US Going out of business

[Informed1]

Okay, I'm not sure what everyone else thinks, but at least I thought I would state my opinion and get some feedback. Working for this company over the past several months has been challenging to say the least. Furthermore, I can't imagine what our customers must be thinking, which takes me to my point. How much longer can this company sustain at this rate? How long before customers turn elsewhere and never come back? The operation is a nightmare. I have not worked one flight since Feb that has been on time and I know I am not the only one.

Philadelphia, our largest hub is a complete disaster. And the worst thing is, no one seems to care. All we hear is lip service, no action. It has been over a year since management said they were going to fix PHL, but nothing has happened. Just last night I was working a flight. An aircraft pulled up to the gate and low and behold, it was not our aircraft because this a/c was parked at the wrong gate. To further complicate matters the agent had no clue how to look up our flight's new gate to direct the customers. One of our flight attendants had to show them. You would think this was a simple problem, but since our flight was already two hours late, it had completly dropped off the monitors, so the only way to know the new gate was using SHARES.

When we finally found out what our new gate would be, we proceeded, with all the passengers, to it. Of course we all got there before the agent. Well guess what, the aircraft had been sitting there for 15 minutes waiting on a jet bridge driver. No agent in sight. Finally, one of our flight attendants found an agent two podiums down and asked to please call for someone to move the jetbridge. The response was, "oh, i can do that". Well why didn't you do it 15 minutes ago? This is just a small example of how terrible the operation has become. In the time it took one of our aircraft to park on the wrong gate, our crew to figure out what the new gate was, find an agent to pull the jetbridge, etc. Southwest had likely turned two aircraft and had them on their way. I just think US Airways' days are numbered at this pace. Of course, I hope for all our sakes I am wrong. What does everyone else think?

 

[allstrike]

Just sounds like another day in PHL.

 

[Informed1]

Just sounds like another day in PHL.

That's my point. How long with the public tolerate this?

 

[DesertFA66]

I think the company has done a lot to philly in the last year. They have invested lots of money from what i've seen, but I think Philly is just Philly, the attitude of the people might be worth looking at. i've heard it's gotten better, so don't let some isolated incidents get you down, it happens to all of us and a lot of days are good days!!

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

I've had similar experiences myself. I would like to know how agents are alerted to flight arrivals?
Is there a screen in break rooms that show who is where?
Is there a supervisor who says "Why to isn't someone off loading this plane?"
Is it a matter of staffing when things are running behind? i.e. someones shift is over ,who is responsible to pass along that a flight will be arriving late and who is supposed to meet it.
What is the process for meeting flights?
There has always been a big deal about getting flights out on time(DOT statistics)why can't someone be responsible for an effecient arrival process?
I know for a fact that PHL agents are over worked and under paid.
Who is in charge to allow these things to happen and is there any accountability either on the management or employee side.
As a personal note once had a flight arrive 30 mins. early only we goto deplane 1 hr late.
People who had been saying good things about US ended up cursing and hoping we would go bankrupt.
How does this happen?

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

"Be Careful",

The answer is "EMPHATICALLY" BAD US management...PERIOD.

Look, PHL IS an ABORTION, thats a given, ..BUT,....I'd bet my LIFE, that if 2 of the BEST EVER(retired) airline CEO's took over US's PHL operation(namely BOB CRANDALL, or HERB Kelleher), the US operation W O U L D run M U C H,..... M U C H better !!!!!!!!

NH/BB's

 

[allstrike]

I think the company has done a lot to philly in the last year.

Ya your right,too Philly,not for PHL.Big differance.

 

[tadjr]

I've had similar experiences myself. I would like to know how agents are alerted to flight arrivals?

We check flifo and head to the gate about 5-10 mins before it shows arrival depending on the gate its to come in to. Of course, if flifo doesnt show inrange or it makes up time, that doesnt help at all. I heard we had one the other day that came in 20 mins before the flifo was showing. It would be nice to get some acars info that was updated often and show in flifo when in range, etc. As I said before, I can often get better flight info from right here at my home computer than I can while I'm at work. :down:

 

[missthe727]

Okay, I'm not sure what everyone else thinks, but at least I thought I would state my opinion and get some feedback. Working for this company over the past several months has been challenging to say the least. Furthermore, I can't imagine what our customers must be thinking, which takes me to my point. How much longer can this company sustain at this rate? How long before customers turn elsewhere and never come back? The operation is a nightmare.

