The only business that isn’t required to provide a service that is paid for.
We purchased tickets from Denver to Pittsburgh over a month ago. Myself, my Wife (who has DVT) and my elderly Mother that has spinal stenosis. We got non-stop. It’s going to be very difficult for my Mother with her back problems, and DVT is aggravated (and sometimes caused by) sitting for a long time.
We paid dearly for the tickets.
So what do they do? Through in a stop and layover. We are now going to be visiting Philadelphia.
Oh, and DIA? You built a fucking airport out in the middle of nowhere. Lots and lots of room. But did you plan for enough parking on all that vacant land? Hell no.
Megadittoes on that one. The other Philly trick is to have your flight come in at the remotest gate possible, even if it’s late at night and every other gate is not being used.
I’d request/demand motorized transport for your mother between planes (which you’re probably doing anyway).
Wonderful. We are going to have to probably arrange for a wheel chair or electric cart for my Mom as she can’t walk very far. Now we get to do it in an additional airport that I’ve never been to before.
As it was, my Mom was worried about trying to go. This may just put her over the edge.
This rant doesn’t make much sense to me. Are you saying that the flight was marketed specifically as a direct flight and later changed to a stopover? That would be really unusual. Even the near-criminal airline Southwest will include the statement “one stop” during the booking process.
Based on your post, the airline doesn’t seem to be declining to do anything. You paid for a flight and are still welcome to take it. Even if it was your mistake, and you missed the part about the stopover, they might be willing to change you over to a direct if they offer one. Have you asked?
My parents live right outside Philly, and unless there’s really cheap airfare, it’s hard to justify the haul up to Newark to avoid the airport. It is by far the worst airport I’ve ever used, in so many ways.
Be advised that if you’re going in or out of terminal E, you’ll need to go through security again (and at Philly, unless it’s before 7 AM, that means at least 30 minutes in line). For some reason they decided to keep E entirely disconnected from the rest of the airport (note that there is a shuttle that connects terminal F to the rest of the airport, so it’s just this one terminal).
Yes it was marketed, priced, and sold to us as a direct flight. They later changed it to a layover.
Nothing they now offer as a direct flight works with our schedule. The only direct flight that works is on another carrier and is twice as much ($950 economy :eek: ). We paid about $450 (which is still high IMHO) for these tickets which again where sold as a direct flight.
Sucks. If my Mom doesn’t want to do it, she’ll be alone on Thanksgiving.
I’m guessing you don’t travel much. Philadelphia isn’t even in my top 10 worst airport list, which includes such gems as Guatemala City, Chicago Midway, Boston Logan, Caracas, and yes, even my home-town one of Kansas City.
I feel for the OP; I’ve had the same and worse happen to me. It will keep happening, and keep getting worse, so long as folks continue to drive air travel to record numbers by continuing to buy tickets. I know that everyone can think of a million reasons to justify whatever trip they take (except for me…I take a lot of unnecessary trips), but if people did cut back, and did punish the bad airlines by simply refusing to fly them, even if it meant canceling the whole trip, then there would be some change.
Or, alternately, Congress could (and I think should) step in with a draconian passengers rights law, with brutal - yes, brutal! - penalties for the airlines.
That should at least be grounds for a refund, if you want one. Othewise, insist that your mother will need special services - they’ll board her early and should take her by cart from gate to gate in Philly. Philly is evil.
OP, you should go to the FlyerTalk forums and ask about your situation on the appropriate airline forum (especially if this is a USAir flight–the folks on the USAir board have lots of experience in dealing with the irritating PHL logistics and personnel): This is the link to the the airlines subfora
The posters there know a lot about the ins and outs of flying, and while a lot of the discussion is geared toward frequent/status flyers, I’m sure that, given your situation, people will try and provide helpful advice.
I can’t speak to Guatemala City, or Caracas but IMO Philadelphia sucks FAR worse than KCI, Midway, or Logan.
I spent way too much time this year traveling, mostly to Philadelphia but also to Chicago and Boston, all from KC. And Philadelphia can kiss my lily white butt–that’s coming from someone who grew up there. That airport is beyond frustrating.
The week of someone’s spring break (God knows who but the kids outnumbered adults 5:1 easily), I had the misfortune of catching an early Saturday morning (6:30 AM) flight out of Philadelphia to get home. I’m a good little traveler, and always get to the airport early–it still took a freaking HOUR to clear security.
Let me just put it this way: people who go out of EWR (“annnnd we’re 33rd in line for take-off, folks!”) all the time make fun of the poor folks who go through PHL.
Airport I like that everyone else complains about—>ORD (of course, I don’t fly United and I don’t generally to go Chicago in the winter)
Airport that I dislike that I don’t see a lot of people complain about—>ATL (I don’t fly through this airport frequently, but every time I do, I get all the rudeness I never get at EWR and I hate the way they changed the airport around in preparation for the '96 Olympics)
I also find that pretty unusual; when you first booked the flight, did they send you the itinerary? Then when they changed it on you, how did they notify you? They just sent you a completely new, different itinerary?
Just wondering, as a matter of courtesy in future, if you could use actual names of airports. Not all of us have all the world’s airport codes memorized. Thanks. (Yeah, I could look up ORD or EWR, but why should a reference guide be needed to read posts?)
I’ve flown out of there and Newark a bunch of times. For me, the worst airports have been Midway, JFK, and Frankfurt (smoking allowed read:unavoidable, as of 2003). Yeah, so Frankfurt was a one-off, but JFK and Midway are both much worse than Philadelphia. At least there’s a direct train from Center City to the terminals. JFK absolutely sucks. How does one even get to Laguardia?
Philadelphia isn’t even in my top 10 worst airport list, which includes such gems as Guatemala City, Chicago Midway, Boston Logan, Caracas, and yes, even my home-town one of Kansas City.