dlredline
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Katie Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 25, 2004 06:35 PM
Against his better judgment, John Price checked a suitcase full of presents for relatives on his Christmas Eve US Airways flight from Phoenix to Philadelphia.
He got off the plane at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday evening, but his luggage didn't make it. Late Saturday morning, a bleary-eyed Price watched airport workers sort piles of unclaimed bags - none of them his.
"I can't show up empty-handed. That just doesn't cut it," he said.
For the third day in a row Saturday, US Airways passengers were separated from thousands of pieces of lost luggage, many of them at Philadelphia International Airport. Several hundred people stood in long lines at sparsely staffed check-in counters, and piles of suitcases were scattered throughout the baggage claim area.
It was much of the same at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The line of passengers who couldn't find suitcases, golf clubs, guitars or packages filled the US Airways baggage claim office and overflowed into the adjoining room. The floor was littered with more than a hundred unclaimed items from flights the night before.
The airline, which originally cited winter storms, on Saturday blamed the canceled flights and baggage backups on a large number of employees calling in sick.
"We have had an unusually high number of flight attendant sick calls and an unusually high number of bag handler sick calls in Philadelphia," airline spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said. Philadelphia is a US Airways hub.
Spokespeople for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents US Airways baggage handlers, and the Association of Flight Attendants said they had not organized any job actions.
"There is no union action. It's poor management planning, that's my opinion," said Teddy Xidas, president of Association of Flight Attendants Local 40 in Pittsburgh. "We have sick calls every single year around the holiday."
But passengers traveling into Phoenix reported that while on board the planes, rumors of an airline version of the blue flu flew - unlike the airliners.
"A stewardess on our plane told us the grounds crew walked off the job at 8 o'clock the night before," said Caren Orlick Korin, who arrived in the Valley Saturday afternoon. "That's why we were having all these long delays, and why we don't have our suitcases now."
Orlick Korin was livid, despite her exhaustion from traveling from Boston to Philadelphia to Phoenix. Along with her husband and 4-year-old son, she sat on the plane for 90 minutes before both flights. The airline ran out of food on the plane, she said. And once the family reached Sky Harbor they learned their four suitcases and car seat had been left behind.
"Granted, nobody's dead here, and it's just stuff, which apparently we'll get back," she said. "A little consideration, and telling us what's going on, that would've gone a long way though."
"We never would have taken these flights, except that someone's got miles," she said of her husband's participation in a frequent flier program.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has directed senior officials to talk with US Airways management about problems at the airport, Transportation Department spokesman Robert Johnson said Saturday.
"We are obviously concerned about the situation, and we will be interested in learning more from the airline about how the passengers and their luggage came to be stranded," Johnson said.
The baggage backups extended to other East Coast airports and throughout the rest of the country.
US Airways employees in Phoenix said most of the 200 pieces of luggage left behind would arrive on later flights Saturday, and then delivered to their customers.
As four harried employees sorted through the bags in Phoenix, one muttered, "This is turning out to be the worst Christmas," to no one in particular.
Phoenix US Airways employees declined to comment on the record about the situation.
In Virginia, hundreds of unclaimed bags from US Airways flights were piled at Richmond International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Shirley Malave flew from Philadelphia to Florida on Saturday to be with relatives, but when she arrived in Tampa she discovered that her luggage wasn't on the US Airways plane with her. She waited for two more flights from Philadelphia, but her luggage wasn't on either.
"They ruined everybody's Christmas," said Malave, who lives near Tom's River, N.J.
She was offered a $50 stipend to buy clothes, but on Christmas Day, "good luck trying to find something open," she said. "I have no clothes. Nothing."
In Tampa and Miami, baggage delays on Delta Air Lines flights were also reported. The airline did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Systemwide, US Airways canceled 80 flights Saturday and 100 flights Friday, Kudwa said.
Extra flights carrying nothing but luggage were scheduled to fly from Philadelphia to the airline's bag processing facility in Charlotte, N.C., where workers could help process bags more quickly, Kudwa said.
Struggling US Airways, bankrupt for the second time in two years, says it needs to drastically cut labor costs if it is to survive beyond mid-January, when its interim financing arrangement with the federal government's Air Transportation Stabilization Board is set to expire.
US Airways reservations and gate agents approved a new contract Thursday that cut pay by 13 percent. The airline still needs deals from its flight attendants and its machinists' union.
Includes information from The Associated Press.
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 25, 2004 06:35 PM
Against his better judgment, John Price checked a suitcase full of presents for relatives on his Christmas Eve US Airways flight from Phoenix to Philadelphia.
He got off the plane at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday evening, but his luggage didn't make it. Late Saturday morning, a bleary-eyed Price watched airport workers sort piles of unclaimed bags - none of them his.
