ok so we are bottom in everything but....

[john john]

Quality service isn't expensive.......It's priceless.

aka know as LCC and/or business casual

 

[EMBFA]

Enough of the pizza party stories for god's sake. I've seen this happen several times in my US career where the station ordered food when flights were delayed (usually at smaller stations). I personally have been both working and non-revving on flights delayed late into the night and gone on a plane to brew coffee and bring drinks and pillows and blankets... Just last month my fellow F/A and I wheeled a cart up the jetway during a weather delay in PVD or MHT or one of those places, and served the delayed passenger for our flight and a CLT flight (the CLT crew napped on thier plane). This type of thing happens all the time, it certainly wasn't invented by JetBlue or America West or whoever, and shouldn't be treated as a huge event.

I am a Philadelphia based flight attendant and I disagree with the reputation that our station personnell are given. PHL's perfect storm of problems are well-documented but I take exception at the constant insults hurled towards our customer service employees in PHL.

Much of this seems to be perpetuated by bitter PIT transplants and CLT crews- because, oh, yeah, all the agents in CLT are so friendly- they have thier share of jerks like any station. And don't forget there was never a delay or cancelation in PIT, the airport is beautiful and so are the twenty six people who still live there but it should be a major hub- give me a break. I find that out of our large operations, the PHL agents are the first to back us up. Maybe it's because I regard them as co-workers and many have become at least casual aquantainces over the years... The way some of our flight attendants speak to our agents is a disgrace, thinking they are superior or something as they pick up someone's trash off the floor... Offering a co-worker a cup of coffee or a bottle or water, or even a kind word can go a long way. If you open the door with your "I hate Philly and everyone here" attitude well then maybe that's why you get the "Philly attitude" back.

We have alot of really experienced agents in Philly. They deal with more in a day than some stations see in a year. I'd love to see some agent from an outstation that complains about PHL agents do a week at Philly International with the tools this airline provides them- they wouldn't make it through the first day! I don't think anyone in CHS or BUF rebooks a widebody full of people throughout the world with a computer system that barely recognizes any carriers or destinations outside the US. They certainly don't deal with angry mobs of misconnects or multiple flights scheduled out of one gate at the same time. Our agents that worked the international this summer deserve medals, dealing with those angry mobs hours into the night while thier kids are at the baby-sitters, having to get security to escort them out. And they show up again the next morning to do it all again, to take the brunt of a terribly planned operation and try to get everyone where they need to be. PHL has it's problems and of course some people just shouldn't be in a customer service field (this goes for MANY of our flight attendants too)- but I'm sick of people downing our co-workers in PHL who do thier best to hold this mess together every day.

F terminal? That's a different story. That's called minimum wage in a major, high-cost city... same goes for the new hire mainline ramp.

 

[leprechaun]

Amen sister. All this talk about how we should be giving this wonderful service. We do what we can with what's given to us. Bos is not as big as Phl, but we deal with the same problems everyday. Try working every night missing 25% of your staff. Watch the guys on the ramp working two man crews with no equipment. This summer was a horror show. Our late CLT flight had an ontime performance of about 17% for the month of July and August. PHL had constant ground stops, we fly hourly. Hundreds of angry customers every night. So don't critisize till you walk a mile in our shoes. Let's face it, or service stinks, but it's not the employees, it's US Airways lack of leadership that put us were we are.

 

[JoeDirt]

Amen sister. All this talk about how we should be giving this wonderful service. We do what we can with what's given to us. Bos is not as big as Phl, but we deal with the same problems everyday. Try working every night missing 25% of your staff. Watch the guys on the ramp working two man crews with no equipment. This summer was a horror show. Our late CLT flight had an ontime performance of about 17% for the month of July and August. PHL had constant ground stops, we fly hourly. Hundreds of angry customers every night. So don't critisize till you walk a mile in our shoes. Let's face it, or service stinks, but it's not the employees, it's US Airways lack of leadership that put us were we are.

Amen Brother

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

PIT had its moment in the sun and should look back fondly at the opportunity that they had. It was screwed up by USAir management that could not compete and had their head handed to them. It was good work while it lasted now it is time to realize PIT's (like STL,MEM...etc)true worth in the scheme of things. Uncle Ed is long gone. Maybe it was Uncle Ed who put this mess in motion.
We are all living the legacy of the short sighted decisions made from that era. It is ironic that PIT commuters depend on the airline "that is coming to kill you" to get to work. There is enough pain to go around and I would prefer to hear an end to the whining from PIT and join the rest of the displaced nation. We all know how hard your commute is.

 

[Pacemaker]

Good 'ol Uncle Ed. Cancelled the 767 options; ordered F100's.

 

[WCT]

I have had some problems in Philly, but it hasn't been with the staff. Believe it or not, most crews I pass in the terminal have smiles on there faces and say hello. The gate agents are very layed back. The problem is the air traffic control system in the East. And for some reason Philly gets the shaft everytime. Never, have I had such delays on ground more and frequent, and for hours on end. I travel JFK markets from PHX and LAS every month. I have had my share of nightmares here too, but never a ground stop like in Philly. I don't know if it is how the airport is set up, not enough runways or what, but I refuse to fly to Philly unless it is a late late arrival or redeye in.

