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Anybody else stuck at PHL tonight?

WildCowboy

WildCowboy

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Original poster
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
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Lots of cancellations due to the weather today, so I'm stuck spending the night in the Philadelphia airport. The first gate agent I talked to in an attempt to rebook told me there were no seats on any flights to Buffalo tomorrow and could I wait until Friday or go to Rochester instead? Fortunately, a supervisor was standing next to him working with someone else and overheard the situation. She overrode some things and got me on a flight at 9:20 in the morning. So here I sit, having ponied up $7.99 for my internet access.

On a side note, it's been a while since I've flown US Airways and I'm really not impressed. I usually try to fly United cross-country so that I can change in Chicago and avoid the 6-hour flights, but I was about to lose my US Airways miles, so I flew them this time. (I used to fly US Airways a lot when I lived in the East.) We were subjected to a good 10 minutes of advertising at the beginning of the flight for everything except the kitchen sink. And then we got more advertising near the end of the flight, this time for the US Airways credit card. It's like I'm stuck in one of those stupid timeshare vacation offers. And then the tray tables have advertising in them...a Maria Bartiromo interview with Kevin Rollins to advertise Business Times, an ad for the Aladdin Planet Hollywood Casino, etc. Bleh.
 
That sucks.

US Airways has really turned to crap now. I flew US Air on a trip to Florida last year and it sucked. When we were heading back, they delayed the plane for a half hour because there were empty seats and they were going to add people from another flight. This caused us to get stuck on the tarmac waiting while a thunderstorm passed (if we would have left on time, we would have gotten out of there before the thunderstorm arrived). We ended up being delayed in total about an hour and forty minutes in Orlando, so by the time we got to Charlotte where our connection was, we had missed the flight by about 20 minutes. Luckily they had one more flight back to Providence that day and we all were able to get on it, but we were still stuck in Charlotte for another five hours or so. It ended up taking a total of thirteen hours to get from Orlando to Providence. In contrast, when I flew down there in April 06 (on southwest), it only took about five and a half hours.

I don't think I'm going to be flying US Air again anytime soon.
 
I've had nothing but good experiences with America West/US Airways. All of my flights have arrived early, my bags we usually waiting at the carousel when I arrived, and I've been upgraded to first class once. These experiences may be because I have mostly flown on the former America West network, which has its hubs in Phoenix and La$ Vega$.

I made a point about baggage, because all my permanent home is in Seattle and other airlines are notorious for making you wait for 30 minutes or more for baggage, whereas I just came down the stairs and saw my luggage going around the carrousel.

It does suck to be stuck in any airport. Last time I was stuck was in Detroit on my way from Chicago to Indianapolis. There was an electrical storm in IND so for some reason they diverted to DTW instead of returning to MDW. I spent 8 hours in DTW before getting another flight to IND, and didn't even get a food voucher. Stupid NWA.

TEG
 
I had a bad feeling when I went to check in online yesterday and noticed that the on-time rate for my SFO-PHL flight was 30%. :rolleyes:

We left 45 minutes late...not sure why; we were all on the plane before the schedule departure and the weather was gorgeous in SF. We landed a few minutes late, but then we sat on the tarmac for 25 minutes while they shuffled planes around to find us a gate. (Didn't they have warning we were coming? :rolleyes: ) I was starting to get a bit nervous about missing my connection, but as it turned out there was no connection for me to miss. Ugh.
 
here is a story about why airline travel sucks.

im flying to seattle from providence by way of JFK yesterday. 3PM flight from providence to JFK, 2.5 hour layover in JFK, 7PM from JFK to seattle.

the flight from providence gets delayed to 3:55, then to 7:45, the back to 3:55, then back to 7:45. during this time we are swapped and shuffled around and are told the "only option" is to go to providence to Cincinnati to seattle. the catch is that the arrival and departure flights are at 2 different terminals that are a shuttle bus apart. the time between flights? 30 minutes. i explain to the agent how that is at best highly unlikely and at worst absolutely impossible to make, especially considering the track record of flights taking off and landing on time. i suggest she put me up in a hotel and get me out 1st class on whatever flight she can tomorrow. her answer is "we do not do anything for weather delays."

well.

we end up taking a 6AM flight to JFK, and a 8:30AM to seattle, which ends up taking off at closer to 9:15, the time of which is spent, in coach, sitting on the plane waiting to take off. we then land, and spend another 30 minutes sitting on the tarmac waiting "for our gate to clear so we can let the passengers off."

so all in all, i have been essentially traveling since i got to the providence airport at 1PM tuesday and landed at 3PM today (12PM Seattle time.) with a total of a 3 hour nap since we had to get up at 3:30AM to make the 6AM flight.

i cannot wait to never, ever ever use Delta again.

on a side note, we took a ferry in seattle and it rocked. thats the way to travel. might take a while to get across the country that way.
 
Aniej said:
wildcowboy did they get you a hotel room?
Click to expand...

Nope...they said that there are no available hotel rooms in the area because of all the cancellations. I find that hard to believe (yes there are cancellations, but it's not horrible, and Philly isn't a small town), but it doesn't really matter. By the time I got a hotel, I wouldn't have gotten a whole lot of sleep before having to head back here.
 
*dogeyes*

That is a cursed flight/ airport. My folks and I got "stranded" at PHL in May. Same flight, I bet. :p I think it was US Airways run by United. At any rate, it wasn't weather-- they overbooked the flight in a massive way. We opted to get bumped to the next morning in exchange for some goodies. :D Sorry that your situation isn't ideal, WC.

Ask for some sort of voucher? They should at least give you meal vouchers. :eek:
 
Mine was a straight-up US Airways flight...was scheduled to leave SFO at 1:00 PM.

No free flight vouchers since it was a weather-related cancellation and not an overbooking situation. I forgot to ask about meal vouchers, but I wasn't about to go back and wait in a long line to find out about them. Not a big deal.

It isn't the first night I've spent in an airport, and it likely won't be the last.
 
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