Sleeping in PHL Baggage Claim Thanks to US Airways
 

Had a horrible experience on US Airways earlier this month and the fact that almost all customer service representatives I faced were rude didn't make things any better.

Long story short, the plan was to fly from St. Maarten (SXM) to CLT and connect to YYZ. Flight arrived at SXM late b/c of mechanical issues and we got into CLT an hour late. Originally had a 90 min connection in CLT but b/c of delay it was about 20-mins (although service reps said they were holding the flight). Because I had to clear customs/immigration/security again didn't get to gate till 9:55 and the flight had left without me.

Rude service rep at gate to YYZ told me to fly to PHL and catch a flight in the morning. Rude service rep at gate to PHL gave me major attitude while trying to board. Get to PHL, everyone trying to pass the buck as to who can help... finally find rep who schedules me on a 9:45am flight but can't offer up any hotel (despite this all being their fault), thus having to spend night in baggage claim area, where homeless ppl are also allowed to sleep at night.

Wrote complaint letter to airline seeking compensation or voucher. Anyone encounter similar problems and what was the result? Any chance on getting anything in the future?

Thanks

Iwould expect more than a voucher! If your flight was cancelled due to maintenance, a hotel should have been provided. What I don't get is why you slept in the baggage claim area with alleged 'homeless people' (I'm not sure on this one - surely PHL doesn't double as a night refuge for the homeless???)

Either way, your situation was awful, but why not just check-in to a hotel and send the bill to US with a strongly worded letter? Must admit, that would be my choice before dossing down on the floor of the baggage hall - why did you do that??

PHL and EWR (along with CDG) are the three airports that are some of the worst to sleep in (well HNL actually closes the airport and tosses everyone out).

There are quite a few homeless in PHL, EWR and CDG and the cops don't seem to do much about it. These are three of the airports I will never sleep in (I seem to regularly sleep in SFO and LHR no problem, castles compared to PHL which is more like a dungeon.

Two homeless men got into a fight in the baggage claim area at PHL on Monday night/ Tuesday morning and it ended with one stabbing the other. Make sure you demand a hotel or at least try to sleep inside the terminal if you can from now on.

You should put a copy of the article on the stabbing with your letter to US and emphasize "this is where you're making your customers stay."

LHR clears out any homeless persons who are not passengers. The police go around LHR at night and those few whom they believe not to be a bonafide passenger in/out of LHR are asked to demonstrate that they are flying out or recently flew in; those few who aren't/weren't recently flight passengers are asked to leave.

PHLJJS - Where did you see the story about the stabbing at the airport? I tried searching the local papers/tv websites.

I had pushed for some sort of room anywhere, but the rep at the desk said he couldn't authorize anything and his manager just gave me the contact for US Airways Customer Service. By this time it was almost 1am and the flight was for 9:45 and I ran into two others who were in the same situation as me, so we sort of toughed it out.
We tried the Marriott at PHL but it was all booked, the security guard was nice enough to let us hang in the lobby till 3am, but then we got the boot to baggage claim for the next 3-4 hours.
Oh, by the way, there was security guards in baggage claim, they were sleeping on chairs 10 feet from the homeless people as three teens also stuck overnight raced around the area on wheelchairs!

I have myself been stranded by US Airways twice in Las Vegas(Misconnect last summer coming in late from Fresno) and Pittsburgh (Idiot Agent sent me ORD-PIT when I was supposed to go ORD-PHL...granted I did not do my homework but I was 15 come on).

Oh yeah, there seems to always be a fairly good crowd of homeless people sleeping in the baggage claim areas at PHL. Usually they claim all the seating benches along the inside south wall. At times, the smell of urine is quite strong too.

I work at PHL. When I came into work at 4am on Tuesday, one of the airport cops told me about it. I too looked in the paper and oline for it, but couldn't find anything either.

Is it a common issue to have people arriving on international flights to miss their connection to domestic locations? I've noticed the arrival rate of flight 714 is rarely on time.

Yes, I believe this is pretty common. No doubt US has some responsiblity sometimes when these things happen, but in my experience, a lot of the delays are caused by ATC and weather. I think US could be more proactive by padding thier schedules a little better to compansate for delays that happen routinely. Also, I noticed when I worked afternoon OT at A-WEST, we would get 200-300 people lining up at the checkpoint at the same time. One second, no one in line, next second, a plane full. I asked why that was happening and I was told that Customs holds the passengers who are connecting until all or most passengers from the incoming flight has cleared, then lets them leave the area. I've never flown international, so I don't know how true that is, but if that is the case, it would certainly be a factor in missing flights. I see a good number of people who need to connect to a flight in F terminal which is at the other end of the airport.

Other end of the airport? From A, F is basically in Berks county! Talk about a hike!:p

I don't know if it's that so much (although it may happen). I think it's more that on international flights there are fewer people travelling with just carry-on, so everyone is waiting for bags, and generally, by the time those bags come out, most people have cleared immigration so they're all ready to go through customs, which then becomes a bottle neck.

Just wanted to update this thread. Today, I received a generic apology letter (and I do mean generic - "Dear Valued Customer...") and a travel voucher (says issued by America West but can be redeemed on US Airways) for $350 for my negative experience.