Problems in PHL Tonight

[FM2436]

Man-oh-Man, At least US Airways apparently isn't having the problems jetBlue is current having with its customers and having to call security. Reading the jetBlue message board sound like jetBlue is have a major melt down.

http://www.usaviation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33727

 

[ussnark]

All the reserve pilots in PHL that wouldn't answer the phone on their off day were hired between 1985 and 1989 and are on 90 minute call out reserve.

Not certain what your definition of an "off day" is, but,

1) "all" reserve pilots wouldn't answer the phone? Please submit proof.

2) "off day" is a day free of duty. If they are "doing" something", god bless them. Some are in the guard, that they try to accomplish during an "off day". A few are doing their every six month medical. Some are just in a doctors office because even pilots get sick, need their teeth cleaned, get a D&C, etc. and so on. Many have to defer emergencies until their off days, situations that could easily be fixed with a person who is home every night. Some even have to call in sick when they are not, gasp, because they must do something they cannot do otherwise ( three month lead time for doctors appt., for IRS audit or even to interview for a better paying job, like the neighborhood garbage collector who gets paid more than any copilot at U.)

I know a reserve who did not answer their phone. I say, good on them.

SWA reserves work either 14 or 15 days per month. They make a great profit. Wonder what your carrier is doing wrong.......

 

[Phoenix]

I know a reserve who did not answer their phone. I say, good on them.

SWA reserves work either 14 or 15 days per month. They make a great profit. Wonder what your carrier is doing wrong.......

I couldn't have said it better.

 

[Phoenix]

Ms. Dervin, the JetBlue spokeswoman, said that the airline called all of its pilots and flight attendants on Friday afternoon to determine where they were and how many hours of flight time they had left under government work rules,

I wonder what US Air pilots and FAs would say if scheduling called and said, "Oh, thank goodness you answered the phone. We are calling everyone because we have no clue about where you are or how much time you have flown. Please tell us."

My response: "I am in PHL driving a snow removal truck out here on the ramp, cause I already flew my 95 hours this month. Thats right. All 95 hours. Write that down."

 

[Informed1]

I just got a couple of calls from our fellow FF SS255, who at the moment is still waiting for her bags from the LAX-PHL flight which was supposed ot arrive at 7PM.

She called me from the airplane after they landed--it seems their gate was occupied, the outbound departure delayed waiting for a crew, and all other gates in PHL which could accommodate a 321 were either iced over or occupied. She said later it was about 1 hour and 45 minutes on the ground before they got a gate, and that when the captain called ramp control, no one seemed to care that they were still waiting. Welcome to PHL.

So two whole days plus after a storm and there are still gates unusable????

Now she just sent me an email a couple of minutes ago that adding insult to injury they have waited 80 minutes or more for bags AFTER getting off the plane. She has said the passengers are causing a scene and demanding a manager to explain the delay.

And the company line is PHL is getting better???

To be continued...........

I wish someone could tell me what gives all you people the right to come here and complain about other peoples jobs and company. Please, each of you whining and moaning people, tell all of us where you work. Then we can find fault with all of your employers and complain, complain, complain. And don't act like there is nothing to complain about, we all know every company has it's share of problems!

 

[Art at ISP]

Informed1,

Obviously you are uninformed. I subsequently stated I was making a comment with a question, not complaining. I was trying to find out why this happened, and was not complaining THAT it happened.

All it took was an explanation, of which it appears we got.

You are now free to rant on someone else......

 

[Travels2mch]

I wish someone could tell me what gives all you people the right to come here and complain about other peoples jobs and company.

Maybe when you pay a lot of money to a company, you get the right to complain.

 

[JAXPax]

I wonder what US Air pilots and FAs would say if scheduling called and said, "Oh, thank goodness you answered the phone. We are calling everyone because we have no clue about where you are or how much time you have flown. Please tell us."