 

[LCC_#1]

Not everything is perfect...but, I say...it's all about ATTITUDE!!! so

STOP HAVING AN ATTITUDE...AND GET AN ATTITUDE...A POSITIVE ONE THAT HELPS CUSTOMERS AND FELLOW CO-WORKERS...IN OTHER WORDS...

STOP BITCHING AND GET TO WORK!

Bambi, While I applaud your attempt to rally the troops thru a company lovefest, you must look over the "attitude" and see the real problems. A good attitude starts with the providing basic tools one needs. I can only speak for inflight. I must tell you that my attitude was at an all time high right after merger. DP DID seem like he cared and wanted to make this merger work. Somewhere along the way, upper management lost it's desire to make us the best and focused too much on the bottom line. I don't really mind that, but when you have the words US Airways on the side of the airplane and have had so for 2 years and you STILL haven't got ONE inflight product. There is a west inflight service and an east inflight service...same food, bev..different way of serving. And then there is FC. Hummm...For over a year now, we have been told on the East that glassware is coming back. It's in storage, but there seems to be 1000 excuses and delays to put it on. THIS IS NOT A CONSISTANT SERVICE FOR OUR FC CUSTOMERS!! I refuse to work FC unless by default. And we still keep telling the FF...It's coming. My "attitude" will change when MANAGEMENT follows thru on what they say and give us the tools we need.

In the meantime, I just go thru the motions. I really no longer care. I am not mean. I am not overly nice. I keep it professional with kindness limited to those that extend it to me or those I deem as cute. I am learning to give the "stepford stare" as I now know why those on the west do it so well. Underneathe it is F :censored: you! For the first time in 20 years I am really keeping my eyes and ears open to something new. The NEW Ameri...I mean US Airways has shown that it is incapable of running a company, cares NOT about her employees making a descent living and knows NOTHING about customer service or employee relations.

 

[jerseyfinn]

That's irrelevant in the whole scheme of things-----still no reason to force people to connect only through PHL----

Jimmy,

First off, you should consider changing your emotcon picture to Peter Pan. You know, the guy in green who lives in Never Never Land and flaps his arms and flies. He doesn't need to fly US.

To answer your churlish question. PHL and US have a long relationship stretching back decades ago with Allegheny etc. It of course reflects an entirely different era of flying. But the relationship between PHL and US is a long one. Equally obvious is the location and the size of PHL and most folks pretty much figure out why PHL is a hub and accept that reality. Why should US or any other airline take a 5 million plus metro hub like PHL and ship pax to PIT?

As to the operatioinal issues at PHL. That's a separate issue. US has deemphasized PIT. Then again I like someone's suggestion that US only promise a date of arrival and not a time when flying PHL.

OTOH, be happy with the 5 Superbowl rings that PIT has and PHL doesn't -- I say thist as a long-time Steelers fan who revels at the Steelers success from here in the heart of Eagles land.

Barry

 

[jerseyfinn]

. . . I am a Philadelphia based flight attendant and I disagree with the reputation that our station personnell are given. PHL's perfect storm of problems are well-documented but I take exception at the constant insults hurled towards our customer service employees in PHL.

I live here near PHL and agree with EMBFA. There's lots of very capable folks working here in PHL. Like any city or any job, there are losers here. But PHL has its good points. The problem with PHL is that it's PHL. When you encounter a PHL Neandertal lout with that special PHL attitude you know it, make no mistake about that. And this is what pisses off so many pax who are caught up in their own perils of flying only to encounter one of those surly Philly types who go through life with a negative attitude and spew their venom on others. Combine this genetic PHL attribute with an historic political culture of corruption and ineptitude, and you can finally understand why the City Of Phila has so mismanaged the entire airport in the past and why US, a hub city, gets an inordinant amount of crap splattered upon it.

Of course US has itself always failed to deal with Philly in the manner required and this exacerbates an already tough situation. These half-wits in Tempe thought they could rubber stamp their left coast persona upon the entire east side and they've found the going tough here, especially in PHL which is the anathama to touchy-feely PHX.

I'm not trying to slight westies here, but it is true that many of you are clueless as to what life in the east is like and I too doubt that some folks would not last a day trying to handle the gates and counters in the east where operations can tank in minutes due to weather or plain and simple US operational foul ups. But you still gotta look folks in the eye and deal with em as they try to salvage connections and deal with the BS dripping down upon them from the aviation ceiling.

In the meantime, I just go thru the motions. I really no longer care. I am not mean. I am not overly nice. I keep it professional with kindness limited to those that extend it to me or those I deem as cute. I am learning to give the "stepford stare" as I now know why those on the west do it so well. Underneathe it is F you!