Honestly, I would be happy with the profit sharing check you just rec'd because I believe it will be the last. PHL IS a nightmare and they just keep adding more flights. The airport is in the major corridor of JFK,LGA,EWR and even DCA as far as air traffic goes.......on top of that,only 400 F/As out of 2200 actually live there so when there is a delay/ice storm/fog/ or a clear day, they are all commuting in. I don't even know the pilot numbers. They say that PHL is the #1 originator money maker then they should have flights originate from their and leave connections out of the mess. They need to connect through CLT,PIT and DCA to keep the operation running smoothly.....but their greed doesn't make them see that. They are numbers crunchers and numbers crunchers don't see unhappy customers or employees. How many pax have you talked to that hate PHL ? People are only flying us when they have to.....it's so very sad. I had high hopes for this merger.

 

[crusher]

I guess you haven't been through DCA lately. It's the new PHL. Actually I believe it is now worse than PHL. PHL has at least gotten more equipment , we have gotten nothing.

 

[2clippedwings]

During my last trip we arrived at a station (that will remain nameless) 10 minutes early. No agent.
The agent showed up at the gate at the scheduled arrival time. Agent said, "you were scheduled in at (time)".
We called in range. We arrived early and apparently this agent was under the impression that planes run exactly to schedule. All the work on that flight that I did to undo the damage they suffered at the hub was undone when the passengers had to wait 10 minutes to get off of the airplane at an outstation.
Yes, I've also waited for a gate for up to an hour in PHL on a normal day.
At another station during this trip security was called due to a flight cancellation. Passengers exploded en masse. I happened to be at the gate when that occurred. I had to listen to a litany of bitter complaints about passengers' recent experiences on USAirways.
On another flight this trip I had to deadhead. I was seated next to a Chairman's Preferred customer. He basically told me that he was already booking with other airlines because of our mess of an operation. (No, it wasn't Piney).
I truly do not want to spend my time at work apologizing for my company.
And about D.C., with the volume of express flights scheduled out of there, Commuter World is stuffed to the gills and so is the waiting area upstairs at gate 35.
The bus to get people over to the center pier to avoid security is a nice idea however, having people hauling themselves and their bags up and down exterior jetway stairs is not. An elevated walkway might be considered.

 

[crusher]

The first step towards operational recovery is the reinstatement of Sabre as our primary res sytem and the termination of Shares and most of the IT dept for gross incompetence and then get rid of Travis Christ as well , enough of the spin , CORRECT THE PROBLEM AND THE PROBLEM IS SHARES.

 

[FM2436]

If I read this article correctly, US Airways tied with United for the most complaints. Only 1.36 complaints per 100,000 passengers? Thats not to bad.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070402/ap_on_...airline_quality

 

[Singleflyer]

As a CP I got status match @ UA, (mid level) I can't remenber the last US flight I was on, it has been weeks, not days as in the past. US will still get some of my business becasue of their routes, but I don't have the time or energy to put up with their problems anymore. They can't even get out a club membership card on a timely basis so I can use the Red Carpet Club, (keep the money, but don't let them use the RCC because it costs us money??)

 

[flygirl74]

A couple weeks ago(during the snow/ice storm) we got stuck in LAS. Our return was canceled and we didn't leave til the next night. So, we start boarding and the agent says that this might take awhile. Awhile being TWO hours. The agent comes down to the airplane and goes to close the door. I said we have two open seats and she says "that is correct". I tell her to call to send down two more people since there has to be a bazillion customers stranded in the terminal. She has the gall to tell me that this will delay the flight!! Of course I told her what is another 5 minutes when we are already A DAY LATE?? We got two more and we left.
Our APU was inop so when we got in range to PHL the Captain calls for an air cart to be at the gate. (Without the Auxiliary Power Unit an external cart provides power to the airplane once the engines are shut down.) Anyway, no cart. The Captain leaves an engine running until the last pax gets off. He then shuts down the engine and the airplane is dark. There are no rampers to offload the luggage nor could they since the cargo doors NEED POWER to open. It is o dark thirty as I wait for the employee bus and can see our pax waiting at the luggage carosel.....