Sympathy required...
Started out on our long awaited trip to WDW yesterday. Flight from Manchester to Orlando via Philadelphia. The first leg was uneventful until we started in our descent into the airport. "There is some snow on the ground at Philadelphia but it shouldn't cause us any problems" says the pilot....BIG understatement. Once we had cleared immigration we were told that the airport was CLOSED!!!!... No planes coming in and no planes coming out until further notice. They have had 24 inches of snow and still falling.
We checked with the US airways reps at the airport (along with 500 other people) only to be told that this had been the case since early morning and we were basically on our own. No hotel accommodation was being provided NOR EVEN somewhere in the airport for us to hunker down until we could get out. Helpfully (not!) they pointed us in the direction of the Hotel courtesy phones and the end of a queue of about 100 people waiting to get accommodation. It quickly became apparent that there were none to be had. Luckily we had our mobile and phoned US to a) scream abuse at them for their terrible customer service and b) re-book our flights for Tuesday night. Our only option it seemed was to spend the 2 nights in the terminal - all 16 of us with DM in a wheelchair.
Then along came our knight in shining armour in the unlikely guise of a fellow traveller from the Manchester flight. He had just managed to get a Hotel room and, knowing the size of our party had enquired for us. We immediately got on the mobile and secured ourselves 4 rooms. Yeay!!!!!! (Total cost 800 pounds plus Taxis)
Three hours in a taxi queue later and a nightmare journey through a snowy city and we finally arrived at the Hotel and some warmth!!
Believe it or not we were the lucky ones. Today half the people in our Hotel cannot re-book their flights because USairways are no longer answering the reservations line. They have no idea when they will get to their destinations, most have just decided to cut their losses and get the first available flight home.
There are over 600 people still at the airport who (according to local news bulletins) spent the night in one room at the terminal with no food, heating or blankets and with snow blowing in through open windows which they were unable to close (outside temperature -14) Apparently emergency blankets were made out of tinfoil!! It could so easily have been us!!
Lucky indeed, not only have we spent the night in a warm bed, the Hotel has a bar, swimming pool and sauna so what could have been a dire situation has now turned into a comfortable diversion. I feel terrible for those at the airport though, earliest reports of any flights leaving are 8pm tonight and with no extra flights to take the stranded passengers they are all waiting on standby - could be days!!
USAirways staff and the airport staff have treated those people in a barbaric way - not even providing the bare essentials to keep them going while they all decamped to their nice warm homes at 6.30pm and left them all to their own devices!! What are these people thinking!?!?! I dread to think how we would have coped.
Anyway, please direct your sympathies toward those poor souls...me, I'm off to the bar to count my lucky stars!!!
Started out on our long awaited trip to WDW yesterday. Flight from Manchester to Orlando via Philadelphia. The first leg was uneventful until we started in our descent into the airport. "There is some snow on the ground at Philadelphia but it shouldn't cause us any problems" says the pilot....BIG understatement. Once we had cleared immigration we were told that the airport was CLOSED!!!!... No planes coming in and no planes coming out until further notice. They have had 24 inches of snow and still falling.
We checked with the US airways reps at the airport (along with 500 other people) only to be told that this had been the case since early morning and we were basically on our own. No hotel accommodation was being provided NOR EVEN somewhere in the airport for us to hunker down until we could get out. Helpfully (not!) they pointed us in the direction of the Hotel courtesy phones and the end of a queue of about 100 people waiting to get accommodation. It quickly became apparent that there were none to be had. Luckily we had our mobile and phoned US to a) scream abuse at them for their terrible customer service and b) re-book our flights for Tuesday night. Our only option it seemed was to spend the 2 nights in the terminal - all 16 of us with DM in a wheelchair.
Then along came our knight in shining armour in the unlikely guise of a fellow traveller from the Manchester flight. He had just managed to get a Hotel room and, knowing the size of our party had enquired for us. We immediately got on the mobile and secured ourselves 4 rooms. Yeay!!!!!! (Total cost 800 pounds plus Taxis)
Three hours in a taxi queue later and a nightmare journey through a snowy city and we finally arrived at the Hotel and some warmth!!
Believe it or not we were the lucky ones. Today half the people in our Hotel cannot re-book their flights because USairways are no longer answering the reservations line. They have no idea when they will get to their destinations, most have just decided to cut their losses and get the first available flight home.
There are over 600 people still at the airport who (according to local news bulletins) spent the night in one room at the terminal with no food, heating or blankets and with snow blowing in through open windows which they were unable to close (outside temperature -14) Apparently emergency blankets were made out of tinfoil!! It could so easily have been us!!
Lucky indeed, not only have we spent the night in a warm bed, the Hotel has a bar, swimming pool and sauna so what could have been a dire situation has now turned into a comfortable diversion. I feel terrible for those at the airport though, earliest reports of any flights leaving are 8pm tonight and with no extra flights to take the stranded passengers they are all waiting on standby - could be days!!
USAirways staff and the airport staff have treated those people in a barbaric way - not even providing the bare essentials to keep them going while they all decamped to their nice warm homes at 6.30pm and left them all to their own devices!! What are these people thinking!?!?! I dread to think how we would have coped.
Anyway, please direct your sympathies toward those poor souls...me, I'm off to the bar to count my lucky stars!!!