I have to say that US OCC is more on the ball than most who operate in the east. Overflying hubs with the last bank of the day to get crews and planse where they need to be for the next morning is one example. US doesn't have to pull a jetBlue and cancel all flights to a bunch of stations (I heard that jetBlue shut down the entire EMB-190 operation) for several days in order to get things going.

I don't think jetBlue has flown to Jacksonville since about Tuesday. I know on Wednesday they cancelled everything to NYC. US Airways, whose gates are across from jetBlue, were operating to the northeast, just about 5 hours behind schedule. Oh, and they sold a few tickets to pissed off jetBlue passengers to get as far as Philly where they could try and take the train.

 

[SS255]

I'm back at PHL (after a weekend without internet access), waiting to board my flight back to LAX. Art gave a very good overview of the situation on Friday night, but I do want to add that our flight crew was fantastic! The captain tried his best to give us updates as he received them, but it was fairly obvious from his announcements that he was getting the runaround! There were a bunch of folks who were connecting on to MUC and CDG, and I really hope they made their flights. It sounded like the planes were being held for them, and the CDG folks were advised to run to A West! I liken the situation to the boy who cried "wolf": When he was telling the truth, nobody believed him!

What frustrated me far more than the 1:40 on the tarmac was the situation at baggage claim. They made 2 announcements about 30 minutes after our flight landed that the bags would be out "shortly," and "we apologize for the delay." In the second announcement they said that the off-loaded was broken. After waiting around for an hour and still no bags, people started to storm the baggage desk, and demanded to speak to a manager. The woman behind the desk said she had no authority to call a manager. Huh??? She directed us to the baggage office, where an extremely long line formed very quickly. At one point one man from our flight stormed out of the baggage office and announced that they claimed to not know where the bags from our flight were. The whole thing was just so incredibly mismanaged I cannot even adequately put it into words. The bags FINALLY started coming off the belt at 10:45PM, and we had parked at the gate at 9PM. Mine was one of the last to arrive, of course...and I finally made it out of PHL at 11PM.

I just checked the monitors, and flights seem to be running fairly on time out of PHL today, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I have stress-free flight home!!

 

[AstroLounge]

Man-oh-Man, At least US Airways apparently isn't having the problems jetBlue is current having with its customers and having to call security. Reading the jetBlue message board sound like jetBlue is have a major melt down.

http://www.usaviation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33727

And I would have thought the all leather interiors, Live TV and Blue Corn Tortilla Chips would have made people OVERLOOK the inconvenience Oh, almost forgot their little moniker.....Sincerely, JetBlue Airways. (People need to realize IT WAS A B-I-G Storm!)

 

[USPHLElite]

If the passengers can make it to the Airport so can the employees! Everyone knew a storm was coming, maybe it was the cities fault but you can believe me US will get all the blame. If I recall didn't US have one of the best flight ops Centers?

 

[Informed1]

UM it's still the United States and this board is open to everyone and their opinions no matter how harsh or wrongheaded they may be. I'd love to, but I have a company ethics policy I must adhere to and since they treat me with dignity & respect I'll respectfully decline. Well I would welcome that as it gives us a chance to improve. See where I work ideas are shared freely with the goal of constant improvements, Perhsp that why we had nearly three times the profit of US on slightly higher sales! Indeed they do. How the company addresses those problems whether customer or employee related is the mark of a great company. That's why mine constantly ranks among the 50 "most Admired" and "Best places to work" surveys. It's also why US Airways continually ranks near the bottom of the Fortune 500 in surveys that rate public perception and management acumen.

For the life of me, and everyone else i run into that knows you here, we can't figure out why you continue to patronize US. It is so obvious that you hate the company, so why do you continue to give it revenue. Nevertheless, US also has an ethics policy that prohibits employees from mentioning that they work for the company in the public, particuarly on the internet. That is the reason why we most of us do not disclose who we are. My point is this, we all know this company does a terrible job as of late of running its operation, taking care of its customers and employees, etc. I would just like to know how all of you who don't work here would feel if there was a public website where YOUR company was constantly rediculed and slammed for every single problem. I would venture to say you would not like it very much. Like I said above, i know this company has problems and just like everyone who works here I too would like to see it the old way, when things were better. But the reality is it is not! And our current management does not seem, as this particular time, to care. No matter what though, my paychecks, my livelyhood, comes from US Airways, and until that is no longer the case, I will continue to be somewhat protective and loyal to the company resenting all of you who have nothing good to ever say about anything. And remember, I too have a right to post here and say whatever I please.

