Main purpose of this
post: Vent on the pretty crappy service and logistics planning of US Airways…
With a 50 minute
layover, I knew it would be tight to get to the next flight. It didn't help that the flight was all the
way on the other side of the airport.
But this being my 7th trip this year (amounting to almost 20+ flight
segments), I figure I am pretty used to this airport stuff and this was plenty
of time. In most days, this would be
enough time for me to grab a quick snack along the way even (which was what I
did just last month…).
You'd think that US
Airways would work out something with the airport to put their flights very
close to one another, or at least try a little bit more to get their passengers
onto their flights…. They didn't do either, and so I ended up missing dim sum,
and spending an extra $80…
The first sign of
trouble was when the flight didn't take off on time (by a couple minutes). Then it flew slow and landed late, then sat
on the taxi way for 15 minutes. By the time
I got off the plane, I had 10 minutes before the other plane took off. The staff did nothing to try to hold the
other plane or let the passengers who had a connecting off first…. Signnnn…
I did the best that
I can, even jogging a little bit through the airport with my busted ankle and
non running shoes - even losing one of my shoes and had to go back to put it on
(yes, that was embarrassing…). I arrived
at the gate seeing the bridge just disconnecting from the plane. Which means I probably just missed. So as I waved bye to the plane , I was
rebooked on the next flight, which leaves 3 hours later… .. .
Eating down an
overpriced breakfast at the Philadelphia airport, I looked at the guidelines
for what happens when an airline who made the passenger miss their connecting
flight. Here I thought I would at last
get compensated in some way for my lost of time, so I sent them a
complaint. (update: I got a response 3
business days later -> only to get the standard it's not in our control BS
blah blah, and that they are sorry. But
does a sorry really make the 5 hours of wasted time feel any better? In some ways, this kind of apology is worse
than not saying anything...)
To add salt to the
wound, the plane that I was scheduled on, well, it was delayed by an hour. So I sat inside that plane this time, for 30
minutes listening to a baby cry while they were fixing something or what not.
This has not
happened in …. EVER. I am never a big
hater of airplane companies (since I take enough flights to know things are
pretty much the same). But this US
Airways trip - with their total lack of coordination between their own planes,
and subpar responses and old planes and commitment to hitting things on time,
makes me wary of booking my next flight off Kayak that has them as the carrier.
Because I have been
up since midnight, and after 11.5 hours of airport fun (14.5 if I count the
time traveling), I took a cab home which costs an arm and a leg. Good thing though is because of various
accidents along various key spots on the freeways that day, there was minimal
traffic on the route I was taking, and I got home in a reasonable time.
US Airways… bigggg
minus 10 here.