You know LCC1, I can understand exactly what you're saying and feeling -- I kinda go through a little bit of that with my own job. But I gotta caution you to be careful with that approach as "good enough" is not the same thing as "doing the job right" and it's gonna blow up in your face some day. You can feel whatever way you want, but folks have still got to do the job right. Now this might indeed mean taking a deep breath, putting on a happy face & ignoring that real PITA pax who ain't gonna be happy with any airline or any circumstance. But you gotta be careful not to put that mask on for every distraught pax who is reeling from Tempe's crappy product and the lies and miscues which flow from it. A little kindness is sometimes met with . . . . kindness in return, even from folks you don't expect it of.

It's crucial that employees step up to the plate and do the job right in spite of Tempe ( I know that Tempe is not gonna reward you or pat you on the back ). But we're all flying in the same cabin and we're all getting screwed by these jackasses who think they know how to run this airline they have yet to fully merge. US in the east is closer to a breaking point than you can imagine. Your elites and many pax who fly with US no longer do so out of loyalty to the product ( though front liners who care continue to have a special place in my heart ). We fly out of habit and necessity no more no less ( how in the hell else do I get direct PHL flights to Europe ? ). So we're gonna be testy and we're gonna push back when you do.

So let's keep our heads up and just deal with what is in our capacity to deal with. Our eyeball to eyeball relationships with each other. Tempe has become an irrelevancy.

This may sound far-fetched. But you know, these idiots could suddenly decide that they're out of their depth and give up. Well, not give up, but what's to say that there's not an NFL-like multi-team trade in the future in which US merges or is acquired by another carrier and they in turn disgorge pieces of the east to someone else ( Virgin America? or another suitor looking for spare pieces). This aviation game is changing by the week, so don't get hung up in the missionary position. There's lots of ways to do this thing and we all may find the game has changed one day. Well of course I'm dreaming and wandering. BFD.

Barry

 

[FutureCEO]

Putting emotion aside on the both PHL and PIT side the real issue is an operational one.

Given PHL's operational constraints the key question to ask is how many flights should PHL have so as to capture all of the higher margin O&D traffic without needlessly shuffling connecting traffic through PHL. The consensus should be that PHL is not a connecting airport. The main assumption being that PHL is currently handling more flights than it should. The question is then where to redistribute these flights which are carrying connecting traffic. Could they be directed through CLT, in some cases yes, but the super majority of this traffic would likely best flow through PIT. I'm not suggesting PIT return to the days of 300 mainline/200 express but somewhere in the 175 mainline/150 express area. All I can do is speculate without real data but my theory is that the current network would be more profitable if Eastern flights were routed more effectively.

 

[LCC_#1]

This aviation game is changing by the week, so don't get hung up in the missionary position. There's lots of ways to do this thing and we all may find the game has changed one day. Well of course I'm dreaming and wandering. BFD.

Barry

Thanks Barry. I would never NOT do my job correctly...just burned out. I must say I'm glad summer is over. Nice to see flts not so crammed.

BTW, I NEVER get hung up on the missionary position.

 

[Adam]

I recall an America West flight that had a mechanical diversion to an express station. The station personnel came out, ordered 35 pizzas and broke out all the available sodas for the passsengers while they waited about 4 hours for a ferry flight to be diverted to pick them up. A bad situation made a little better by some folks with a can-do attitude.

I saw a story like this on the news but it wasn't America West, it was a Delta Airlines flight.

 

[jerseyfinn]

Thanks Barry. I would never NOT do my job correctly...just burned out. I must say I'm glad summer is over. Nice to see flts not so crammed.

Most of the frontliners are good folks tryin' to hold on LCC#1. We're all gettin' burned out by this cretin management team & sinking product. I guess the key is that we don't take it out on each other. If there is a golden lining in all of this, it's that the future is gonna be what the future is gonna be, and in that sense, neither we nor Tempe will call all of the shots. But someone is gonna at least walk away with a smile on their face.

BTW, I NEVER get hung up on the missionary position.

Nice to hear! I'd like to think I'm still Tarzan of the jungle chasing Jane ( err . . . Mrs. Jerseyfinn ), but it's gettin' a little harder to swing from the lights without spraining something :blush:

happy & safe flying,

Barry

 

[Jimmy Neutron]

Putting emotion aside on the both PHL and PIT side the real issue is an operational one.

Given PHL's operational constraints the key question to ask is how many flights should PHL have so as to capture all of the higher margin O&D traffic without needlessly shuffling connecting traffic through PHL. The consensus should be that PHL is not a connecting airport. The main assumption being that PHL is currently handling more flights than it should. The question is then where to redistribute these flights which are carrying connecting traffic. Could they be directed through CLT, in some cases yes, but the super majority of this traffic would likely best flow through PIT. I'm not suggesting PIT return to the days of 300 mainline/200 express but somewhere in the 175 mainline/150 express area. All I can do is speculate without real data but my theory is that the current network would be more profitable if Eastern flights were routed more effectively.

Boy, there really are some people out there who actually understand this whole issue-----

Funny how we could figure this out and Parker and Kirby just keep wallowing in their own sh*t----