PHL baggage debacle over the past couple of days....

[Dont call me Shirley]

here. Some companies would rather pay out exorbitant amounts of money in claims (real and fabricated) and pissoff their customers and the 150 people that that one customer told their story to, than upgrade their technology and fix their problems.

Such "penny wise, pound foolish" mentality is also the reason air carriers no longer hire anyone to check claim stubs when people leave claim with bags. A great many of the bags that are "lost" by airlines are, in fact, stolen. Every once in a while there will be a news story about a bag thieves being busted at some airport. Usually the person's garage is full of bags.

Do any airports still have people chekcing tags?

(I wonder if it might be smart idea for an airport to hire the checkers and pass the costs along to the carriers in rent.)

 

[VOR]

Sounds like a plot hatched by that "Al" guy and all his high paid officer buddies...big operation, lots of moving parts, who'd know...blame the PHL folks. Everyone knows they are slackers...it'll make us (zeros) look good. All this while the PHL folks are actually doing the best they can with the tools they have. Yes, it must be the Al guy and his cronies.

Is it satire, or is it Scotch?

 

[ClueByFour]

I happen to think it is totally unfair to blame every problem in PHL on the rampers. As you've noted the facility is a relic from a bygone age.

Not more than EWR or the old parts of MIA or the old half of LAS. You don't see these problems at these "bygone" facilities. At least not with the regularity of the problems at PHL, in any event.

DP needs to take the city to task on these items as well as continue to upgrade the equipment in PHL

And the proper response of the city is to ask DP for his checkbook.

 

[ClueByFour]

NEGATIVE! The city contracts the maintenance company owned by Milton Street, Brother of the Mayor whose management experience is operating a hot dog cart on a street corner. If you took just one of your extra clues you would have known that the baggage belt maintenance is the City of PHL's responsibility as is the infrastructure of the airport. So Dougie can leave his checkbook at the Sandcastle!

*shrug* If it's a problem DP desires solved, he will open the checkbook and take back the maintenance of the baggage belt. If not, the US operation will continue to suffer. If it were my shop, and such an operationally crucial piece were broken, I'd fix it instead of whining about the city. OTOH, my company likes to make money, so I guess I'm not cut out to understand why US management does what it does...

There are many SNAFU's to blame on US Airways but this is not one of them. The PHL facility is a living breating piece of excrement. I know! I've been behind the "curtain" and you haven't!

Large (and incorrect) assumption about both your own knowledge and what I've seen or where I've been.

That said, PHL is not the only hub airport like that in the world. Yet others make due.

It's a dung heap and that's polite. "Fast" Eddie Rendell and the rest of his PHL cronies have screwed US Airways forever and a day.

People not very smart but somewhat saavy (me) noted that this would happen when US shafted the Commonwealth a couple of years back on the PIT bonds. I was dismissed. Can I get a "told you so?"

All you need to know about the character of Ed Rendell is he knowingly put an innocent man on death row. Google Niel Ferber if you don't believe me. The airport facility and Ed Rendell are one and the same! Pieces of Poopy!

All I really need to know about Rendell is that he was (and apparently is) going to treat US in the "manner" that US treated the state

You're letting your PIT bias and bitterness cloud your view of the PHL situation.

Gee, wilbur, I told you biting PIT was going to come back to haunt US at Rendell's hand at the other end of the state. I'd prefer you refer to me as "the person who reported it first" in the best USA320Pilot tradition on this one.

My taxpayer bias tells me that if an airline has a problem with a facility beyond the basics (runway, taxiway, ATC, and so forth) they can come forth with cash and build their own. Ask yourself--if you were a government entity (say, Pennsylvania) and you had seen a company walk a way from north of a billion in municipal bond commitments, would you be in any hurry to further aid that enterprise, when there are airlines quite literally waiting in the wings to fill it (especially in PHL's case)?

