Last for Takeoff: Philadelphia

[Travelpro72]

And people said that USAirways got a bad rap in Pittsburgh.

 

[wtfphlflyluv]

Sorry about the screenname! I made it up in two seconds without thinking. I am completely objective when it comes to airlines as a customer; no loyalties to anybody. As for being an objective reporter, well, I work for a magazine, and my point of view is naturally going to come through in what I write.

I do not mind US Airways as a customer, especially in recent months as the customer service seems to have gotten a lot better. I also never check baggage, ever, as a rule. I generally stay away from PHL at all, like I said, to fly from Baltimore.

And of course I sympathize with US Airways. Watching the airline fight for its survival has been painful and sort of inspiring. I mean, that probably sounds ridiculous. But Pittsburgh has a much better airport, period. I am sure you all read this story:



Copyright 2006 The Arizona Republic
All Rights Reserved
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)

April 30, 2006 Sunday Final chaser Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1D

LENGTH: 2262 words

HEADLINE: 'FIXING PHILADELPHIA';
SUCCESS OF US AIRWAYS COULD HINGE ON IMPROVEMENTS AT DYSFUNCTIONAL, GRIMY HUB

BYLINE: By Dawn Gilbertson, The Arizona Republic

BODY:

Anthony Mule was trying to decide where to begin the tour of US Airways'
operations at Philadelphia International Airport, Concourse B or C.

"It doesn't matter," he finally said, "because they both are ugly."

Mule, the Tempe airline's senior vice president of customer service, settled
on C.

First stop: Gate C17. An entire row of gray chairs had foam spilling from the
seats. The wall-to-wall industrial carpeting was covered in stains. The vents
were filthy.

It wasn't one of the worst gate areas, either, Mule said matter-of-factly.

and so on

--
So PHL has a reputation. No one is going to deny that. And our role, as a consumer magazine, is to explain why that is and how they can get cope with common airport problemms so their flying experiences can be easier, faster and more enjoyable. I am just looking for insight.

Also, thanks for elucidating the hub stuff. I was under the impression that Philadelphia exercised more power in the matter.

 

[mbmbbost]

I hate the concessions mostly, except those in the international terminal. The burger kings with the Studio 54 lines are my favorite.

Everyone seems to loathe the parking situation, the baggage situation, the taxi queues.

Anyone have anything else they like or hate?

post here or email me at [email protected]

A

TSA at PHL must have scraped the bottom of the barrel for its workforce. It strikes me as the worst I've seen anywhere I travel.

 

[wtfphlflyluv]

TSA at PHL must have scraped the bottom of the barrel for its workforce. It strikes me as the worst I've seen anywhere I travel.

That's interesting. I just flew through BNA with a friend and we were both stopped for extra screening. The employees were so nice, brisk, and professional I was shocked. I am rarely stopped for extra screening in Philly.

Another thing: don't know if you guys know anything about UA but I was on a (very delayed, natch) DIRECT PHL-LAX flight just a week and a half ago, with a stop in Denver, and in Denver after the Denver passengers had deplaned and we were waiting for the LAX-bound passengers to board, an FA casually asked where we were going. "LA," we said, at which point she said, "Oh, you'll have to get off. This flight is going to wichita now." so we left the plane and scrambled to the next LAX-bound flight, at which point we were told -- 30 mins before takeoff! -- that the flight was closed! We had to wait for another flight. there were 16 of us.

What I'm wondering is: do you think this last-minute route rejiggering was in any way the fault of PHiladelphia and its chronic delays? or was it just a last cost saver, or what?

 

[OldGuyinPA]

If Philly was so important..why didn't Crellin address it a long time ago. Doug needs to realize that Al isn't the guy and that he's had more than enough chances to make Philly right.

If the new USAirways is going to survive .... Some people will have to go....

 

[sharktooth]

TSA at PHL must have scraped the bottom of the barrel for its workforce. It strikes me as the worst I've seen anywhere I travel.

You really don't travel very much, do you?

Most of the TSA must conform to rules drawn up by the moron in the whitehouse and the moron's staff. Those cretins, while diminishing any kind of security, have exposed our transpostation system to the most casual of anarchists.

The rest of the world is more than cognizant of the problems and provide more security for less harrassment than anywhere in the US.

When the "common citizen" revolts, then and only then will common sense re-establish itself. Until then, consider that most any "terrorist" can easily penetrate "our" security system.

 

[ringmaruf]

A few things here... If the company claims that the transcon flights are money losers why pull them off the claimed money making carribean flights do to transcon? THAT makes no sense.

