Abbreviated Chronology of US Airways Travel Nightmare

• Fly HYA-BOS no problem, check bag in HYA, check in for PHL
• PHL closed, circle over atlantic, arrive late
• RDU flight delayed 4 hours because of no inbound a/c, then canceled
• wait 60 minutes in rebooking line, get on 5:20 RDU flight
• 5:20 RDU flight departs at 8:20, circles on taxiways for 90 minutes, crew times out
• returns to gate shortly after 10, cancels
• in rebook line from 10:30pm to 2am
• secure Quality Inn Reservation over phone
• get CLT/GSO rebooking for 9am, but no boarding pass available. Representative says bag will be forwarded to GSO.
• Take ride from bitching, ripoff cabdriver who drives in a giant circle to rip me off (FUCK ALL PHILADELPHIA CAB DRIVERS. ALL OF YOU. FUCK YOU. UNPROFESSIONAL GARBAGE.)
• Quality Inn lobby is closed and locked, must talk to woman through plate glass window in side of building. People appear to be living in the parking lot.
• Screaming woman informs me that no rooms were left when my reservation was made and my credit card charged
• Sent to Econo Lodge next door with 50-year old man in Barbra Streisand t-shirt who received a voucher but was sent to the wrong hotel
• Get room, sleep 4 hours
• Eat Uncrustable (TM) sandwich, take free shuttle 2 minutes to airport
• Check in kiosks do not work
• Wait 30 minutes in service line, get boarding passes.
• Agent says I will miss connection in Greensboro and that she's booking me on multiple flights.
• Also says my bag will be there.
• CLT flight is 2.5 hours late, miss connection.
• Eat bad cheesesteak. Why would I want to have a bad cheesesteak in PHL?
• Fly to CLT
• Agent in CLT says woman in PHL never actually booked me to GSO and that my bag is going to RDU
• Get boarding pass for GSO flight
• GSO flight leaves gate one hour late, immediately breaks down on taxiway, then sneaks out of the departure line and sits on tarmac
• waits 30 minutes for a gate, then returns to gate.
• Flight sits at gate while eerily hot flight attendant named Contessa laughs loudly
• passengers asked to deplane, then flight is canceled
• No luggage available in CLT.
• I ask for number of RDU baggage office and they say we can't give that out, you have to go there.
• Rent $500 one way car, only "small SUV" class available, attempt to drive 1hr to Greensboro
• interstate at standstill due to accident
• drive 21 miles in 3 hrs on interstate
• make phone calls from gas station payphone, eat sour patch kids, attempt tp wait out traffic nightmare
• still doesn't work
• attempt to drive to raleigh to retrieve luggage
• start falling asleep behind wheel in hour 4 of driving
• retire at holiday inn express in asheboro
• drive 30 miles to greensboro next (tues) morning
• arrive 8:43am for 9am presentation

The final straw.

This 3rd flight has now been canceled. US Airways has now failed on every level possible: maintenance, informing customers, baggage services, crewing, and more. And you can always count on their flight attendants to look at the ground and laugh uncontrollably when they don't have to work.

My bag and house keys could be anywhere. I will not go home until I find my bag. I am going to rent a car, and attempt to drive it to Greensboro and then I am going to drive it to my bag.

Hour 33

As soon as the plane for the 20-minute flight to Greensboro let the gate, it broke down, circled around waiting for a gate for an hour, and is now back at the gate at 4:34. The fuel can't balance itself. Deplaning!

This started off as a "weather" delay, but now it's something impossibly worse.

Hour 31 (of overall ordeal)

After 23 hours in Airport #3 (PHL), I am now at Airport #4 (CLT), about to leave for Airport #5 (GSO); however, the representatives here assure me that due to incompetence at #3, my bag was almost surely routed to #6 (RDU), from which I will be flying anyway to #7 (DCA) tomorrow en route to #2 (BOS). #1, FYI, was HYA.

Hour 21*.

Now flying to Greensboro via Charlotte, but the first flight is already so delayed that I'll be missing my original connection. By original, I mean third attempt to get to where I'm going since 1pm yesterday. All my clothes, toiletries, keys are checked, and I don't think I'll ever see them again. So I truly have nowhere to go, except for the conference I'm going to, which is now half over.

*The amount of time I've been in PHL. The amount of time since I left my friends on Cape Cod to do this now stands at 25 hours. The amount of sleep I've had in the past 72 hours is eight hours. The amount of hours between now and the hour that I discover that my luggage is actually lost is at least six hours. The amount of work-work I'm getting done here is NIL. The number of days shorter my life will be because of this makes me sad.

Hour 19 of STUCK IN PHILADELPHIA III

The bulletproof Quality Inn was overbooked so I ended up at the EconoLodge. This is not classy.

Waste of life.

I HAVE BEEN IN THE PHILADELPHIA AIRPORT, THE THIRD AIRPORT I HAVE BEEN TO SINCE 8 AM, FOR ALMOST 10 HOURS. I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR PHILADELPHIA, WHERE I HAVE NOW BEEN STUCK 3 TIMES THIS YEAR. IT IS A SUNDAY IN JULY, AND I AM APPROXIMATELY THE 400TH PERSON IN THE REBOOKING LINE, THE VERY LINE I SPENT AN HOUR STANDING IN DURING WHAT WOULD NORMALLY BE SUNDAY DINNERTIME. IT WILL BE AT LEAST TWO MORE HOURS OF STANDING BEFORE I CAN EVEN MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION ABOUT WHERE TO STAY TONIGHT. SOME PEOPLE SEEK ONLY DOWNTIME TO RECUPERATE FROM THEIR SUBSISTENCE DUTIES. SOME SEEK EXTRAOCCUPATIONAL INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM IN ORDER TO FULFILL AMBITION OUTSIDE OF WORK. WHEN I AM REPEATEDLY DENIED BOTH--NO MATTER WHOSE FAULT--I BECOME VERY ANGRY. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE FAULT IS MY OWN.