[aniruddhsetya]

NEVER AGAIN WILL I FLY US AIRWAYS!!
I had a flight from Cleveland to New York on January 19,2012 with a connection at Philadelphia. My Cleveland to Philadelphia flight was at 842pm and i was at the airport at 2 pm. I had just finished an interview with Cleveland clinic and had to be in New York the next morning at 7 am for another interview at another hospital. I requested to be put up on an earlier flight which had a seat available. I was asked to pay additional 50$ . My question is, I have paid a full price ticket and you rather have a flight go empty than to accommodate a student who happens to be your own customer? I decided to wait for my original flight. This flight 3621 was running late. It landed late in PHL. Me along with 10 more passengers on board including the air hostess were to board flight 1290 at 1055pm. We somehow managed to reach the gate at 1045 only to realize that the gates had been closed.
10 checked in passengers had a misconnection and the aircraft gates were not opened. The aircraft stood there for another half an hour atleast. It finally took off at 1120 if not later. There was only one ground staff member Ms Atlanta, who was as helpless as any of us. She had no authority to commit or give any information. We were left high and dry with no US airways official around.
1130pm the PHL airport is as dead as a graveyard. There were no distress coupons provided, no food leave aside any accommodation. The special services refused to help as they said that the airport had closed. It was beyond their working hours !
My questions and complains are only a few:
1) Agreed there is a policy, not to open the gates once they have been shut. Why could not the captain wait for 5 more minutes when he knew that there had been a misconncection by another US airways flight?
2. Why were the passengers left high and dry?
3. Why wasn’t any accommodation and transit provided?
4. Why wasn’t any food provided? Even the smallest of airports in developing nations provide food as the first compensation. Its 1130pm for crying out loud and the passengers are left to hunger till they reach their destination at 7 am the next morning?
5. Why wasn’t any assistance made available to us?
6. Why wasn’t there any ground staff who had some reasonable authority to take decisions?
US airways has a slogan- Lets fly together.. They need to rethink that. It’s more like let’s fly with your money alone. They charge for the most trivial of things (checked in bags, earlier flight) but leave the passenger stranded at an airport in the middle of the night.
I not only missed my interview next morning but i did not sleep the entire night, was without food, ended up having severe gastritis and vomiting. The PHL airport security staff was unpleasant, impolite and downright rude. They refused to do a security check on me at 1230 to allow me to my next morning flight's terminal where atleast I could hope to find a chair to sleep on or have a coffee shop open (long shot). I want answers. I will cc this to the New York Times, the PHL airport authorities and every possible forum i can do so.
This is harassment- mental and physical and financial!! I can get a testimony from the passengers who were left stranded with me to support my case if need be. In this turn of events however, I would like to congratulate air hostess Ms. Cleopatra on the Cleveland to PHL flight 3621 who was very kind and supportive and Ms. Atlanta the ground staff who tried her level best to calm the angered passengers. But above all I salute them to for putting up with the redundant policies of US airways and their lack of concern for a fellow human...Lets fly together..? You have got to be kidding me!!