I had the wonderful experience of flying to and from home on US Air. The flight to Philadelphia went completely fine. We even landed early and I got my bags in 2 minutes. It was the best experience I have ever had with them. Every other time I have flown with them I have been delayed, waited on the tarmac for hours, waited for luggage for hours, arrived much later, etc.. And those things aren't even that bad considering people lose their luggage and have had much worse delays that I had. I hate using them, but with holiday travel as expensive as it was, I kind of had no choice. So I was surprised when things went so well, especially on Christmas Eve.
It seemed US Air was saving all the fun for the way home. It seems someone broke the toilet on the plane and they were trying to fix it and after continuously postponing departure, they finally said, it's going to take 3 hours we are putting you on a different flight. But of course that meant everyone would miss their connection. So everyone freaked out and we stood in customer service lines for two more hours because they didn't know what to tell us so they just kept saying "Wait". After awhile they told us to get on another plane that will take us to Phoenix and we'll figure out what to do there. So we get to Phoenix at 10:00 which was 12:00 Philly time and wait in more lines. They give us hotel voucher and ticket for the next day, then tell us to go get our luggage, then they tell us if we want our luggage we have to wait 2 hours for it. So I just went the hotel. After running in to two people who were like "Screw US Air, we are driving to LA tonight just to spite them" They offered me a ride, but I just wanted to go to bed. Then I ran in to someone I went to college with - who was on the same flight. It was really random.
The next day the flight went off without a hitch, well besides the fact that you have to buy even water on the plane now for $2. At least other airlines give you water for free. Crazy. I actually sat next to a guy who flies US Air on the west coast all the time for work and never has problems. Interesting. I have never heard that. I have heard that there is a website about US Airways horror stories.
Anyway, I listen to a few travel podcasts and here are some links to interesting travel sites I have heard about on them.
www.airfarewatchdog.com - These people just sit and search websites all day for the best deals on the web. There is a really good Q&A section that gives really good info as well.
http://www.avoiddelays.com/ - This site gives you statistics on airlines and airports and their delays. Last time I checked this PHL was number 3 for the most outbound delays. I am happy to see they have gone down to 8. Funnily enough - US Air doesn't even seem that bad on here.
http://fabsearch.com - This is cool because its a travel aggregate and you just click on your destination and it will show you the latest magazine, newspaper, web article about cool places in that destination.
www.vayama.com - For international travel. It includes smaller airlines that you may get a better deal from, that aren't available on the travelocitys of the world.
OK That's all I got. Happy New Year.
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