 

[Itestwell]

For the life of me, and everyone else i run into that knows you here, we can't figure out why you continue to patronize US. It is so obvious that you hate the company, so why do you continue to give it revenue. Nevertheless, US also has an ethics policy that prohibits employees from mentioning that they work for the company in the public, particuarly on the internet. That is the reason why we most of us do not disclose who we are. My point is this, we all know this company does a terrible job as of late of running its operation, taking care of its customers and employees, etc. I would just like to know how all of you who don't work here would feel if there was a public website where YOUR company was constantly rediculed and slammed for every single problem. I would venture to say you would not like it very much. Like I said above, i know this company has problems and just like everyone who works here I too would like to see it the old way, when things were better. But the reality is it is not! And our current management does not seem, as this particular time, to care. No matter what though, my paychecks, my livelyhood, comes from US Airways, and until that is no longer the case, I will continue to be somewhat protective and loyal to the company resenting all of you who have nothing good to ever say about anything. And remember, I too have a right to post here and say whatever I please.

I think Piney (and others) post so frequently and dramatically on here because management reads these threads often. I don't think it is as much a slap in our face or an attempt to demean us as it is a concerted extra effort to get Tempe to L-I-S-T-E-N. I used to get offended too, but now, I just sit back and nod. Pour a cocktail, it helps ..(kidding!!)

 

[SKY HIGH]

Holly's comments say it all (planebuzz.com)

It's the Weather, Stupid

Monday Texas was hit with nasty storms. Monday night we had tornadoes here in New Orleans. Yesterday, Illinois, Ohio, and other states north of a line running east/west across the country's eastern portion were hit with snow. Today much of the northeast is having to deal with ice and/or snow.

One report we saw last night had Washington National Airport running out of deicing fluid.

Great timing.

With a potential ice storm approaching the DC area, we here at PlaneBusiness were forced to take some preventative action ourselves last night. Our web editor lives in the DC area, and concerned that he might be without power later today, or tomorrow, he had to, in effect, set up blank templates for us to use for this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. Just in case.

Meanwhile, I've stopped counting the number of flight cancellations this latest slap from Mother Nature has caused. But if this pattern of weather continues for the rest of the month, I don't know how we won't see the negative after-effects reflected in some airlines' first quarter earnings results.

Speaking of those deadly tornadoes that ripped through this part of the world Monday night -- we are okay. The damage was south of us -- as at least one, and possibly two F2 tornadoes touched down on a southwest/northeast path.

Unfortunately over 200 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, and one woman was killed. Why more people weren't killed is a mystery. For those familiar with the New Orleans area, parts of the West Bank, Uptown, and Gentilly were the main areas affected.

Unfortunately many folks who suffered damage were, like the woman who was killed, still working to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina. In fact the woman who was killed was living in a FEMA trailer next to her house. She was waiting on news about a potential payment from the "Road Home" program to finish the repair work on her home.

The tornado destroyed her half-finished home, and tossed the trailer she was living in with her daughter down the street like a small toy.

For a winter that started out fairly tame, this one has certainly turned nasty the last couple of weeks.


only stating opinions

 

[Phoenix]

Man-oh-Man, At least US Airways apparently isn't having the problems jetBlue is

Evidently JetBlues is STILL having trouble.

Here in Tampa the radio station is playing the recording that JetBlue customers are hearing when they call.

180 more flights canceled tomorrow (Monday) JetBlue is getting great press on the airwaves.

I wonder if SouthWest owns our radio station?!