Winging It

I guess Melissa found out a month ago when she traveled the airline just before Thanksgiving...Usairways has turned the corner. Asking the public for negative comments is wrong.. Ask the public for POSITIVE or negative comments is the correct thing to do for a top=notch award winning newspaper.. YHS

Thanks for your Dec 31 article. As a US Airways user it gives me some hope for better service. However you are holding them to too low a standard if you are comparing them to their earlier performance.

I am a longtime Houston resident who moved to Philly last year. Since then I have been using US Airways. Before that most of my flying had been on Continental. I don’t view Continental as a poster child of a good airline but the contrast between the two is rather startling. Courtesy of ground and air staff, conditions of the airplanes, on time performance are just a few areas where I found US Air inferior. I also fear these gaps may extend to maintenance and approach to safety but I have no direct evidence of that.

I believe your column is one of the few ways we have to try to influence them to do better. So I urge to rate them on a whole series of passenger needs and do it frequently.

Let's hope that this year provides more positive than negative news as it relates to Philadelphia-area flyers.

I wanted to comment on a few areas and request your help to get the various parties involved with PHL to focus on positive improvements, rather than lament past and current issues.

As someone who logged nearly 200M air miles in 2007 (with 150M+ on USAirways), I am certainly one who has had a bird's-eye view of many of the things you wrote about this past year, as well as some one who has a highly-vested interest in seeing continual improvements at PHL.

USAirways - 1/2 Full or 1/2 Empty -->Without a doubt USAirways has struggled over the years. While the America West team has made mistakes along the way...we have to keep in perspective that the airline almost went under...which would have been a HUGE loss to PHL, Business Travelers and the Delaware Valley economic structure. I flew during the Christmas 2004 melt-down, the Spring 2007 reservations system malfunction and Holiday 2007 (and 30 additional weeks this past year). Bottom line, they are making progress. It doesn't happen every time, but this week's 31 December travel rated a 10 on a 1-10 scale. My family and I flew from Ft Myers (RSW) connecting through Charlotte (CLT) into Philadelphia (PHL). Both flights left on time (actually, pulled back from the gates 5-10 minutes early)...arrived in PHL on time...our 3 checked bags all arrived on the belt within 5 minutes of us entering the baggage claim area! (and, as an added bonus, the FastTrack remote parking shuttle pulled up outside Terminal B-C just as we were walking to the curb). NET-->Let's take the 1/2 full approach and applaud USAirways for the progress they have made to date and encourage their continual improvement investments at PHL (baggage system, labor relations, fleet improvement, customer service, more international service)
International Service - The enemy is EWR, JFK, IAD...not Us!-->It's disappointing to see all the effort/energy being used to pick fights between the various PHL constituents over International service (The USAIRWAYS management and PHL Administration tiffs this Fall over A-Concourse gates was particularly disturbing). If you look at the U.S. marketplace today, you realize that the successful companies, governments and regions are the ones that are embracing the GLOBAL economy. As the U.S. economy softens, many companies are looking overseas to grow their businesses. Critical to their operations is access to a vast and efficient air transportation system that connects the region with all points around the world. Most notably, the loss of the Olympic 2016 bid was due to Philadelphia's lack of International profile. It is a travesty that Philadelphia doesn't have a well-established international hub. That said, USAirways has indicated that they are willing to make Philadelphia their International hub (as they dismantle Pittsburgh and make Charlotte primarily a domestic operation). NET-->Let's use the power of the media to help mediate across the various constituencies to make PHL the east coast's premier International Hub.
PHL - It's hard to be the "Next Great City" with the "Next to Worst Airport"-->In the old days when Philadelphia was an underserviced, over-priced airline destination, we could live with the mediocre infrastructure of PHL...but now that USAirways has re-committed to making it a major hub and the low cost airlines (Southwest, AirTran) have committed to bring additional service to PHL and the "open skies" agreements provides a window for more foreign carriers to start/expand service at PHL, we need a rethink and a recommit to PHL. On the one hand, I applaud PHL for the various terminal expansions they have made (most note-worthy Terminal A-west and Terminal F...but, more recently, the gate expansions and reconfigurations in D-E)...however, they are incremental band-aids that are extensions of what inherently is a poor terminal design to run a major airport....the jetways are too congested, the runways too close, the concourses too narrow, the travel time to connect from one terminal to another is pathetic (how many times do you see stressed, red-faced passengers racing to make a connection from C to A or B to F?). Ironically, the best airport design is the one that is being mothballed...Pittsburgh...I (and others...notably the airlines) would kill to lift up the PIT terminal layout and drop it on PHL. Ironically, the PHL solution is still mounted on the wall between C & D terminal with the Airport Expansion project...it shows an option that would scrap the current terminal...develop a very efficient multiple terminal system a la Atlanta...that repositions the runways to 4 parallel strips that allow simultaneous take-off and landings (what is it's status?...it was suppose to be finalized 2 years ago!). NET-->If lowly Detroit can get a whole new midfield terminal, clearly we can make a case for PHL!
Tom-->I appreciate your coverage of PHL, the airlines and the entire regional transportation system, let's hope that 2008 sees continued progress to making PHL a world-class and customer-preferred airport.

