[mysteron47]

Booking Ref GGT3R8 29th May 2012

Dear US Air,

Have you ever wondered how a US Air passenger feels as their trip to a far flung destination in the world is perceived prior to them flying? I would love to take you on a magical journey with us to give you a little insight into how our trip went recently. I could not let this trip pass by without sharing it with others, who like us, love to see how the real world works, against what hopes, dreams and aspirations we all have, and how reality in its own inimitable way brings us down to earth with a bump. (Flying being the exception )

I am sure if you take this journey with us you will agree that this cannot be written it has to be real life to appreciate what life’s little hiccups throw our way. It’s a journey in which is not to cast blame or chastise organisations, companies or individuals, it is left to you dear reader as to what conclusions you draw from this, I am merely the messenger.

Our intrepid journey starts at our home address waiting for a taxi to take myself, Sam my wife and our new addition to the family, 4 month old Joseph. We are taking Joseph to meet all his relatives in the far flung open spaces of Pennsylvania USA for the first time . This could be likened to waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve wondering what presents he is bringing, full of anticipation and feeling that lots of good things are on the horizon.

We arrive at Manchester International Airport in excellent time to book in our baggage as I had pre booked seats so we could have a cot for the baby on the flight (I like to organise things in advance). As the lady checked us in she confirmed our outward bound seating and our return so that we may have the cot available to us. This was excellent and our expectations were once again raised a little higher.

We moved to our allocated gate and we were told the flight would be a little late, we did not know the reason but its no big deal when you’re feeling really happy about seeing the family very soon.

We could live with this, the flight finally arrived from the USA but we were told it would be delayed due to a fuel gauge on the aircraft not working correctly, now what followed was information given to us by the airline staff, so as to its accuracy we can only assume its correct. I mean the staff wouldn’t mislead us now would they? Naw…. not at all …. Anyway we were then informed the repair had been completed but they needed the tanker to come back and had trouble finding it again. They needed the tanker to start filling the plane with fuel so they could test the new gauge was reading correctly. I mean no filling stations at 35,000ft if you get it wrong….Eventually they found the tanker, (maybe the driver was having his box of sandwiches as it was around lunch time). The next announcement came to say the tanker had filled the aircraft and we could now board, this is about 3 hours from the scheduled take off time.

We boarded the aircraft and sat waiting tentatively to be pushed back from the gate, and a starting up the apu’s on the engines also gave us a feeling of “well at last” (with a big smile) this was dampened somewhat by the pilot announcing that they cannot get a tug to push back the aircraft as yet as they are all busy. Well its just a small thing and Im sure we will be well on our way shortly, when a further announcement from the cockpit came, “ladies and gentlemen Im sure your not going to be happy but our computer has crashed”
now perhaps, or is it just me? but did he really just say “crashed” ? Im sure the word malfunctioned or needed resetting, would be more appropriate in this situation, but maybe Im just the over sensitive type.
Who would have thought? perhaps Im getting in touch with my feminine side at last maybe. Anyway they had to get the maintenance dept back in to fix the computer.

Now as all this was going on there was a little of onboard entertainment, I overheard a heated conversation with one of the stewards to a colleague in envoy class, about him being able to throw this guy off the plane.

Apparently someone was going to miss their connection flight in Philadelphia and was not happy at all, and was taking it out on one or two of the staff. Im sure he didn’t mean the pilot (or did he)? Now my theory is the caviar was not Beluga or his bottle of Dom was not the correct vintage and he wasn’t happy, well that’s my opinion anyway. Having said this, it was a little light respite while we were waiting for the plane to get its certificate of airworthiness and get the guy in from Radio Shack to get rid of the blue screen of death.

Finally at 4pm after un crashing the computer we lifted off for dear old Philly (5 hours late). They brought our cot for the baby after eventually roping one of the stewards, who seem to have this uncanny ability to not look in any direction but forward, so tripping them up in the isle crossed my mind, but a good sturdy shout “EXCUSE ME” as they were flying past did the job.

We eventually landed in Philly having had a very pleasant flight across the Atlantic and Joseph being a real trooper and sleeping for most of the flight and being no trouble at all to the passengers. Im sure you can guess the look on passengers faces prior to boarding when they see a small baby is going on the flight with them. You can see their minds shouting “please don’t let them be seated near me” over and over again, but Joseph being a good baby, and even had words of praise as we were getting off the plane, and probably a feeling of relief from his fellow flyers.

