Phl Again

[tadjr]

I was working coordinator yesterday and saw this note sent out from some dept in HDQ about the situation in PHL. They were open and closed all afternoon due to lightning and storms.....

......................PHL RAMP IS CLOSED AGAIN...................

PHL HAS 18 AIRCRAFT ON THE GROUND WAITING TO GET INTO THEIR GATES.

IN ADDITION, THEY HAVE A BRITISH AIRWAYS 747 FACING THE WRONG WAY ON JULIETT WHICH IS BLOCKING ACCESS TO THE RAMP AREA. ONCE THIS 747 MOVES, AIRCRAFT SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROCEED TO THE GATES.


Just another bad weather day in PHL I guess......

 

[MarkMyWords]

Some of our worst headaches and problems in PHL are not always in our control. ATC seems to put the screws to us at every possible turn. To bad we can't hold them accountable and make them pay for the customer issues like misconnecting and flight cancellations. I have never in my life seen such a mickey mouse operation as you see with our FAA and the ATC. To this day I can't figure out how, when there are thunderstorms around, we can get an airplane from say RDU-PHL but can't move an airplane from PHL-RDU. Don't they take the same flight path but at different altitudes? PHL ATC seems to be the worst with Washington Center running a close second. Perhaps more customers should be submitting bills to the government/FAA for reimbursement of their unexpected expenses directly caused by ATC inability to manage air traffic flow and ground movement of airplanes. Having to hold 18 of our airplanes off the gate because a BA 747 was taxied the worng way on a taxi way is unreal.

But as you said, just another day in paradise eh?

 

[Art at ISP]

I was also part of the debacle at PHL yesterday. Here's how my day went:

US 1795 was almost 1 hr late arriving in MIA due to PHL's normal morning delays. The aircraft turned to 530 back to PHL, on which I was flying. The ground staff in MIA did a FANTASTIC job of turning the flight, and keeping the passengers informed-my complements to the group at H8!!

We pushed at 12:15PM (only 25 minutes behind schedule)! Upon arrival in the PHL area, there was additional vectoring, and our on the gate time was about 3:10PM, or about 36 min. behind schedule. Unfortunately, the marshaller stopped the aircraft about 5 feet short of the proper stop mark, and we had to wait about 10 minutes for the tug to pull us up so the jetway could be moved into position (this happens regularly at PHL).

After a quick stop at the Club to give one of the agents the US-Cockroach pin they requested, I went to C-16 and it was chaos.. tons of people and no information given to anyone. NO EMPLOYEES IN SIGHT. About 10 min later a mechanic or ramper came by and said that there was lightning in the area and the ramp was closed. People were screaming for information regarding connections, and there was no one to ask...

Finally an agent showed up (with a PHL attitude), and made an announcement regarding the ramp, saying we just had to wait, and then proceeded to almost yell at a passenger who was going to walk to F. Unfortunately, as I would have expected this of Express personnel, I have to say this was a main line employee.

After almost 25 minutes, an Express employee finally came up and announced the ramp was closed, but had no information on flights or connections. I was on the phone with a friend at the company, who then told me as we were speaking that there was a ground stop in PHL, EWR, and LGA until 4:30PM. I then informed the others of this fact, in an attempt to calm them down.

About 10 minutes after that, the Express agent came back with the same information I had provided--and 5 minutes later the busses started again.

When I got to F, I went to my gate, and the agent was just about to board-he told me they were waiting for bags, which should arrive shortly, and I pointed out to the aircraft and lo and behold the bags were being loaded. We boarded, and taxied out, and then waited at least another 45 minutes to depart (can't fault that--storms in the flight path). We were vectored all over the place to get around the buildups, and finally arrived at ISP about 1 hour 20 min behind schedule.

Although much of this was weather related, the lack of coordination and communication at C-16 was completely unacceptable..for what its worth.

 

[ISP]

PHL wasn't alone yesterday... CLT was in the same boat!

Around 6PM, there was one of the worst thunderstorms I've seen in some time. Forget about the service US gives, I think Douglas Airport needs some serious improvements - there were water leaks coming through the roof everywhere.