If there is any way that I can help further the cause, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
Woody Rosenbach

I read your inquirer article, and truly couldn't believe it was the
same airline, I recently traveled on. I went to Florida in late
December with my daughter for a family party. Her bag and mine were
checked through at the same time, her's arrived. Mine did not, therefore
forcing me to attend the evenings festivities in my traveling
clothes...I was not a happy camper! Coming home, all was better. The
bags arrived with us--thankfully! However, we wandered back and
forth among the baggage carriers trying to find where the luggage
would arrive..There was absolutely NO signage. And all of the other
passengers were bumping into each other running back and fourth
looking for the correct carrier. For the New Year---
better signage would surely might the New Year a bit brighter!
And a Happy 2008 to you.
PS My bag arrived in Florida at 11:30 PM after a trillion phone
calls....

I enjoy your column and wanted to respond to your recent one (Dec. 31) on US Airways. We recently flew US Air to and from Florida, and they did well. On the way down we were delayed over an hour because the electrical system that allowed for automatic fuel injection didn't work and they had to try something new (manual override :-) But the pilot kept us informed and we didn't have to get a new plane, so it worked out well. Coming back the counter agent screwed things up by giving us our four boarding passes, but two had my daughter's name on it and none mine, so I had to get that fixed, but then the plane left five minutes early and caught favorable winds and we actually arrievd 30 minutes early - a first for us!! So no complaints and a plus for US Air. And, to top it off, no baggage problems. :-) We've generally had success with US Air and they came through this time as well.

Thanks again for great columns.

Happy New Year! Best wishes, Michael Sachs

After reading your column this morning i felt compelled to write. Several years ago my wife and I had thoroughly horrible experience on u.s.air. We swore we would never fly with them again. however, recently in a moment of weakness we decided to use them to fly to california for our daughters graduation from college. our son used them also to fly from boston at the same time.Without going into the gorey details it will suffice to say that all in one trip, all or part of our party experienced LATE TAKOFFS, MISSED CONNECTIONS, LOST LUGGAGE, OVERBOOKED FLIGHTS,DOUBLE SEAT ASSIGNMENTS, RUDE SERVICE PERSONNEL,EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE SEATS, BUT THE WORST OF ALL WAS HAVING TO LEAVE MY SON AND HIS GIRLFRIEND STANDING IN THE OVERCROWDED WAITING LOUNGE IN SANTA BARBARA BECAUSE THE FLT WAS SO OVERBOOKED THAT HE WAS BUMPED OFF!!!! THEN TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY WHEN WE FINALLY DID ARRIVE BACK IN PHILA. AT 2:00 AM THEY PARKED THE PLANE IN TERMINAL A. OUR CAR WAS PARKED IN GARAGE C. If I ever have a choice Between flying usair boiling myself in oil, I shall always choose the oil, it would be far less painful!!!!!!!NEVER AGAIN......MARK D BASTIAN

Where oh where is Melissa, stuck in Chicago with United Airlines??? or waiting for the first snowstorm in Philly...

I have had no problems at all wiht USAIR service the las three times I have used it. Once during the holidays and twice since Nov. The staff has kept us upto date with why our plane was 5 mins late, baggage arrived wiht 15 mins and the last flight we were 30 kins early, the gate was available when we landed and the bags were there when we walked to the baggage.

My concern continues to be the airport itself. There is a desparate need for more international gates. Without those the airport will stagnate, its economic significance to the region will decrease, the idea of Phildelphia as a "World City" will disappear. There will be an adverse affect on toursim, conventions and national and international busness. With that said the tax loss will be terrible and never regained. The status of the city will take a major step back. The airport needs to remain a major international hub with USAIR. Southwest and others great, but they do not come close to the economic importance of USAIR for the airport, the city and region. USAIR is trying to improve service and has. Now lets give them what they need to manitain and expand so that service to China, Japan, Austirlia, South America and Eastern Europe is compromised.

Jim

Woody,

Sounds like we think alike.

Jim

In a nutshell, if I had the choice of paying for a Southwest ticket or being given a free first class ticket on U.S. Air, I would fly Southwest. Just try calling U.S. Air for the simpliest type of service, changing a ticket, checking fares, etc. and you will be taken through a maze of telephone options finally ending in a disgruntled customer service person who 50% of the time does something wrong. On our most recent U.S. Air adventure, the first class tickets my wife and I purchased were mistakenly reassigned to someone else. Of course we did not know this until getting our boarding pass the day before the flight and found out we were now on coach. What was the solution offered by U.S. Air for making us pay for 2 first class tickets while getting coach? An upgrade to first class on our next flight but for only 1 of us! Repeated calls every hour to the customer service line over a 4 day period went unanswered because the "customer service" line had a recording that said "there is a high volume of calls, call back at a later time" and then disconnected. I then called Corporate Headquarters and asked to speak to someone about this and was told she would connect me to the priority customer service line. You guessed it, I was transferred to the same line I had been calling for the past 4 days. I then called back Corporate Headquarters to speak to someone in charge and with a nasty tone, she told me she can only connect me to the customer service line and before I could say anything she transferred me again. I guess lousy service comes right from the top. To top off our U.S. Air flight, one of our bags was lost upon arriving at PHL airport.

Last Saturday, US Airways flt # 1586 was delayed at the gate in Charlotte by the need to have some paperwork faxed from the Pittsburgh operations center. Even the pilot was frustrated as we waited 45 minutes. I wonder if the delay might have been due to Steelers game that was in progess. Once we arrived at PHL at 1230 AM, the plane parked at A25--the most remote gate in the International Terminal. Bags were taken to the B/C claim area. The exit at the B concourse was locked, so everyone had to trek all the way to the C concourse to find a way to baggage claim. The bags were delivered, of course, to the carousel closest to the B concourse. Aerobic exercise is healthful, and I am delighted that our favorite airline is looking after our interests.