We proceeded through to head for customs where we were met by US Air staff giving out tickets for rescheduled flights to all passengers with forwarding connections due to our late arrival, were given our tickets, now guess what’s next …we were only given 2 tickets and no ticket for Joseph!!! I explained we were a ticket short and was told to go to check in before our next flight and obtain one there. We had to go through customs first and stopped at the checkpoint and was confronted by the US Border official who was looking over our documentation and seemed to be a little perplexed about Josephs passport. I ask what seems to be the problem? He has a valid British passport hasn’t he? Yes said the official, but he is an American citizen (this due to Sam being a US national) and I cant stamp a passport for a US national. We were told in no uncertain terms to get him a US Passport and he handed the passport back to me un stamped, hurrah for Uncle Sam he wants all of you no matter how old lol…………

Still chuckling to ourselves we then went to claim our baggage, all 3 suitcases we came with came off the beltway fine and the stroller finally came along and words cannot express what we saw when it did…………it was totally trashed, my wifes recent purchase of a special Winnie the Pooh stroller set was ruined, the seat was ripped to shreds, the aluminium handle looked as if it had gone through a grinder, the side plastic was gouged all the way along and the stroller handle was ripped in several places. My wife was in shock as it had been a special purchase only a few weeks ago with accessories to match, most of which were still at home and now totally useless. Well feeling somewhat aggrieved we proceeded to the check in for our next flight, to collect a ticket for Joseph and report the damage, the lady was not how can I say, receptive to our plight. She told us to report it at our final destination State College (SCE) and they would fill in a report, this we said we would do. She gave us our missing ticket and told us to go to our next gate.
We made our way to the gate in terminal F where our ongoing flight was changed to a later flight due to us being delayed and also gave us some time to reflect and feed the baby once more, at least he was having a carefree time…bless lol… our flight took off around 9pm and 35 mins later we were landing in State College thinking well this ordeal is over we can report the damage and leave. Ever wish you didn’t have those type of thoughts like in “God said smile things could be worse, so I smiled, and sure enough things got worse”
As we were collecting our luggage off the beltway at State College we took off our cases, one, two errrrr ok now some ones pulling my leg here…..no 3rd suitcase, you have to be kidding me. Remember the god thing well it happened…..no suitcase No 3 and to put the top hat on it, it had all Josephs clothes and special formula inside it. Joseph has to have a special colic formula as he suffers badly with stomach problems so cannot have regular formula. My wife had the foresight to pack enough for the journey and a little extra for any delays but not for any length of time so it was panic time.

We went to the US Air desk where we filled in the relevant forms for the damage to the stroller, the staff were not very happy doing this at State College as they said it should have been done at Philly, anyway they were extremely nice and very helpful and told us to replace the stroller and send the receipts to US Air who would refund the monies. The bag was eventually traced to still be in Philly, why? Beats me how you can send 2 bags and leave one there, unless it’s a weight thing for the aircraft. Anyway we left the airport for our final destination which thankfully went without a hitch.

Now our return was on the 21st June 2012 from State College leaving at 6.56pm and left us plenty of time to get to terminal A for our flight at 8.50pm as US Air transfer all the baggage directly and we don’t have to check it in again which is the way we normally do it. We were told that the flight was slightly delayed but no problem for connections. Now we understand that there can be delays in local flights so sometimes if the local flight gets in late to Philly then we could miss the Manchester flight. So we are well aware of this and made sure that the check in agent at State College was aware of this, it being the case that if we were going to miss our connection it was no big problem for us to rebook for the following day as it was not an issue for us to reschedule, also having limited amounts of formula for Joseph it would be a major problem for us if we missed the flight. There were a number of other people as well as myself asking the same question about missing flights. We were all told absolutely no one would miss any connections on this flight in Philadelphia so we thought well she obviously must know better than us, now maybe I put too much trust in our fellow man/woman but following that good ole US phrase “In US Air we Trust” and we continued on our way, bearing in mind the outward journey still very fresh in our minds.