Simple. The new management thinks that they're Gods and can succeed and make the transcons profitable, even though they were bleeding money before, and everyone talked about how much they saved by pulling down the flights. (And if you look at the recent Lehman Brothers report, transcon profitability for US was up a *ton* last year in nearly every market, though most markets still lost money. Lehman estimated CLT-West went to a $8.6 million loss from a $27.3 million loss, PHL-West went to a $16.2 million loss from a $47.0 million loss, and PIT-West went to a $2.2 million profit from a $19.0 million loss. Huge improvements, $70 million better.)

But the guys in Tempe think they know better, and they can succeed where others failed. Just like their BOS/JFK transcons...

 

[mbmbbost]

You really don't travel very much, do you?

Most of the TSA must conform to rules drawn up by the moron in the whitehouse and the moron's staff. Those cretins, while diminishing any kind of security, have exposed our transpostation system to the most casual of anachists.

Enough travel on US to be CP for the last four or five years anyway...The whole TSA thing gets on my nerves, but I've not been to any other large airport and been as unimpressed with them. Aside from whether TSA is effective or not, they could at least try and pretend to be professional and courteous in PHL. The crew I dealt with there Friday night was dreadful. If I weren't so annoyed, disgusted and offended, it'd be laughable that they're supposed to promote security.

 

[Travels2mch]

they could at least try and pretend to be professional and courteous in PHL. The crew I dealt with there Friday night was dreadful

That says it all!

 

[PA18]

PA18 -

It is ashame to see someone like B6 being able to waltz in and pull market share is such an important airport.

MMY,

My point exactly. Thank you.

My frequent rants here about no US non-stops from the northeast to Florida are framed around one thing -- the Customer.

And US's resistance to taking them from where they live (where it's cold in the winter) to where they want to go (where it's warm in the winter) without making them go through someplace they don't want to go, thereby chasing them away to other airlines.

The other airlines seem to have no problem accomodating this most basic desire of the Customer. When any of my acquaintances fly from the snow to the sun, they do so on Southwest out of MHT, or JetBlue, Delta, or American out of BOS. Non-stop.

Those airlines realize that most people leaving the northeast in winter are headed to Florida or other warmer climes, and they offer them the means of getting there. (JetBlue can't add non-stops from BOS to Florida fast enough.)

As you so eloquently put it, it is indeed a shame to see the likes of a JetBlue "waltz in" and grab all that business from an airline who has had a presence in BOS forever (and who used to send full flights non-stop from BOS to PBI, FLL, TPA, and RSW -- the last being the Winter Headquarters of Red Sox Nation).

A guy walks into a Dunkin' Donuts and asks for a cup of black coffee. The counter person says, "Oh, we'll sell you a cup of coffee all right; but you have to have cream in it."

So the guy goes next door to McDonald's, and they say, "Sure, we'll sell you a cup of black coffee. Coming right up!"

(And in an attempt to entice the customer to buy the coffee the way they want to sell it to him, Dunkin' Donuts prices it at less than it costs to actually produce.)

Sure, US Airways will sell you a ticket from Boston to Orlando. However...

The subject of this thread is PHL airport congestion. And I agree with our fellow poster who suggested that the congestion unnecessarily inconveniences the very valuable customer base that lives in the PHL metro area.

I mean, is it really necessary to send a narrow-body aircraft from BOS to PHL every hour -- especially when more than half the customers on the flight are not going to PHL? I would think that the business flyers who are traveling between those two cities could be accomodated with a half-dozen flights a day, scheduled around prime business hours, with maybe a "catch-all" flight later in the evening.

Again, I realize that the merger was only consummated in September. Come next winter, however, if US once again insists on sending most of its customers to an airport that is not their final destination, and exposing them to all the pitfalls that lie therein (misconnects, lost baggage, oversold flights out of the hub, etc.) I, for one, will be very discouraged.

 

[PhillyAir5]

I enjoyed reading your last post, I can't argue with you on any of your points.

Maybe this will sound a little off base, but would it be feasible to shrink the amount of Express AC in and out of PHL and make more flights mainline? Why does there need to 5-6 flights daily to ATL, MSP, CVG etc. (among others)? Would it not slow traffic to reduce flights and place them on larger AC?

 

[BoeingBoy]

PhillyAir,

Absolutely, except for the small matter of not having any extra larger airplanes. Putting larger planes on one route means taking them off another route. So for now we're stuck with the fleet (mainline & Express) that previous management left us with.

Possibly, once we integrate operations we can get better utilization thus creating more opportunities to do exactly what you propose.

Jim

 

[Travelpro72]

naaaaah we need to express everything out and MUST connect all traffic through Philly, MUST connect all traffic through Philly.