US Air fiasco
 

US Air boarded us for a flight from Charlotte, their hub, to Philadelphia to connect internationally for a flight to Paris, France. They delayed the flight in Charlotte but had us board, then told us we would sit on the tarmac for more than two hours, thus missing our flight to Paris. They did allow us to deplane to seek assistance. After standing in line for "customers assistance" for well over an hour they told us to reboard.f In fact the lady "helping us" started yelling "get aboard, run for the plane, you will miss it." We reboarded then got to Philadelphia where we were told we had missed our flight.
We went to customer assistance where after another hour or more in line we were given a voucher for an overnight stay. We were booked onto another flight more than 24 hours after the original flight. The hotel was many miles away from the airport and provided lousy service, including a two hour wait for a shuttle van.
U S Air logistics was terrible. The planes are overcrowded, uncomfortable, and some of their personnel are worse than Rude. I will do my best
to never again book a US Air flight.

sdrawer
 

What was the reason for the delay?

When flying to Europe, you should always try to book on a european airline. You would have been entitled to up to $750 compensation for this delay under EU law, 261 had you been booked on Air France or another EU based carrier. By travelling on US based carriers you are not protected in the same way. It is NEVER better to travel on US based carriers. The standard of service is generally lower and the legal protection provided by the DOT is very poor.

There are two flights a day from Atlanta to Paris operated by Air France, so instead of connecting via Philly you could have connected via Atlanta on Delta. (Be careful, as Air france code shares with Delta who also operated many Paris flights.... but there are a couple of options which would connect with the actual Air France operated flights). You are buying a ticket and reasonable protection when you do it this way. The golden rule is never to fly US based carriers to europe.