Well surprise, surprise, we arrive in Philadelphia too late to make our connection (remember…the one which we were assured we wouldn’t miss) and was told on the aircraft to meet a US Air Agent on the shuttle bus, this was in the form of a young lady with a bunch of tickets in her hand shouting out destinations, we heard Manchester so I picked up the tickets, looked at them and realised we had different seats that the ones we had booked on the original flight, this because we needed seats for the cot for Joseph. Not only this they were for 24 hours later!!!!!I turned around (couldn’t have been more than 20 secs) and she was gone……now you need to find this girl fast, she would win USA Gold in the up and coming Olympics Relay race…..she was the fastest thing on two legs once those tickets were thrust into peoples hands she was history, or she was on an elastic band from somewhere outside…it was awesome to behold…so there we were, dumped at Philly, no explanation as to what to do next, limited amount of formula for the baby and thinking this is even worse that the outbound flight. So being an old hand at airports I thought US Air must have a customer service desk somewhere and maybe we can get more information from there so we being intrepid explorers, and not just any old explorers, dividend miles explorers, we venture on. We caught the shuttle bus to Terminal A and asked the main help desk where US Air customer service desk was located, we were informed it was a good way from where we were at (of course) anyway we finally made our way and found the desk….full of aggravated passengers, for reasons I know not, some of who were booked on the flight we missed too.
Anyway after roughly an hour standing in line and listening to heated exchanges going on and seeing only 2 clerks behind the desks not seeming to be very helpful to the passengers satisfaction. I approached a very stressed young lady who seemed to want to be anywhere else but where she was and assured her I was not there to give her a hard time and to relax and chill a little and we can chat and resolve my problem with a little humour and courtesy.

This seemed to take the lines out of her face immediately and give her a little breather, I explained what we had been told at State College and all this could have been easily avoided, but I had the ideal solution for her. I knew that there was another flight back to State College later, we were quite prepared to fly back, get the relations to pick us up and we could fly again tomorrow, also we had additional formula for the baby there so panic averted. She said because we had completed the first leg of our journey this was not possible and offered to put us in a hotel overnight which meant we had to hunt for this special formula tomorrow in the international market in Philly. Now being a business owner myself let’s look at the practicalities of this solution. 1. US Air was already flying back to State College that night, this flight at this time is rarely full so no cost to US Air. 2. US Air are flying at least 4 flights a day to Philly some of which are not full so we could have been booked on the next available flight the following day. Cost to US Air I would have thought been minimal.

Now US Air,s solution to incur costs for a room for 24 hours at a Ramada Inn, although I am sure would be at special agreed rates to US Air, but still would incur costs, does not seem to make good business sense when there is a cheaper and more suitable alternative, but then again I don’t run an airline so who am I to question protocols..

I also explained that if we could take the stroller from the baggage then we could put the baby in it so travelling would be a lot easier, she said to go to the collect baggage office and let them know what we wanted. She then gave me a voucher and we had a laugh and she told me she was dying to go to the bathroom as she couldn’t get away for a pee lol I told her go on and have a great one and come back with a nice relaxed mood for round 2 with all the irate passengers……Im sure this helped, as I had already left when she returned…

So off we trotted to the baggage collection centre to see if we could collect our stroller, as normal, with no such luck that we could just take the stroller, we had to take the whole lot of luggage as the handlers could not work out what part of our baggage tags were for what piece of luggage so we had to take the lot. Well we had no choice as we needed the stroller and proceeded to collect all 3 bags on top of the hand luggage and baby stuff. My wife thought it would be a good idea to get one of the baggage carts to put everything on so we could wheel it out to the Hotel Bus stop, this I also thought was a good idea, so I went over to the baggage carts and it was $4 for a cart, I put in $5 note and it gave me $1 in 25cent pieces and I proceeded to pull out the cart…….the damn thing went round but did not release the cart….damn ….well I will go back to the baggage office and see if they can help me, I get to the office and there is a sign on the door “closed all enquiries to next terminal” well par for the course really. My wife thought I had done it wrong so she went over but to no avail….we eventually called over one of those guys who carry luggage on a cart for you to take all the stuff outside for us, he also knew where the buses for the Ramada Inn stopped. Well there was no bus and we had to wait outside, its was at least 90 degrees and not a pleasant wait I can assure you, anyway the bus finally arrived and Ive never been so happy to go into air conditioning I can tell you.

We checked in and went to our room and then for a quick bite in the small bar as the restaurant was closed then went to bed after sorting out the baby for the night. The next day I had to brave the 96 degrees to head into Philly on a quest to find the special formula for Joseph as we were going to run out that day. After a long taxi ride around Philly and a very helpful cabbie we found a pharmacy which had a formula somewhat similar to what Joseph needed as they don’t seem to stock the one we have in the states.
I returned to the hotel and asked if we could have the room for a little longer as we needed to sort out our baby etc. They were very helpful and agreed to let us stay in the room till 2pm.

