Phl Factor - Again!

[MarkMyWords]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/41904-baggage.html

"U-S airways officials say the backlog was created because there were a large number
of workers who called in sick.

Some people had to wait more than three hours, making many of them obviously very angry."

It is amazing to me that some people just don't get it! How will we ever compete with the likes of WN in PHL with this kind of customer dis-service!

 

[BoeingBoy]

I have no idea what really happened, but I'd be leery of accepting the given reason at face value. Management has never been known to bend the truth, have they?

Jim

 

[GadgetFreak]

Three hours??? Thats enough time that after an hour someone at HQ could have flown up to PHL with a bunch of people from the offices and done it themselves to move things along. Good grief. I would be most interested in whether anyone even paid attention to what was happening until after the fact.

 

[ktflyhome]

Yea, just blame one more thing on labor. It is amazing that this management is contantly putting out to the public bad press about its very own employees. It is really obvious what the Management thinks of all of us. It's NEVER their fault, OH< NO< never Management. Saying something like that coming from Company Officials is Chicken ####. :down: :angry:

 

[biztraveller29]

I'm not sure what Management would do about bags not being off-loaded on time. 3 hours to pick up bags? Where were the people whose JOB it is to unload baggage? No offense, but that's not necessarily management's job.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Bob,

I would call that anecdotal evidence....

Empirical evidence would be such things as:

How many rampers were supposed to be on duty when the flights arrived?
How many were assigned to work those flights?
How many called in sick?
If the flights arrived after the evening shift ended, was overtime authorized to keep the necessary amount of people on duty? (the pictures showed people waiting for bags at 12:11 am)
Etc.

Jim

 

[nycbusdriver]

Bob,

I would call that anecdotal evidence....

True. Bob's situations are anecdotal.

But from the viewpoint of a USAirways pilot who deals with PHL day in and day out, I must admit that Bob's observations are common.

Here's one case in point from the captain's chair:

Arrive from the islands a few minutes early, assigned A-17 on the new International councourse.

Pull up to the lead in line and no one there to marshall, and the self-park system is turned off. Call ops for marshaller.

Gate agent is on the jetway, twidling thumbs as are we.

5 minutes pass, during which 3 or 4 tugs whiz past our nose. A few maintenance trucks also pass without stopping. Someone walks out from the building onto the tarmac, looks at us, turns around and goes back in. (The noise of our jet engines were probably making it difficult for him to watch the game on TV.)

Another 5 minutes pass, a few more vehicles go by and now our gate agent has given up and disappeared.

Finaly, 20 mintes after landing a maintenance truck pulls up, the driver gets out, turns on the self-park system and drives away without so much as a nod. At least now we can park. But our gate agent has disappeared. Another 5 minutes and the gate agent returns, we deplane and head for immigration.

It turns out that we are taking the same airplane on to MHT, so we go through immigration, customs and security, then back to A-17 where the baggage compartments have not even been opened! More phone/radio calls and finally the luggage gets taken off the airplane.

Anecdotal? Maybe. But 25 years here makes me more than qualified to call it not atypical.

 

[MarkMyWords]

I heard from my friends in PHL that there was a staffing issue at the ticket counter today. Less then 1/2 the normal compliment of employees were there....reason for the shortage? Sick Calls.

 

[sentrido]

Sounds like somebody pissed somebody off.

 

[Dea Certe]

Mark,

Any idea as to what the illnesses were about? Spring fever? Deep despair? Burning the sick banks before the doors close?

I'd heard from a friend PHL was actually beginning to look up a bit with the new Station Manager.

Dea

 

[PBIRAMP]

With all the company has taken and is still asking for more, I'm surprized this is not occuring more and at more locations.

 

[MarkMyWords]

Dea -

Wish I knew.....spring fever? fear of a t-storm night? earn and burn? proving a point (not sure what it is)?

All I know.....it has to stop. There is no way we can take on the competition with customer inconveniences like this. 3 hours in baggage claim waiting for bags, long lines at the counter due to staffing issues......what next?

 

[Art at ISP]

Lets give everyone the benefit of the doubt and assume that people were actually sick. I would hate to think that it could be anything else. Like Mark said, US can't afford to be alienating customers at all right now.

The winds of change have arrived--let's hope there's a change in direction as well.

My best to you all.....

 

[BoeingBoy]

I go back to my original comments - why the recent problems at PHL. Has something changed in the last few days if indeed a spike in sick calls is occuring? While it's easy to point the finger at the obvious - lazy employees that don't care - what are the reasons behind what's happening on the surface?

And nycbusdriver, I'll see your 25 years with my 25 years and raise you 20+ of that in the lofty captain's chair. I've long ago learned that surface appearences don't usually give the true answers. Especially at a company where inititive is not rewarded and occassionally punished.

Jim

 

[nycbusdriver]

Jim -

I didn't offer answers. But it's the symptoms that keep the customers pissed off, and these symptoms are rampant.

BTW, I also have 20+ years in the captain's chair...as of April 1st!