[A320FAN]

You say my suggestion would have been useless about leaving earlier? Boy you are the dumb one here. No one limited you to using US Airways. You must not have heard of Southwest, Delta, American Airlines, flying into an alternative airport such as JFK and driving to Philly. You may have had to suffer with a stop and change of planes somewere, but you would have been ontime. As far as the pilot vs the mechanics, yes US Airways does still have some internal strife, but What happens when PHL or MSY maintaince staff does not have the parts for certain aircraft because they do not see them on a regular basis. They have to be AOG'd to the outstation and sometimes the 1st flight may have already left, and the maintaince department has to find alternative ways to ship the parts to the out station. So yes this does play out on a daily basis. Sometimes the part shipped may not be the exact part they need, and has to sent back and then a call has to go out to other stations that see that particular aircraft series on a constant basis and carry the parts, and the part may be coming from Tuscon or LA etc.....By the way I work for a NON-UNION AIRLINE.