We got the shuttle bus from the Hotel around 4.30pm so as to make sure we arrive in plenty of time for the check in at Philly. On checking in I mentioned about the seats that had been allocated to us and we needed the ones to fit a cot into. We were told the seats they had were not together but one of us would be where the cot could be fitted. This was acceptable, at least we didn’t have to hold the baby for 7 hours, this was not an option we would have looked forward to. We arrived at our departure gate in plenty of time and relieved we had won through all our return flight adventures and could look forward to a nice flight home. Again I wish I didn’t think like that because a storm came in over Philly and the airport ground to a halt. This of course caused massive delays all over the airport, our flight included so we were sort of getting used to this and I couldn’t help thinking was our flight we missed yesterday on time or do we have the mystical ability to pick out only those which get delayed. We boarded the aircraft roughly 2 hours behind schedule. Now you know that feeling of thinking well at least everything is ok now and we can relax, well no such luck, we board the plane and go to our allocated seats (Row 8) and my wife explained to her fellow passenger seated next to her we were having a cot in front for the baby and he very graciously offered to swop seats with me so I could sit next to her, it was no big deal as he was still on row 8. We thanked him and proceeded to buckle up ready for push back.

It was then on the taxiway when the aircraft stopped and shut down its engines. We were told that it was due to the back log of flights and it would be a further delay. We eventually got the engines back online and 3 hours late took off for Manchester. We were sort of getting used to being thrown these curve balls but what was to come could not have been written!!! We asked the steward, and by the way this lot of US Air staff were about as happy to be on this late flight as we were, what a miserable lot I felt like asking for nitrus oxide to be administered, maybe they had all been sacked and this was their last flight? Who knows!!! I mentioned we had a baby and requested the cot, he said that he could not fit the cot until we were airborne, well this I already know, I was merely alerting him to the fact that when we were airborne we required it, but he said ask another steward once we are airborne. Well we all know how easy that is……..anyway I eventually roped another steward and asked the question… he said he would get the cot and bring it presently as he was busy doing his job in preparation for meals. Well about 30 mins later I asked the same steward again about the cot his reply put me into a temporary coma after all the trouble we had getting these seats, he told me, and I repeat this verbatim “Im sorry but someone has forgotten to load a cot onto this aircraft” I was speechless as the flight was not full, we could have had a row of 4 seats between us (which had now been claimed by a number of other passengers) and had the baby between us. Its unbelievable but true!! As I said previously you could not write this………….have you ever tried to have drinks and food served you with a baby on your lap for 7 hours??? I assure you its and experience in itself…

We finally arrive in Manchester not letting our adventures get the better of us and try to be bright eyed and bushy tailed looking forward to make that final journey home. We were told to collect our stroller from the elevator and the end of the skyway so we can put the baby into it before going through customs. What happens next is really beyond belief and really puts the top hat on a journey which Im sure could never be ever repeated…even if you tried your best….we received the brand new stroller which we purchased in the USA from the agent and words cannot explain what we saw the new stroller had been damaged, it had a buckled rear double wheel listing about 45 degrees and a bent axle. We both looked at each other as if we had just seen an apparition walking down the corridor, we had just entered the twilight zone, it was like unreal………….

Still in a daze we ventured through to customs and then into the baggage claim area where we collected all three of our cases ready to go outside, suddenly my wife said in an alarmed tone…oh no!! Ive left my purse on the plane, I guess she could not be blamed after all she too had been through, her head was also in a state from all the previous adventures.
But patience at this time was a little in demand and I thought the best action is the put all the cases on a cart and make our way up the US Air desk in departures as quickly as possible. The lady there was very helpful and phoned through and to our amazement a change in luck, they had found the purse and brought it up to the US Air desk……well done US Air you saved the day  on this one. (Now credit where credit is due)

Meanwhile I asked about the damaged stroller and was told we had to show the damage to the baggage people in the baggage hall, well with all the panic about the purse we went through customs and could not get back into the hall. The lady called baggage the baggage handling dept downstairs and explained we couldn’t get back in, but they said they were too busy to come up and look at the damage. She then gave us a number to call as there was little else she could do now.

We called the number given to us and spoke to Mathew who was super helpful and sent us all the relevant information which we have now sent off to US Air, we now await further developments regarding this.

Well you can’t say we Dividend Miles Holders don’t have the strength and metal to battle all adversities, now you may find this a little incredible but !!!! get this !!!! we plan to fly back in December this year, LOL………… I can see dear reader the amazement on your face as we make this statement, but you see we Brits (and some Americans) are made of stronger stuff…..bring it on US Air for round 2 in December…..watch this space for that flight 

P.S

Would you think of using another airline or do you think its better to stick with the devil you know? Oh what a quandary, at least we have a few months to contemplate if we have enough diazepam’s to attempt it.