Ever hear of man bites dog? If you think US is going to get an extra dime from the city or state in PHL, I have a nice bridge that you might be interested in buying....

Typical PHL-PIT rivalry.

Love you to death, Bob, but you always fall back on this or the "union mentality" or the "Ed Rendell whacked a guy" line when someone has the audacity to call US on a slight and/or punish it as appropriate.

FWIW, I connect in CLT most days when on US.

 

[Bear96]

My taxpayer bias tells me that if an airline has a problem with a facility beyond the basics (runway, taxiway, ATC, and so forth) they can come forth with cash and build their own.

I tend to agree with this. I don't know the details of the U / City of PHL contract about the airport (and I doubt you do either, Bob, but I could be wrong). However, I doubt it calls for the city to invest millions to make the facilities state-of-the-art for a private company, or to be at the beck and call of the private company when that company snaps its fingers and says, "Here is our lavish design plan. Make it look like this at your (taxpayer's) expense."

If the contract does indeed call for that, U should get their legal department in on the matter because the state of the airport facilities would seem to indicate a breach of such a contract.

But if I were a taxpayer in Philly, I wouldn't want any more of the millions of the city's dollars than are contractually necessary going towards fixing up a facility so a private company can profit off of it. Let them build their own to their own specficiations.

 

[700UW]

US screwed PHL in Court just like PIT.

US abrograted the lease on the baggage system where US maintained it, now as Bob said the brother of the mayor who never ran a company that fixed baggage systems and had no experience has taken over the system.

Look at UAL in DEN, state of the art baggage system and it never worked as promised and now it is all scrap.

 

[calibrator]

US screwed PHL in Court just like PIT.

US abrograted the lease on the baggage system where US maintained it, now as Bob said the brother of the mayor who never ran a company that fixed baggage systems and had no experience has taken over the system.

Look at UAL in DEN, state of the art baggage system and it never worked as promised and now it is all scrap.

U did screw over the plant maintenance guys, most anyway. Some plant maintenance guys went on and now work for the vendor who took over the baggage system in Pit.

A lucky guy I know who worked the baggage belt system now works fixing FedEx systems.

Life goes in circles and you get out what you put in, or take out. U which has taken out of everything will reap a like return, IMO.

All the fighting about what union may be vanity the way U has positioned itself with many of the same dead wood in charge and having union problems from the get go while luv eats away at their once loyal customer base.

U is like a slow growing cancer, killer anything and everything in comes in contact with.

While it’s employees sing it’s praises on these boards deluding themselves into believing the future is a bright one while it’s really a flickering weak one candle power.

 

[Hope777]

Clue, let me get this straight, you claim EWR has OLD Facilities? That Statement about EWR has about as much truth to it as when a certain Airbus Captain claimed that EWR would be the FIRST city for HP & US to merge. At this point, HP and US are STILL seperate in EWR.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Ugh... I don't believe I really even want to drive through the state of PA anymore, having read the posts on this board over the years.

 

[calibrator]

Ugh... I don't believe I really even want to drive through the state of PA anymore, having read the posts on this board over the years.

That's good news. We already have enough traffic as it is.

Too bad every other state isn't like you think, paradise and smiley faces....you need to get out more.

 

[ringmaruf]

I tend to agree with this. I don't know the details of the U / City of PHL contract about the airport (and I doubt you do either, Bob, but I could be wrong). However, I doubt it calls for the city to invest millions to make the facilities state-of-the-art for a private company, or to be at the beck and call of the private company when that company snaps its fingers and says, "Here is our lavish design plan. Make it look like this at your (taxpayer's) expense."

Who's asking for lavish or state-of-the-art? How about just something that doesn't break down every other day?

 

[Bear96]

Who's asking for lavish or state-of-the-art? How about just something that doesn't break down every other day?

I was trying to make a point that an airline would request the moon from the city if they could get away with it.

But, OK, take the word "lavish" out of my post if that will make you feel better.