It's been awhile since I spent any time on Flyertalk, but a posting over at FFocus made me aware of the following:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=756837
Well, I flew in F (actually a last minute paid A fare) on a west to east transcon yesterday flown by west crews and metal. Boarded the A320 and almost took my seat in 3A when I paused long enough to see that someone's kool-aid juice box had apparently exploded (yes, exploded) all over the window, the a/c walls, the seatback (2A), my seat cushion (3A) and the carpet. Oddly, it appeared fully dried when I touched it, so the a/c must've flown all day long like that (or longer, who knows?). This was no small spill, this would be the equivalent of shaking a can of soda for 20 seconds and then opening it up. Truly sprayed all over the place. I can't imagine what happened.
In any case, since the a/c cleaners didn't see fit to make ANY effort to clean this up, I asked the lead F/A for a handful of dampened paper towels so that I could make the place usable. Within 3 or 4 minutes, I'd scrubbed all but the most stubborn stains away. Unacceptable by any standard. I wish I'd had my digital camera with me.......
Anyhoo -- we're soon told that the a/c's APU unit is inop and how sorry they are that the a/c is super warm. They went so far as to advise us after 25 minutes in truly sweltering heat (I'm guessing about 82-85F on the plane folks) that it would "get worse before it got better." That was comforting. Folks were fanning themselves and asking for ice water. Unacceptable by any standard.
Flight takes off and the another F/A comes around for drink orders. I notice that one of his eyes is patched. Minutes later I see him coming out of the lav with a handful of tissues dabbing and pressing against his now unpatched eye. Apparently, his eye is draining. Very nice. So glad to be flying US/HP again. Within another minute or so, the eye is repatched and I'll add that HE DID NOT WASH HIS HANDS BEFORE HE SET OFF TO BEGIN DRINK SERVICE IN THE REAR. Wow. Unacceptable by any standard.
Movie was Hairspray and, even though I'd seen it before, I loved it just as much this time around as I did the first time. Movie and sound quality was good. Nice way to spend almost 2 hours.
Lunch was the bowtie pasta option and -- mind bogglingly -- another Calzone! Didn't the company issue a press release back in the mid summer of this year acknowledging that they had finally realized that NO ONE likes those damn calzones??!?!? I'm serious here -- when the company first announced the improvement plans for domestic F, there was a sentence about recognizing that no one wanted to eat another calzone. Any way, by the time the F/A got to me in 3A the only thing left was the calzone. To add insult to injury, it was a MEATBALL CALZONE. Who on earth considers a meatball calzone to be first class cuisine? I don't expect aisleside carved chateaubriand, but a meatball calzone is about as Sam's Club as it gets. Yuck. And, as usual, it was heated to a lukewarm 120F. Damn. Salad was small, but good. Four Points Pie (not identified as such by the F/A) was good.
The F/A with the leaky patched eye is now spending some time in the front galley and is frequently wiping his nose on his hand and on his sleeve. I saw this about a dozen times. Thanks for the memories.
Finally, we land in PHL and this is when things get really fun. Amazingly, there was a ground crew in place to marshall our a/c to the gate as we arrived just about 30 minutes late. There were numerous (I'd guess about 10 or so) pax who were rushing to get to the MAD and CDG Europe flights over in Terminal A who were watching their 45 minute connection time dwindle fast. Many of them pushed to the front of F with the blessing of the other pax -- we all wanted them to make their long haul flights. The lead F/A keeps standing at the door peering out the little window...... five minutes, then 7 minutes pass....... At last, a gate agent comes barreling down the jetway, knocks on the door and then opens it from the outside. The lead F/A has a total fit and yells (not kidding here -- YELLS) at the agent that he's "not supposed to do that when the engines are still running!!" at which point she grabs the door back from the agent and CLOSES THE A/C DOOR again to the great chagrin of the international connecting pax who know they have a 4 mile walk to their A gates. A total bru-haha erupts with many of the pax as they're fearing missing their flights as a operations dispute ensues with an east ground crew and a west flight crew. Lots of raised voices on both the part of the pax and the crew. Not nice. More time passes now (door still closed) as the F/A now announces in a loud voice meant for the captain that the enraged gate agent has NOW LEFT THE JETBRIDGE and gone back into the terminal. Pax on the plane really get revved up now. The captain apparently calls in gate supervisors and another gate agent and they arrive within about another 3 or 4 minutes to let off the furious folks about to miss their connections.
In all my years of travel, I'd not encountered a ground incident anything like what I did last night. I never thought I'd see a F/A grab an opened fuselage door from the gate agent and shut it again as she was shouting at him.
Some will read this post and pigeonhole me as a US berater. That's just not fair and it's not true. I left out the part about the boarding passes I received at my originating airport.....when I got to TSA with my picture ID in hand, the TSA guy looked at it for a long time and then told me that the name on the ID didn't match my ticket. I turned it around and looked and -- lo and behold -- the name was NOT mine at all. I had been given someone else's tickets completely! As I snaked out of the line and back out the entrance to get the right tickets, the TSA agent stationed at the front of the line looked at me sternly -- I told her I needed to rectify a ticket error. She replied, "Let me guess, USAIRWAYS, right?!? They screw everything up here."
Is there any hope for this carrier, or is it simply doomed to self destruct?
For those not aware, the September 2007 DOT statistics were released last week. USAIRWAYS came in dead last among major carriers in customer complaints. Did the company acknowledge their weaknesses and continued operational failures? NO! They bragged that this was the best posting they've had since February and a 50% improvement since then. Remember now, they came in dead last.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must point out that each of my checked bags arrived in good shape, non-pilfered, and not wet. For that, I am deeply grateful.