"I can't show up empty-handed. That just doesn't cut it," he said.
For the third day in a row Saturday, US Airways passengers were separated from thousands of pieces of lost luggage, many of them at Philadelphia International Airport. Several hundred people stood in long lines at sparsely staffed check-in counters, and piles of suitcases were scattered throughout the baggage claim area.
It was much of the same at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The line of passengers who couldn't find suitcases, golf clubs, guitars or packages filled the US Airways baggage claim office and overflowed into the adjoining room. The floor was littered with more than a hundred unclaimed items from flights the night before.
The airline, which originally cited winter storms, on Saturday blamed the canceled flights and baggage backups on a large number of employees calling in sick.
"We have had an unusually high number of flight attendant sick calls and an unusually high number of bag handler sick calls in Philadelphia," airline spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said. Philadelphia is a US Airways hub.
Spokespeople for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents US Airways baggage handlers, and the Association of Flight Attendants said they had not organized any job actions.
"There is no union action. It's poor management planning, that's my opinion," said Teddy Xidas, president of Association of Flight Attendants Local 40 in Pittsburgh. "We have sick calls every single year around the holiday."
But passengers traveling into Phoenix reported that while on board the planes, rumors of an airline version of the blue flu flew - unlike the airliners.
"A stewardess on our plane told us the grounds crew walked off the job at 8 o'clock the night before," said Caren Orlick Korin, who arrived in the Valley Saturday afternoon. "That's why we were having all these long delays, and why we don't have our suitcases now."
Orlick Korin was livid, despite her exhaustion from traveling from Boston to Philadelphia to Phoenix. Along with her husband and 4-year-old son, she sat on the plane for 90 minutes before both flights. The airline ran out of food on the plane, she said. And once the family reached Sky Harbor they learned their four suitcases and car seat had been left behind.
"Granted, nobody's dead here, and it's just stuff, which apparently we'll get back," she said. "A little consideration, and telling us what's going on, that would've gone a long way though."
"We never would have taken these flights, except that someone's got miles," she said of her husband's participation in a frequent flier program.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has directed senior officials to talk with US Airways management about problems at the airport, Transportation Department spokesman Robert Johnson said Saturday.
"We are obviously concerned about the situation, and we will be interested in learning more from the airline about how the passengers and their luggage came to be stranded," Johnson said.
The baggage backups extended to other East Coast airports and throughout the rest of the country.
US Airways employees in Phoenix said most of the 200 pieces of luggage left behind would arrive on later flights Saturday, and then delivered to their customers.
As four harried employees sorted through the bags in Phoenix, one muttered, "This is turning out to be the worst Christmas," to no one in particular.
Phoenix US Airways employees declined to comment on the record about the situation.
In Virginia, hundreds of unclaimed bags from US Airways flights were piled at Richmond International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Shirley Malave flew from Philadelphia to Florida on Saturday to be with relatives, but when she arrived in Tampa she discovered that her luggage wasn't on the US Airways plane with her. She waited for two more flights from Philadelphia, but her luggage wasn't on either.
"They ruined everybody's Christmas," said Malave, who lives near Tom's River, N.J.
She was offered a $50 stipend to buy clothes, but on Christmas Day, "good luck trying to find something open," she said. "I have no clothes. Nothing."
In Tampa and Miami, baggage delays on Delta Air Lines flights were also reported. The airline did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Systemwide, US Airways canceled 80 flights Saturday and 100 flights Friday, Kudwa said.
Extra flights carrying nothing but luggage were scheduled to fly from Philadelphia to the airline's bag processing facility in Charlotte, N.C., where workers could help process bags more quickly, Kudwa said.
Struggling US Airways, bankrupt for the second time in two years, says it needs to drastically cut labor costs if it is to survive beyond mid-January, when its interim financing arrangement with the federal government's Air Transportation Stabilization Board is set to expire.
US Airways reservations and gate agents approved a new contract Thursday that cut pay by 13 percent. The airline still needs deals from its flight attendants and its machinists' union.
Includes information from The Associated Press.
I have e-mailed Storm'n Norman Mineta, and demanded the BK judge give UAIR the right to fire these employees. The airline should be allowed by the BK judge to demand employees report to work for an examination by an RN. Those employees too sick to report would have to report that to their supervisor, who then would have RN's sent to their house for examination. Those too sick to work would be sent home, and those who are examined at home and no illness sick enough to keep them from driving should receive a letter of termination. Most of the employees calling in sick are probably at the hubs. This would not be a hard task to complete. Since the Unions have not acknowledged this as a job action, these employees would have a difficult time getting their jobs back. 
