This weekend was supposed to be a relaxing, fun, and excellent holiday. Unfortunately, due to the incompetence and horrible customer service offered by US Airways and AmericaWest, it turned out to have quite a bit of frustration and waiting thrown in.

A long time US Airways flyer and one with 25k miles racked up on flights only (no credit cards or miles gimmicks), I always try to look for one of their flights first when traveling home to PA. Even though there is usually only one gate, located near the end of the airport, I do appreciate using an airline that had treated me well since 1997 when I used them to fly back and forth between Toledo and Scranton. This trip, however, they were showing the signs of carelessness, ineptitude, and general jerkiness that I expect only from such wonderful airlines such as Delta or Northwest.

After arriving in Philly from Minneapolis on our way to Allentown, we were notified of a last minute gate change. We made our way to the new gate and soon boarded the plane. While the passengers were alerted, it’s apparent that the baggage crew either was not or just didn’t care enough to move 95% of the passengers’ luggage to the plane located at the new gate. Thus, after landing in Allentown less than 20 minutes later, we found that most of us were waiting in line to claim our stuff. This put a damper on our plans for the evening and because of the expected delivery time, we had to wait around until nearly 8:00 for our baggage to arrive at my parents’ house.

Well, it’s a busy airport and it’s a busy time of year. What could I expect, right? I had never had the unfortunate experience to have my baggage lost or delivered late so it wasn’t *that* big of a deal for me. Kim has gone through this before and was only slightly miffed at the experience…

So, that would be the end of it, right? No more problems because Karma would keep us safe from any more perils of airline flight… Well, wrong!

We leave Allentown for Charlotte, NC and land there within minutes of our scheduled boarding time for MSP. Of course they wouldn’t park us anywhere near our departing gate, nooo, they would put us at the end of E and make us *run* to C to leave on time. Not only we were at the end of E but we were at the back of our plane! We finally deplane and I ask the gate agent if there was any way they could hold the plane at the C gate. She replies in a surly tone, “they don’t hold planes.” I didn’t have time to admonish her for her lack of good customer service or tone and ran off trying to make sure they didn’t leave without us.

I arrive at the gate first to find that the last flight’s passengers hadn’t even deplaned yet. Bleh. I had be wearing a sweatshirt and my down coat and running up stairs and down airport wings trying to make it for nothing. Kim soon arrived after me, just as red as I likely was, and had to sit down to rest. At least we made it on time.

I told Aaron that we should be arriving in MSP on time and he could then pick us up.

Well, after we boarded the plane and sat in place for 40 minutes, we were kindly informed by the flight crew that they had to load up the plane with more fuel because of the temperature in Minnesota (it was 32F) and they would need to either remove four passengers or twenty-five bags. Four people kindly volunteered and deplaned. We were set to take off.

Wrong again! Instead of taking that route, the wonderfully trained US Airways staff took 25 bags off at random and put the four volunteers back on the plane. There were no flights out of Charlotte that night and I assume they didn’t want to pay for them to spend the night. Bleh. So, we take off w/o knowing which bags were missing.

We get to MSP and have to wait for all the bags to be unloaded before we know which are on the plane and which were randomly selected for a free overnight stay… Kim’s bag made it to MSP and mine did not. Wonderful…

With Aaron waiting outside and in a rush to get to an appointment following our return to the house, I had Kim waiting in line (first spot, good job!) in case we needed to file a claim. While we were out of there fast it wasn’t a great idea to piss me off, twice in one weekend.

I tried to call US Airways Customer Relations today to complain prior to my post here. Sadly for them, their wait time at 10:09 AM was 49 minutes. Excuse me but why do you not have enough people staffing your phones to eliminate a 49 minute queue? That’s unacceptable. So, instead of an agent hearing my woes and giving me some sort of refund, you are going to get a post here for everyone to see.

Congratulations US Airways, you have proven why you are in debt along with the other major carriers as you watch the small/low-rent airlines take over where you once led.

Don’t fly US Airways or their partners. It’s not worth it.

We have some family located up in Stamford, CT (Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother, and cousin). I needed to see my grandmother for Christmas so I basically strong-armed my parents into driving me up there to see them ;) ;) ;) We stopped first at my grandmother’s apartment, had some cookies, and then headed over to my Aunt and Uncle’s place of residence.

We had snacks, opened presents, and watched my cousin Allision play with her new doll that has matching clothes for her and her doll. Looks like a massive money maker to me. Double the price of everything!

After a quick lunch w/the family I met up with GeoHo and Mopar who live about 20 miles away and are world famous geocachers from CT! We met for some beer and then my time was up :( It was good to finally meet two of the most obnoxious assholes behind me on IRC’s #geocache channel ;)

We drove home and stopped for dinner at the Neptune Diner in Newburgh, NY. A very excellent meal (try their crab meat stuffed chicken marsala — it’s killer).

Once we were closing in on Scranton the snow started and the ice began to form making the driving conditions slick. I guess I’m out of shape driving out here in Minnesota’s flat country as I almost slid through an intersection into a ditch but my lightning quick Yeti reflexes saved the day (which the probplems were mostly due to the fucking worthless ABS that helped to increase my stopping distance).

After arriving home my father, mother, and I played Scrabble while Kim rested from her “long day” ;) My dad ended up killing the two real Scrabble players (I sucked it up big time and ended up in third!) :(

See all the pictures from today here.