Winging It

YOu can't have an expanding airport, when you don't have enough gates..PERIOD. Would other airlines use the PTV's Delta, American,Southwest,United? probably not, so why make Usairways use one?? Isdell is between a rock and a hard place...Hopefully Mayor Nutter will replace him with,, well how about Jerry Seinfeld,, just another funnyman
YHS

I do almost anything to avoid using US Air. After several awful experiences [including lost luggage, waiting 2 hours for luggage to be unloaded after a flight [US Air employees parked the luggage cart and went home and it took literally hours to find and deliver to us]; being held on the ground for hours before takeoff, or being held in Chicago for hours because of delays in PHL ] I do not think that US Air has earned the right to expand in order to limit other options we might have to fly on reputable airlines. I prefer Southwest and look forward to expanded options for them. I will go as far as BWI to get flights as long as I can avoid any interaction with US Air. Why would it be any advantage to the flying public to have more of this bad actor!!

I think anyone who has flewn out of PHL more than a few times knows that US Airways is your absolute last resort for traveling, unless it is a long flight and US Airways has the only direct flight. The employees of US Air are some of the rudest, most unpleasant service employees anywhere. They are right up there with Septa and DMV employees if you ask me--you only deal with them if you have to. US Airways has horrible customer service, terrible arrival and departure percentages, and poor baggage handling. Not to mention the exhorbitant change fees (which all airlines other than Southwest have) and the no 24 hour refund policy (which, to my knowledge, only Southwest has).

In my opinion, US Air has a long way to go to rebuild its reputation in Philly, and it is nice to see that they don't have the sway over PHL officials that they probably once had. If they want to abandon their China flight, I say, so be it.

I thought your story in today’s Inquirer regarding the battle for gates at the airport was very interesting.

US Airways has been an important business carrier for those of us who travel extensively out of Philadelphia. Within the last few weeks US Airways has shocked these same business people who travel on their daily shuttle flights between Philadelphia and Boston. US Airways has 15 non-stop flights per day (plus a few connection flights). These flights start at 6:15 AM and finish at 11PM weekdays. This last week, on November 7th US Airways raised their fare for this trip from $76 - $151/one-way to $454/one-way. Then, when other carriers raised prices a few dollars last week, they increased the flight to $479. This is a fare before taxes and fees. Therefore, it is now $1,000 for a simple, 50 minute airtime flight between these two key cities. On most US Airways flights they have complicated pricing plans so that the farther out you book a flight the cheaper the flight will be, last minute bookings pay a higher price. This is not the case with this $1,000 price, attempt to book a flight 90 days from now and it’s all one price, a ridiculous price.

As a longtime US Airways Gold level traveler, I emailed Scott Kirby and Doug Parker regarding this back on October 17th when I first discovered the increase and of course have received absolutely no response.

The “spirit” of allowing US Airways to dominate the Philadelphia Airport gate allocations is that they would offer at least “competitive” airfares, I view this latest move as predatory pricing or even “extortion. It is cheaper now to fly to Europe, LA or Seattle than to Boston. Maybe you can get an explanation or justification for this unbelievable move on their behalf.