Anyway, I was scheduled to go US 1005 CLT-DCA (5:55-7:12 PM) connecting to USS 2186 DCA-LGA (8-9 PM). The flight to DCA was initially delayed because the inbound flight was late arriving. Had that flight been on time, we probably would have escaped just before the storms, but that just wasn't to be. Soon we were told our departure time was 6:20PM.

Then the storms came! My oh my, it was something to see. When I saw the departure time on the board now pushed back to 7:00, I went to the club - it was amazing looking out the window in the C club - you couldn't even see the gates, it was like a whiteout.

I must compliment Donnamarie at the CLT C club. I told her that I wouldn't make my connection, and she simply rerouted me on a direct flight #120 CLT-LGA. Well, there is another story for that!

That flight was supposed to go at 8:10, so I arrived at the boarding area at 7:40. I was a little annoyed at the crew working the desk at C14 - they gave no updates when we didn't board. I called the CP desk and they told me the inbound flight was there (arrived from DEN at 7:00), but the crew wouldn't arrive for about an hour - back to the club for me!

When I returned to the gate area, I did witness something really neat. The flight going to Greensboro at C16 had to be turned within 27 minutes or else they would have to cancel because of mandatory rest. The G/A announced that the company appreciates CP, GP, etc., but could we please board from the rear of the A/C first. I didn't hear anyone complain at all, and it worked out well for them - that plane was turned in about 20 minutes.

One more thing - yesterday morning I was supposed to be on the 7AM Shuttle LGA-DCA, and connect in DCA to get to RDU (had a meeting there yesterday morning). I missed the 7AM Shuttle because of traffic, and a CSR at LGA confirmed me for a direct LGA-RDU flight without any standby or change fee. This is why I keep coming back to US!

 

[wench]

Welcome to the 'Glamour' industry of flying!

Oy Vey Phl AGAIN>> And Siegel wants to EXPAND???? :down:
<_<

 

[supercruiser]

>>Oy Vey Phl AGAIN>> And Siegel wants to EXPAND???? <<

Meanwhile, over in PIT, we did have a little thundershower in the late afternoon. I think a few flights might have been delayed, maybe 15 minutes or so. I recommend adding another 100 flights a day or so at PHL. I think that will solve the problem as when your original flight is grossly delayed or canceled, you can just go on the next flight

 

[wings396]

AHHH, The Crown Jewel of the system. Now that we have cut PIT to the bone, our passengers have to deal with PHL or go elsewhere. I know out of my station they are doing just that. DL thru CVG. NW thru DTW, or anything but PHL. IF we had some decent CLT service they could use that, but we don't. More revenue lost to the competiton due to our "NEW BUSINESS PLAN" :huh:

 

[PITbull]

Supercruiser

Isn't that the truth. All things running very smooth in PIT. On time in and out.

MANAGEMENT,

BRING BACK THE FEW HUNDRED FLIGHTS YOU TOOK OUT, OTHERWISE WE YOU WILL DEPLETE OUR LOYAL CUSTOMER BASE HERE AT U!

 

[wench]

****knock knock knock*******No one answers the request...

*****DS BB and the rest at Ft Fumble are D_E_A_F>>> :down:

 

[Hello Newman]

With all the thunderstorms, atc, express unreliability we've had this summer,
kiosk usage in my station is waaaayyyyyy down. The kisoks can't reroute
nor apologize for sloppy service, so the live agent has been very much in
demand this summer. But it seems that dosn't matter. We were told yesterday
that if a customer doesn't want to use he kiosk....do it for them!!!!!
Has any other station had this kind of edict handed down???????

 

[N513AU]

I was also part of the debacle at PHL yesterday. Here's how my day went:

US 1795 was almost 1 hr late arriving in MIA due to PHL's normal morning delays. The aircraft turned to 530 back to PHL, on which I was flying. The ground staff in MIA did a FANTASTIC job of turning the flight, and keeping the passengers informed-my complements to the group at H8!!

