My First Long Delay In A While

I feel bad for u...

Ah, the joys of Philadelphia! That's pretty much par for the course at that airport.

I get the sense that PHL in general is just an airport you don't want to be at. I recently flew through there coming home from YYZ and was extremely underwhelmed by the utterly indifferent staff there for US. Thankfully I didn't have any delays, but the US ground staff seemed to hate their jobs, and people in general, more than even UA staff (and that's saying something in my experience).

They have a culture of zoo animals. Not surprising she acts like one.

Imagine if there had been poor wx along the east coast yesterday; you wouldn't have left PHL. We were 17th in line at LGA yesterday and the queue moved so fast. Love those rare clear-sky summer afternoons.

What app do you feel is the best for tracking flights nowadays?

I'm not sure a PA announcement is always particularly welcome. I find those "Sorry for the inconvience, thank you for your patience" announcements irritating. Unless you can give me concrete, helpful information don't patronize me.

If they're going to give out food vouchers, shouldn't this be for all not just the squeaky wheels. Happened to me before, someone who asked for one got one, I later found out about it, after I'd already paid cash for my meal. Especially with a delay of this length, seems like they should just announce on the PA, sorry for the delay, we're giving out vouchers, line up and get em.

Is it sad I figured out you were in Philly by the bullshit responses you tweeted last night? Every time I deal with people like that it reminds me I need to move. Also, this entire experience reminds me why I generally skip (avoid) US Scairways.

Lucky, I agree that you are "Lucky" that you do not have to fly domestic flights very often. - Although rare, these events do happen (yes, moreso on domestic flights and even moreso on regional jets). I can't believe that in all the flying you do that you've only had to fly a regional once! Wow. I do find it interesting that you were told the crew had been working over 14 hours, and can be extended once a week. I'm a crew member and with the new duty rigs, we can not work more then 14 hours (without proper rest).

The US Airways apathy and lack of customer service is what kills me. We flew them out of LAX in July and it was absmyal. I appreciate your consideration for the crew though - it's true - their days are tougher during times like that!

Too much LH F for you, its about time you experienced how the rest of us travel. First off, last flight of the day on an RJ? You know better than that... Second, you are at a hub not an outstation, plenty of crew sitting hot the flight is going. It may be at 2am, but its going. Gate agents only do what the computer tells them, nothing more so no need to be a know it all. Your creating extra work. Why did you not ask to be rerouted at the first delay when it went mechanical? Finally, I have not seen a proper response from an airline on Twitter in the last 2 years. Those days are gone...

Maybe the FF gods need to block you from F and J for a bit 😉

I've only had about 3% of my long haul flights delayed more than 2 hours over the years. That said, when it has happened, it's been quite memorable.

Most recently, I had a 21.5 hour delay last month from LHR to PHX on BA when traveling with my wife and 3 kids ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1601498-trip-report-ba-cw-phx-lhr-zrh-fco-lhr-phx-family-irrops.html ). We spent more than 3 hours waiting on the plane with malfunctioning A/C (it made a long haul flight on an Asian carrier feel chilly). It was not my favorite flight experience, and certainly not BA at their best, but their service was still a lot more friendly and informative than what you received. That said, I would take your four hour delay over my experience.

I've had a few other more extreme delays, e.g. US JFK-PHX that was delayed an hour at a time, and by the time it was canceled, it was 8 hours late and there were no hotel rooms available and then I took a taxi to EWR at 3:30am after my flight was finally canceled so I could standby on other flights. Or the great snowpacalypse at LHR in 2010 where two inches of snow delayed my flight back to the US for 4 days.

I'm looking forward to reading your 6 flights in 6 days report!

To anyone who has been going on about Lucky receiving special treatment when he travels...Here's proof that he sometimes gets incredibly incompetent service, which makes it plausible that he doesn't receive special treatment at all other times. Such as that time that everyone was shocked that Lucky got good service on SQ, the airline known for having the best service in the world! Shock horror.

By the way, what is up with an airline customer service forgetting about time zones? Time zones were literally invented for transcontinental railway travel! And on twitter as well! How embarrassing.

US employees in PHL are exactly why I wasn't thrilled when I heard about the US/AA merger. PHL is absolutely the worst airport in the United States. If the "New American" were smart, they would shutter PHL like the did PIT and shift the US flights though CLT where the US agents are at least, pleasant.

I wish I could have those three minutes of my life back after reading that useless post.

I remember a long time ago when the slogan used to be "USAir begins with U". Every time I heard that, internally I'd thing "well, F*** u ends with U"!

"In retrospect I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I’d rather not get a response than useless misinformation."

I agree with you.

I've been on 91 flights this year, and only 12 have been on time. Some were delayed by <30 minutes, but 2 of my last 3 flights were delayed 4+ hours. There's nothing quite like getting home at 3am...

Aw! Regional jets aren't they so great? No! Here in the midwest, with very few exceptions, the Big3 only fly RJs. Uncomfortable to fly in, is one thing. But the constant delays and cancellations makes flying in the midwest, a HUGE EXERCISE of patience. I make sure all my connections are at least 2 hours. Which then makes getting anywhere in the US or Canada an all day trip.

