimed next to the U-S Airways baggage counter on this evening. Dozens of travelers unable to find their luggage waited to speak with a customer service representative.

A spokeswoman for U-S Airways says she expects the company will make more progress on reuniting customers with their bags after 8 p.m., when fewer people will be flying.

Airline spokeswoman Amy Kudwa says U-S Airways is operating flights with only baggage and NO passengers from Philadelphia to a hub in Charlotte, North Carolina. She says workers there will sort the bags and get them to their proper destinations.

Kudwa says the problem is because of flights canceled due to the weather and regulations that mandate rest periods for flight crews.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

hoobly

At least three PHL-BDL flights were cancelled due to lack of crew today. I was supposed to be on two of them before I threw in the towel and drove the 5 hours. Not a happy US customer today.

Edited to add another sob story:

I flew into PHL from SAN last night (the 23rd). We landed slightly late and then sat on the ground for close to three hours before pulling up to a gate. It's this kind of week that makes me question why I fly (or more specifically, why I fly through PHL).

I understand it's a holiday and there are huge crowds. I understand there's weather and how this causes problems. I understand how US is bankrupt and doesn't have the resources to do everything we might want. Nevertheless, I don't understand how people who are supposedly running an airline can tolerate an airport as broken as PHL was the last two days. If US managers started to work as hard at running their operation as they do at cutting costs, perhaps they might eventually make some money.

McFlyPHL

4/10 flights PHL-RDU were cancelled today, including both of the last two (830p and 1010p) - so much for those of us who had to work today.

40% cancels on Christmas Eve? Somehow I don't think this is going to get better tomorrow... oh, wait... I'm still on hold - totalling over an HOUR on the SP line. That's inclusive of being dropped out of the system twice after 35 minutes on hold. Straw, I'd like you to meet camel.

...anybody stuck in PHL want to go in on Christmas dinner?

sassamanlaw

It seems like alot of baggage handlers got sick today according to the PHL Fox station. Don't these morons realize what kind of job market there is out there for someone whose resume reads: "Lift objects, move them 10 feet and then drop. Go back and repeat cycle". Boy, I'm sure there are tons of Wall Street recuiters just itching to hire these guys. These guys are the most expendable and easiest to replace of all the unionized US employees. They are just falling all over themselves to give the BK judge a reason to void the contract.

bertie_jeeves

Just saw the chaos at PHL on local news. NBC reports almost all US flights out of PHL are cancelled.Sad.

pheller

Flew 42 from DEN-PHL today. Left about 40 or 50 minutes late, but the flight crew made some of the time up en route.

My connection (241 to CMH) was cancelled for the familiar reason of lack of crew. However, even if the flight wasn't cancelled, I would not have made it since we waited about an hour and a half to get from the taxiway to the gate.

I'm sitting on a dirty floor in PHL right now along with maybe 200 others, who may or may not have flight accomodations.

None of us have Airline provided accomodations for the night. Why? Beacause all the ticketing agents have been here since 6am and they have been sent home.

Any other FTers here on the dirty floor with me? I am at position 53...

--phil

pheller

What's everyone having for dinner tonight? I am enjoying a net weight 1.6 oz package of Doritos crackers and a 1/2 pint of Poland springs bottled water, all courtesy of the Philadelphia Airport.

--phil