Trip report PHL-SJU-PHL

usairways85

Senior
May 18, 2003
262
0
Flew down to SJU Thursday 4/12 and back to PHL on 4/15 lets say i had some interesting experiences.

4/12
I was on the 5:30pm departure to SJU and early in the morning my flight was already listed as an hour late. There was some bad rainstorms on Wednesday and Thursday morning so i just accepted it. Arrived at the airport to a zoo at the US ticket counter. I then realized i probably could have check in online since i had no checked bags but too late now. I had booked through a travel agency so i quickly asked an agent if i could use the self service kiosks. Apparently a few flts had been cancelled and people had no idea where to go to rebook. The general ticketing line had to be 1-2 hours long, thankfully the kiosk line was only 10 minutes. Luckly had no problems with the kiosk machine but i saw several people stand there in frustration. I was quickly on my way and passed security rather quickly.

Took my time getting to my gate in A as i knew it was already delayed and sure enough by the time i got there it was now delayed 2 hours. They made us check in and a nice gate agent re issued me a seat and gave me an exit row, i was very thankful for this. It was an A320 from PVD and arrived at 7:20pm over 2 hours late. Surprisingly they cleaned the aircraft rather quickly and started boarding shortly before 8. We were all ready at about 8:25 when the captain tells us that the aircraft was incorrectly fueled and they will have to refuel. We finally left the gate at 8:45 over 3 hours late. We sat in line for take off and finally wheels up at 9:15. It was nice that the pilot continuously informed us of the situation (fuel and ground delays). We also waited a few minutes because our first office just arrived on a BOS flt. What happened with our original FO, put on another flt? The crew came around once with drinks and then for with the meals for sale. Nothing special with the service.

4/15
Once again check in was a zoo. This time i was with my family and we were on the A333 back to PHL. I was a little worried as the day before this flt was downgraded to a 762 and 8 hours late. We arrived 2 hrs before our flt. It looked like most of the problems arose because people were still checking in for flts that were departing in less than an hour plus the A333 flt was sold out. So then they took those paxs first. But they still looked understaffed and it appeared none of the kiosks worked. Luckly my dad is Silver preferred so we got in the preferred line. However the line pretty much went no where for 30 minutes until the 8 people in line complained enough they finally started taking us. By the time we checked in and got through security it was just about time to board. We boarded and departed ontime but the pilot announced that because of weather(noreaster) we may be delayed when we got closer to PHL. However we arrived in PHL only 30 minutes late. The FA's were very nice and came around with drinks twice and to collect trash numerous times. One thing i didn't understand was despite everyone having a monitor in front of them, a FA read the safety instructions as opposed to playing the video. Are these crews the TA crews?

All in all, flight crews were very good but ticketing agents were somewhat less helpful.
 
On the A330 there are no "public address" monitors (visible to entire cabin), only in-seat monitors. Since there is no way of knowing whether every PTV is working during safety video, a live demo is required. Some carriers with PTVs also have PA monitors for the safety video, progress reports, etc.

I was surprised US didnt take the option for the drop down monitors on the A330 since it seems alot thought went into the US Airbuses (mostly ruined now...) They would be smart to add them, for the safety vid, PTV tutorial, arrival videos/immigration info, and of course all the duty free and more advertising they could ever want without cutting into entertainment.

US does not have "transatlantic" crews. US flight attendants (aside from the east and west certificates) are thankfully "division-free" at the moment. The daily SJU turn on the A330 is referred to as the Menopause Missile though.
 
I have not flown US out of SJU in a few years but in talking to others and reading trip reports on other sites it sounds like the ticket counter lines at SJU are an ongoing problem that has been going on for years. From what I can determine it's not due to station mismanagement or the hard working SJU employees but just not enough staffing. Perhaps the ticket counter does not have room for more agents, usairways85 do you remember during your long wait in line if every ticket counter position was staffed ? Especially on Saturdays US has many flights all departing within a several hour period and it would probably be difficult to spread them out much more due to conx banks at CLT and PHL and the amount of hours it takes for an aircraft to make say a PHL-SJU-PHL roundtrip.

Regards

LGA777
 
US does not have "transatlantic" crews. US flight attendants (aside from the east and west certificates) are thankfully "division-free" at the moment. The daily SJU turn on the A330 is referred to as the Menopause Missile though.

But for crews to fly TA don't they have to have certain training and i would imagine seniority? Thus certain crews do fly TA?


From what I can determine it's not due to station mismanagement or the hard working SJU employees but just not enough staffing. Perhaps the ticket counter does not have room for more agents, usairways85 do you remember during your long wait in line if every ticket counter position was staffed ?

Regards

LGA777

I think it could be a bit understaffed as well as lack of counter space. They share a row of ticket counters with UA and then on the US side behind the counters is the big TSA bag screening machine. There is enough counter space for at least another 3-5 lines but there are none. The bag screening machine may be preventing the expansion of counter space.

Also your point about spacing the flts out is valid. Between 1pm-230pm on a Sunday afternoon 4 US flts depart to PHL, CLT, PIT, and IAD...the CLT flt being a 762 and PHL flt a A333 so needless to say a ton of people are trying to check in at once
 
But for crews to fly TA don't they have to have certain training and i would imagine seniority? Thus certain crews do fly TA?

No, anyone who is based in Philly (and I guess Charlotte?)is "international service trained"... which isn't any big deal these days, it's similar to the transcon service we had last time we hired. At some point when its all merged I assume everyone will recieve this in initial training like the grown-up airlines do. For now they just don't bother with the other bases because they don't have international flying.

International blocks are senior (hell, any type of block at all is senior, really)... it all depends on what people want to do. Some of the seniors love Shuttle, or the 737, or red-eyes, or one days... whatever fits thier lives. You may see some of the same faces on your flights but they are not any different than any other F/A. Someone working an international flight doesn't mean they are senior. I do an international at least once a month, whether its called from scheduling or picking up for extra time on my off days.

So no, there is no such thing as a "TA" crew.