I arrived at PHL 1 hr before flight 1421 on a saturday afternoon at 130pm. The check in hall was sparse and the security line at the B concourse was almost nonexistant. I went to the First Class self-check in line, quickly printed my boarding pass and waited for an agent to retrieve my baggage tag. There were a few other passengers also waiting for their tags, but nobody was manning the station. I looked down about 5 stations and noticed an agent standing there with no customers, looking straight out at the roadway in a slight daze, but we caught his attention and he came down to assist us, albeit with an indifferent attitude. He wasn't rude in any way, mind you, but he did not seem to mind that we were waiting there. So much for the automated kiosks. What good are they if you still need a human to process the baggage tag(s)??
My bag went into the big black hole at about 145pm and I proceeded up to the gate for an on-time departure. The terminal was bare. I love traveling on Saturday afternoons! In fact, the only gate with any crowd at all was B11 where my flight was to depart. Boarding commenced at 215pm and it was all very orderly. The flight was fully booked, although just the day before I checked on seatcounter.com and saw a lot of available classes with 7's in the buckets, including A and F. Then the morning of the flight they were all zero'd out. I boarded just at the end of the zone 1 call as the zone 2 pax were queing up.
I took my seat in row 3. While still on the ground, the FA came around and took our meal orders. I'm glad I was sitting there because I got the last Chicken/Bowtie pasta dish (she apologized to the next passenger in row 4 for only having the turkey/sausage calzone available). But with 14 more seats behind me, and the plane still on the ground with the door open, why didn't they go and ask for catering to get more of the Chx/Pasta meal? Why did they run out so quickly before they took orders from less than half the cabin??
Then we hear an announcement that basically says "would so-and-so please come forward. We need your seat so please exit the aircraft". I saw an individual get up in seat 1F. Don't know if they were an employee, improperly upgraded, or whatever. But why humiliate a passenger? Didn't the agent know the seat # of the person to just go quietly ask them to get up? I'm still scratching my head at why they took the person off, but I guess it could be for any number of reasons.
Out my window I could see a small gathering of baggage handlers hovering around the baggage door directly below me. One was passionately pointing and motioning his hands towards the baggage hull, as if to be scolding one of his colleagues. There was also still an entire cart of bags to load in, so it didn't appear we were going anywhere just yet. Then we heard an announcement advising that they are "still in an oversell situation" and needed one more passenger to give up their seat. In exchange, the announcement enthusiasm continued, the passenger was to get a wonderful free roundtrip flight within the US, Canada and Caribbean and would be put on the next PHL-LAX flight in less than 2 hours. Someone in the back rang the bell before the announcement could even finish. I wanted to advise this passenger that she should ask for a credit voucher since the RTFC is almost useless, considering the tight capacity controls. But she darted to the front faster than a jackrabbit, giving me no opportunity. Oh well...she'll soon learn.
The cabin doors were all secured at 256pm - 16 minutes behind schedule. Will the DOT record this flight as late, or was my watch a minute off and it will go in the books as on time? The safety video began anyway as the FA's handed out a single bottle of water to each F passenger. Push back was at 300pm on the button. We taxied out to runway 27L for an immediate departure. Once airborne, it was business as usual. The bag of peanuts/pretzels came about 25 minutes into the flight, along with my plastic, fraternity party size cup of Charonay. The Chicken with bowtie pasta dish came around 40 minutes into the flight with the plastic silverware. I've flown every other domestic airline in the last year or so and can't figure out why US is still using all plastic utensils. I have to say that while the presentation and food was pretty darn tasty, it was only lukewarm. I could smell them warming it up previously, so it would have been nice to have it within a minute or so out of the oven so I could eat it hot. But it was still good and I practically swallowed the plate.
The 2 FA's working our cabin were very good about keeping my pastic cup full and collecting the trays from people when they finished their meal. I didn't see any of them ever retreat to their seat to catch up on a book or gossip about the latest company rumors. The chocoloate cheesecake dessert and stawberry came around with good timing after I finished the meal, too. Throughout the flight the FAs didn't stop working the cabin once. I have nothing but kudos to their efforts.
The flight, despite pulling out of the gate about 20 minutes late, still arrive 20 minutes early. The Captain commented that the big storm system in the central part of the country really caused some crazy head/tail winds. We started out with them on the nose, then there were none, then they were on our tail. During this time of year, it's more common to have heavy headwinds on the East-West routes.