We pushed at 12:15PM (only 25 minutes behind schedule)! Upon arrival in the PHL area, there was additional vectoring, and our on the gate time was about 3:10PM, or about 36 min. behind schedule. Unfortunately, the marshaller stopped the aircraft about 5 feet short of the proper stop mark, and we had to wait about 10 minutes for the tug to pull us up so the jetway could be moved into position (this happens regularly at PHL).

After a quick stop at the Club to give one of the agents the US-Cockroach pin they requested, I went to C-16 and it was chaos.. tons of people and no information given to anyone. NO EMPLOYEES IN SIGHT. About 10 min later a mechanic or ramper came by and said that there was lightning in the area and the ramp was closed. People were screaming for information regarding connections, and there was no one to ask...

Finally an agent showed up (with a PHL attitude), and made an announcement regarding the ramp, saying we just had to wait, and then proceeded to almost yell at a passenger who was going to walk to F. Unfortunately, as I would have expected this of Express personnel, I have to say this was a main line employee.

After almost 25 minutes, an Express employee finally came up and announced the ramp was closed, but had no information on flights or connections. I was on the phone with a friend at the company, who then told me as we were speaking that there was a ground stop in PHL, EWR, and LGA until 4:30PM. I then informed the others of this fact, in an attempt to calm them down.

About 10 minutes after that, the Express agent came back with the same information I had provided--and 5 minutes later the busses started again.

When I got to F, I went to my gate, and the agent was just about to board-he told me they were waiting for bags, which should arrive shortly, and I pointed out to the aircraft and lo and behold the bags were being loaded. We boarded, and taxied out, and then waited at least another 45 minutes to depart (can't fault that--storms in the flight path). We were vectored all over the place to get around the buildups, and finally arrived at ISP about 1 hour 20 min behind schedule.

Although much of this was weather related, the lack of coordination and communication at C-16 was completely unacceptable..for what its worth.

One of my favorite PHL mishaps is a lack of jetway drivers....this is usually because of the d--- f---- who decide that we can get by with less agents than gates, this of course believing the fairy tale of every flight operating on schedule. It doesn't take an Eienstein to figure out that 30 gates require 60 agents, etc.

If your flight arrives early during lunch time, good luck - it can be 10-15 minutes before they can get an agent to the gate to park a jetway. Often, it ends up being a supervisor from two concourses away who had to run like heck, because there were insufficient agents to meet the flight.

 

[N513AU]

With all the thunderstorms, atc, express unreliability we've had this summer,
kiosk usage in my station is waaaayyyyyy down. The kisoks can't reroute
nor apologize for sloppy service, so the live agent has been very much in
demand this summer. But it seems that dosn't matter. We were told yesterday
that if a customer doesn't want to use he kiosk....do it for them!!!!!
Has any other station had this kind of edict handed down???????

Kiosks are a threat to your job. I wouldn't encourage a customer to use one if your life depended on it. I'd probably tell you to unplug it. There should be a CSA standing where each one of those kiosks is.....someone is out of a job, probably on foodstamps or welfare right now because of those machines.

 

[TomBascom]

>>Oy Vey Phl AGAIN>> And Siegel wants to EXPAND???? <<

Meanwhile, over in PIT, we did have a little thundershower in the late afternoon. I think a few flights might have been delayed, maybe 15 minutes or so. I recommend adding another 100 flights a day or so at PHL. I think that will solve the problem as when your original flight is grossly delayed or canceled, you can just go on the next flight

My flight through PIT was delayed 2 hours. As were a bunch of other flights that I observed while I was sitting around waiting...

 

[phillyguy]

I too was stuck in PIT on Friday night. 10:30 departure finally left after 1;15am due to a late inbound aircraft.

They actually turn most of the lights off in the terminal at midnight.

 

[PITbull]

Tom,

Tell me what day and the flight and time? I'll find out why, other than a storm. When lightening things stop. AS SOON AS IT STOPS, YOU GET OUT. There must have been a mechanical for you to be two hours. We don't have that kind of traffic in PIT anymore for you to wait two hours.

UNLESS THE FLIGHT YOU NEEDED WAS COMING FROM PHL. There would lieTHE problem.