joshua-bwi

$350.00 is generous for a general member but if you are statused.... hmmm... I would seek more for the injustices that were bestowed upon you... On the other hand, be lucky you got anything at all.

ryehighguy

Oh yes, this is very generous of them, to be honest I was expecting an apology letter 6 months down the road with my name spelled wrong!
I'm not a Dividend Miles Member, just Aeroplan, so I should consider myself lucky and grateful for anything at all I suppose!

warreng24

You have never been to PHL have you?

There are indeed homeless people sleeping in the Baggage Claim area. I have witnessed this for myself. However, I can not confirm that they do spend the entire night there undisturbed (without police coming to wake them up for a "welfare check").

PHLJJS

There are so many homeless people who spend the night at PHL, that in winter the place looks like a shelter at times. A good number of them are there all the time. It's like they really do live there. I'm waiting to see the mail man start delivering their mail to them.

mtpatt0

Agree with others. Homeless do live there. I'm sorry, but it's disgusting. The urine smell is overwhelming sometimes. I see them on benches all the time. They should be ticketed and removed like unattended baggage. Are there not homeless shelters in the city?

The City of Philadelphia (i.e., its officials) should be ashamed that this goes on. But we're not talking about a very progressive and dynamic city now, are we?

Who should be contacted about this behaviour?

fishintheobx

They could care less... Since the 70's, the corruption around that airport has literally been insane. It's been a place full of slush-jobs for the friends of whatever administration is currently running City Hall. 30 years ago when I lived up there the politicians were known to roam around picking up the homeless on election day bribing them with meals and clothes in return for a trip to the polls.

Will never forget, a few years back I was in London reading an article in a newspaper about the US' homeless problem, Philadelphia was called out, as well as the airport with a picture of a man washing his clothes in one of the bag claim bathrooms.

PHLflying

Hearing of the corruption (surprise surprise) makes me all the more glad I tend to never buy anything during my visits to PHL, and don't park there (SEPTA).

GoneOffShore

Well, we're well on the way to changing the culture of corruption here in Philadelphia - reform candidates elected in the primary and a progressive mayor.

I fly in and out of PHL 5-6 times a year (I live in the city itself) and I guess all the posters on this thread must be flying out of a different airport. Urine smells - never encountered that. Homeless guys - haven't seen them.

Your mileage may vary.

Greg P.

I hope that's true

Not a different airport. It's PHL.

Take a walk through the B/C baggage claim area. By 11:00 PM on any given evening, all of the benches along the north wall are occupied by homeless people. If you venture close, the smell is rather remarkable. To be fair, most arriving pax tend to congregate closer to the south wall, so it's possible to not notice them.

Also, late at night, it's pretty common to see a few homeless people camped out in the tunnels/bridges that lead from the terminal to the baggage claim area.

For the most part, they keep a pretty low profile. Only once do I recall being approached and asked for money. If I had to guess, I'd say they have some sort of unnofficial agreement with the police, allowing them to stay if they don't cause trouble.

One thing that I find at least somewhat interesting is that most of them seem to dissappear during the day. I wonder where they go? Do they take a taxi downtown? PHL is not an easy walk to anywhere.

Or do they leave their cars at WallyPark and just drive off in the morning?

fishintheobx

Yeah...you got that right...when it comes to this place it normally varies between bad...and pathetic.

ToJ

I got stranded in PHL in February (missed all possible flights to LGW due to some genious at US not knowing how to properly rebook me when my PHF-CLT flight was 4 hours late so I would have missed CLT-LGW that night). Once I was finally rebooked for the next day on PHF-LGW (had to walk to B since the counters were closed in A) I asked for a hotel room but was told they did not have any left.
I ended up calling the Hilton Diamond line and ended up staying downtown at my own expense (at least I had a room - of course US could not get my luggage to me that night which arrived 2 days after I finally did in LGW).
I wrote a strongly worded e-mail to the US executive office since it was clearly their fault that I got stuck there. About 4 weeks later I got response. They apologized but told me they could not reimburse expenses since as an airline they are focused on security. To keep me as a customer, they included a $200.00 voucher. I wrote back trying to get some sort of an explanation why a focus on security prevented them from reimbursing my expenses. After another 3 weeks, I got another letter, again apologizing for my troubles but never taking any responsibility and saying that they can't reimburse expenses and, hard to believe, another $200.00 voucher.
So I got $400.00 out of it for future travel...
Bizarre process that certainly did not restore my faith in US...

me4yankees

I received a reimbursement for a US-fault hotel stay, so they can issue you a check if they elect to do so.

bpgveg14

That was ME who got stabbed! Then all they told me was: "Thank you for flying USAirways!" Thanks so much!

fishintheobx

Sorry...your condition wasn't serious enough to warrant a $7 meal voucher! I mean, this is PHL for crying out loud...the homeless probably get more "Above and Beyond" certificates than the US employees do!

PhxITGeek

I went through PHL for the first (and Last) time in the last 2 weeks. It was positively horrific. Positively some of the worst facilities and the most ridiculous, rude and obnoxious people ever. Customs was terrible. All the bathrooms were closed and we were in line for 2.5 hours.

Glad you got some compensation.