I don't know why PHL has such terrible airport employees. All the airlines seem to have problems there. I used to live in Bucks County, so PHL was my home turf. It is a shame because Philly is such a great city.

Sorry to hear about that, Lucky, but welcome to Toronto! Shoot me an email... would be more than happy to show you around.

Don't think you are going to get any sympathy here. Welcome to the real world. While you do fly a lot,you certainly don't have a sense of what most people go through on a daily basis.
This post makes you sound like a bitchy queen.
I think some longhail flights in economy are in order for you.

@ Louis -- I usually use Flightaware to actually see if the plane is flying. Otherwise I use Flightstats.

@ Max J -- Thanks, though sadly was just passing through.

@ Brian -- I think you missed the beginning of my post where I explained exactly what I took away from the experience. 😉

@Sam - you're of course technically correct lucky made extra work for the gate agent, but that's part of (and priced in to) their job. He created extra work the same way a shopper making a purchase at a cash register or a patient waking into a doctor's office does. I'd argue workers in customer facing jobs shouldn't reasonably expect to have no customer interactions during their days.

@Skylar - the argument isn't that Lucky receives better service all of the time. But it might be true that a reservation on a premium airline long haul flight tied to a specific seat would be a bit more likely to receive preferential treatment than a domestic gate agent who lucky doesn't identify himself to.

I've used PHL on and off for twenty years. It's awful. The US agents seem angry or disinterested quite often. And I have never, ever left on schedule. Ever.
The gulf of difference between US and DAL is widening. A lot.
I'm not sure why, maybe DAL pays their people more, but I almost always get a smile and thank you by name. Their agents and Twitter are proactive and honest.
I'm no fanboy of any airline(CRJ's make me that way) but I now go out of way to connect in either DTW or ATL.
And by all means avoid PHL.

The reality of air travel in America for people who travel by necessity rather than as a frivolous luxury is calamitously bad. There's just no way to get from NY to Toronto, for example, that doesn't entail a high likelihood of endless rolling screw-ups & ground delays. We could upgrade air traffic control systems to world's-best-practice and move 30% more planes out, but Congress won't do that. Most Americans, even top-tier elites and first class pax, are not flying exclusively international & flagship routes. What you experienced was the daily, third-world reality of air travel in America. Welcome!

The vast majority of people experience this on a regular basis; and this is what flying is to most of us. Whenever you're on a regional from a secondary city, this is what you get. Flights are delayed because the flights are numerous and delays occur on the ground somewhere, planes are small and flying an Embrear is the excitement one gets that they are not thrown on a Beachcraft 1900. Agents at the desk are exhausted by long days of frustrated and angry passengers who are exhausted by delays and being thrown into small 2/1 aisle regional that are delayed without anything more than a 5 dollar bottle of water.

I remember the days of jets flying to secondary cities and getting served drinks and snacks enroute to a JFK while waiting for an international flight on a jumbo. Now, we have angry people with knee guards stopping us from reclining - or God forbid - we are put on flights that don't have reclining seats ....

As one friend who's a FA for Jetblue said -- "I we standing in the rear of the aircraft so tired in LA and we were pushing back to NY. This lady just looked at me midway up and asked for help and I just didn't believe her and was too tired, finally a bag fell from the overhead and almost hit her, I felt so bad". Love my friend, but that would never have happened before...... 🙁

@Sunrise089 it would be more like lucky asking a doctor's office what time the doctor came in today because he does not want the doctor to go into overtime. Or Mr Retailer, are your staffing levels correct in case I need to make a purchase after closing time. Its an irrelevant question because you do not know what the reserve levels are at the base. Gate agents put up with a lot of crazy questions. Give them a break. Stand at the podium and listen to the questions, how many people ask for a free upgrade? Or can I different seat on a full flight? Sure its there job, but be an easy customer

@Sam, I would agree, except that airlines expose their customers to these problems all the time. If you're a frequent traveler, you've been impacted by a crew timing out, so it's a fair question to ask on a delayed flight.

Nice post. Typical. It sounds like about every other flight I have through DFW. Oh and are you sure the us air club closed at 10pm as they aren't sure how time zones work 🙂

I was on a similar delayed PHL-YYZ flight in June that ultimately cancelled.. Actually missed my YYZ-MUC LH F flight the next day (it's ridiculous that US couldn't get me on another flight within the next 24 hours!). On the bright side, I was able to get UA to reroute on PHL-FRA in LH new F! Also, if you're in Terminal A in Philly next time, try to swing by the BA lounge.. friendly staff and some good food/drink options.

My girlfriend and I were on a TG flight from BKK to CDG a couple months ago. We were seated and the flight was pushed out. But then we had to wait for a few hours on the plane and finally were told the plane had a mechanical and the flight was cancelled. We ended up in the Novetel at the airport for about 12 hours. I think they got a replacement and finally we were en route after 20 hours delay.

It wasn't that bad since we were in business and we got a hotel room to rest. But... we only had 5 days planned in Paris, and that delay literally killed 20% of our vacation time in Paris... (The only upside was... less time for shoppin...)

What's worse, we were on a US award ticket so I don't even know how to get any compensation (or from whom). If it's a flight ex-CDG probably we were entilted to something but since it's ex-BKK... It's basically bad luck...