I give an A to the crew on board. They were great. I give a C to the in-flight services folks who sit in cubicles. Will you go back to the linens, glassware and silverware already?!? It totally cheapens the product when you bring it out on cafeteria style trays. I've heard that some of these things are coming back, but it's been 6 years since this stuff was pulled and the excuses of saving pennies are over when you made one of the higher net profits of any other last year.
My bag went into the big black hole at about 145pm and I proceeded up to the gate for an on-time departure. The terminal was bare. I love traveling on Saturday afternoons! In fact, the only gate with any crowd at all was B11 where my flight was to depart. Boarding commenced at 215pm and it was all very orderly. The flight was fully booked, although just the day before I checked on seatcounter.com and saw a lot of available classes with 7's in the buckets, including A and F. Then the morning of the flight they were all zero'd out. I boarded just at the end of the zone 1 call as the zone 2 pax were queing up.
I took my seat in row 3. While still on the ground, the FA came around and took our meal orders. I'm glad I was sitting there because I got the last Chicken/Bowtie pasta dish (she apologized to the next passenger in row 4 for only having the turkey/sausage calzone available). But with 14 more seats behind me, and the plane still on the ground with the door open, why didn't they go and ask for catering to get more of the Chx/Pasta meal? Why did they run out so quickly before they took orders from less than half the cabin??
Then we hear an announcement that basically says "would so-and-so please come forward. We need your seat so please exit the aircraft". I saw an individual get up in seat 1F. Don't know if they were an employee, improperly upgraded, or whatever. But why humiliate a passenger? Didn't the agent know the seat # of the person to just go quietly ask them to get up? I'm still scratching my head at why they took the person off, but I guess it could be for any number of reasons.
Out my window I could see a small gathering of baggage handlers hovering around the baggage door directly below me. One was passionately pointing and motioning his hands towards the baggage hull, as if to be scolding one of his colleagues. There was also still an entire cart of bags to load in, so it didn't appear we were going anywhere just yet. Then we heard an announcement advising that they are "still in an oversell situation" and needed one more passenger to give up their seat. In exchange, the announcement enthusiasm continued, the passenger was to get a wonderful free roundtrip flight within the US, Canada and Caribbean and would be put on the next PHL-LAX flight in less than 2 hours. Someone in the back rang the bell before the announcement could even finish. I wanted to advise this passenger that she should ask for a credit voucher since the RTFC is almost useless, considering the tight capacity controls. But she darted to the front faster than a jackrabbit, giving me no opportunity. Oh well...she'll soon learn.
The cabin doors were all secured at 256pm - 16 minutes behind schedule. Will the DOT record this flight as late, or was my watch a minute off and it will go in the books as on time? The safety video began anyway as the FA's handed out a single bottle of water to each F passenger. Push back was at 300pm on the button. We taxied out to runway 27L for an immediate departure. Once airborne, it was business as usual. The bag of peanuts/pretzels came about 25 minutes into the flight, along with my plastic, fraternity party size cup of Charonay. The Chicken with bowtie pasta dish came around 40 minutes into the flight with the plastic silverware. I've flown every other domestic airline in the last year or so and can't figure out why US is still using all plastic utensils. I have to say that while the presentation and food was pretty darn tasty, it was only lukewarm. I could smell them warming it up previously, so it would have been nice to have it within a minute or so out of the oven so I could eat it hot. But it was still good and I practically swallowed the plate.
The 2 FA's working our cabin were very good about keeping my pastic cup full and collecting the trays from people when they finished their meal. I didn't see any of them ever retreat to their seat to catch up on a book or gossip about the latest company rumors. The chocoloate cheesecake dessert and stawberry came around with good timing after I finished the meal, too. Throughout the flight the FAs didn't stop working the cabin once. I have nothing but kudos to their efforts.
The flight, despite pulling out of the gate about 20 minutes late, still arrive 20 minutes early. The Captain commented that the big storm system in the central part of the country really caused some crazy head/tail winds. We started out with them on the nose, then there were none, then they were on our tail. During this time of year, it's more common to have heavy headwinds on the East-West routes.
I give an A to the crew on board. They were great. I give a C to the in-flight services folks who sit in cubicles. Will you go back to the linens, glassware and silverware already?!? It totally cheapens the product when you bring it out on cafeteria style trays. I've heard that some of these things are coming back, but it's been 6 years since this stuff was pulled and the excuses of saving pennies are over when you made one of the higher net profits of any other last year.