__________________
JET PIEDMONT
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=756837
Well, I flew in F (actually a last minute paid A fare) on a west to east transcon yesterday flown by west crews and metal. Boarded the A320 and almost took my seat in 3A when I paused long enough to see that someone's kool-aid juice box had apparently exploded (yes, exploded) all over the window, the a/c walls, the seatback (2A), my seat cushion (3A) and the carpet. Oddly, it appeared fully dried when I touched it, so the a/c must've flown all day long like that (or longer, who knows?). This was no small spill, this would be the equivalent of shaking a can of soda for 20 seconds and then opening it up. Truly sprayed all over the place. I can't imagine what happened.
In any case, since the a/c cleaners didn't see fit to make ANY effort to clean this up, I asked the lead F/A for a handful of dampened paper towels so that I could make the place usable. Within 3 or 4 minutes, I'd scrubbed all but the most stubborn stains away. Unacceptable by any standard. I wish I'd had my digital camera with me.......
Anyhoo -- we're soon told that the a/c's APU unit is inop and how sorry they are that the a/c is super warm. They went so far as to advise us after 25 minutes in truly sweltering heat (I'm guessing about 82-85F on the plane folks) that it would "get worse before it got better." That was comforting. Folks were fanning themselves and asking for ice water. Unacceptable by any standard.
Flight takes off and the another F/A comes around for drink orders. I notice that one of his eyes is patched. Minutes later I see him coming out of the lav with a handful of tissues dabbing and pressing against his now unpatched eye. Apparently, his eye is draining. Very nice. So glad to be flying US/HP again. Within another minute or so, the eye is repatched and I'll add that HE DID NOT WASH HIS HANDS BEFORE HE SET OFF TO BEGIN DRINK SERVICE IN THE REAR. Wow. Unacceptable by any standard.
Movie was Hairspray and, even though I'd seen it before, I loved it just as much this time around as I did the first time. Movie and sound quality was good. Nice way to spend almost 2 hours.
Lunch was the bowtie pasta option and -- mind bogglingly -- another Calzone! Didn't the company issue a press release back in the mid summer of this year acknowledging that they had finally realized that NO ONE likes those damn calzones??!?!? I'm serious here -- when the company first announced the improvement plans for domestic F, there was a sentence about recognizing that no one wanted to eat another calzone. Any way, by the time the F/A got to me in 3A the only thing left was the calzone. To add insult to injury, it was a MEATBALL CALZONE. Who on earth considers a meatball calzone to be first class cuisine? I don't expect aisleside carved chateaubriand, but a meatball calzone is about as Sam's Club as it gets. Yuck. And, as usual, it was heated to a lukewarm 120F. Damn. Salad was small, but good. Four Points Pie (not identified as such by the F/A) was good.
The F/A with the leaky patched eye is now spending some time in the front galley and is frequently wiping his nose on his hand and on his sleeve. I saw this about a dozen times. Thanks for the memories.
Finally, we land in PHL and this is when things get really fun. Amazingly, there was a ground crew in place to marshall our a/c to the gate as we arrived just about 30 minutes late. There were numerous (I'd guess about 10 or so) pax who were rushing to get to the MAD and CDG Europe flights over in Terminal A who were watching their 45 minute connection time dwindle fast. Many of them pushed to the front of F with the blessing of the other pax -- we all wanted them to make their long haul flights. The lead F/A keeps standing at the door peering out the little window...... five minutes, then 7 minutes pass....... At last, a gate agent comes barreling down the jetway, knocks on the door and then opens it from the outside. The lead F/A has a total fit and yells (not kidding here -- YELLS) at the agent that he's "not supposed to do that when the engines are still running!!" at which point she grabs the door back from the agent and CLOSES THE A/C DOOR again to the great chagrin of the international connecting pax who know they have a 4 mile walk to their A gates. A total bru-haha erupts with many of the pax as they're fearing missing their flights as a operations dispute ensues with an east ground crew and a west flight crew. Lots of raised voices on both the part of the pax and the crew. Not nice. More time passes now (door still closed) as the F/A now announces in a loud voice meant for the captain that the enraged gate agent has NOW LEFT THE JETBRIDGE and gone back into the terminal. Pax on the plane really get revved up now. The captain apparently calls in gate supervisors and another gate agent and they arrive within about another 3 or 4 minutes to let off the furious folks about to miss their connections.
In all my years of travel, I'd not encountered a ground incident anything like what I did last night. I never thought I'd see a F/A grab an opened fuselage door from the gate agent and shut it again as she was shouting at him.
Some will read this post and pigeonhole me as a US berater. That's just not fair and it's not true. I left out the part about the boarding passes I received at my originating airport.....when I got to TSA with my picture ID in hand, the TSA guy looked at it for a long time and then told me that the name on the ID didn't match my ticket. I turned it around and looked and -- lo and behold -- the name was NOT mine at all. I had been given someone else's tickets completely! As I snaked out of the line and back out the entrance to get the right tickets, the TSA agent stationed at the front of the line looked at me sternly -- I told her I needed to rectify a ticket error. She replied, "Let me guess, USAIRWAYS, right?!? They screw everything up here."
Is there any hope for this carrier, or is it simply doomed to self destruct?
For those not aware, the September 2007 DOT statistics were released last week. USAIRWAYS came in dead last among major carriers in customer complaints. Did the company acknowledge their weaknesses and continued operational failures? NO! They bragged that this was the best posting they've had since February and a 50% improvement since then. Remember now, they came in dead last.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must point out that each of my checked bags arrived in good shape, non-pilfered, and not wet. For that, I am deeply grateful.
__________________
JET PIEDMONT
