I feel compelled to share a rather unpleasant experience I just had flying US Airways. It's a little bit long, but if you feel like a distraction go ahead and keep reading. Let me first caveat this by stating that I understand that the industry is suffering right now and that I am gladly willing to accept that some of flying's former conveniences are no more. Meals are long gone, soon to be followed by free pretzels and drinks. Checking baggage for 'free' is on its way out too. Not only did the weight limits go down, but now US Airways charges you for every bag. Now I can honestly take this all of these sorts of things in stride. I think most of us airline passengers are actually pretty understanding as long as you airlines keep up your end of the bargain - actually getting me where you promised to take me.

On this occasion, I was flying home connecting through the Philadelphia International Airport. My first clue that something was wrong was that they wouldn't let us land when we got there, instead making us circle the airport for about a half hour. Looking out the window, two things were immediately apparent to me. First, there were no weather problems whatsoever; the skies were clear, the ground was dry and I could see all of Philly and beyond. More importantly, however, I could see just from my window at least a dozen other airplanes circling the city. That's really when the uh-oh light turned on for me.

Stage two was when we landed and I burst out of the gate and start booking it to my connecting gate. Late departure + late landing means my 1.5 hour layover is now a 10 minute one. So I start running over there, but happen to notice on the screens that my flight was to be delayed a couple of hours. So I mosey on over to the other side of the airport to my new terminal, only to find that it isn't so much an airport terminal as much as a well-lit refugee camp. "Oh well," I think, "at least I've only got to be here a couple of hours."

But just then I started hearing cries of shock and despair coming from over by the US Airways flight monitor screens. I walk over just in time to see flight after flight being changed from the yellow 'delayed' to the red 'canceled.' A few seconds into my little subconscious prayer, my flight gets canceled too (I swear it looked more blood-red to me than the other canceled lines).

Ok, now I'm ticked off but have to roll with the punches, so I go get in line and eventually make it up to a clerk to figure out what to do next. Either the US Airways standard greeting is "What do you want?," or this particular clerk may have been a little socially (and perhaps intellectually) deficient. Our conversation:

Me: "The screen says my flight was canceled."
Clerk: "Which flight?"
Me: "Flight ****"
Clerk: "That's right, it was canceled."

Awkward silence.

Clerk: "Next." (waves for the next person in line to come to the desk)
Me: "Excuse me?"

Awkward silence.

Me: "Um, you need to help me get another flight."
Clerk: "It was canceled."
Me: "I understand that. What are we going to do next?"
Clerk: "Oh."

Awkward silence, she starts typing.

Clerk: "Here." (hands me a ticket for a flight the next day). "Next." (waves again)
Me: "Is this the only option? You guys don't pay for a hotel or look for flights on other airlines?"
Clerk: "Oh." Blank stare and awkward silence. "Here you go." (hands me a hotel voucher)

So, I'm sort of placated now. At least they're paying for a hotel right? But then I start reading this voucher, which turns out not to pay for a room, but only to offer a 'distress discounted' rate of $79.99.

Me: "So you guys don't pay for this?"
Clerk: "No, because we canceled because of air traffic problems."
Me: "So it's not your problem?"
Clerk: "No, sir. Sorry."

Let me get this straight ... PHL is one of your three major hubs. You dominate or completely fill gate space in four of its six terminals. This means that your flights account for the majority of the traffic going in and out of it. And yet you bear no responsibility for an air traffic problem over the airport that cancels something in the neighborhood of two dozen flights?

Me: "And you won't pay for a rental car or give me a refund of any kind?"
Clerk: "That's right, we only can book another flight. Have a nice day."

Alright, so my flight is canceled and I have to pay for a hotel to stay until my flight the next day. Now I'm really unhappy, but I can still deal with this. First, I look for other hotels just in case, but so many flights have been canceled that everyone is booked up. So I go down to the baggage claim and call the shady little place US Airways has suggested. They tell me to stop calling (apparently no one at US Airways bothered to tell them that they were going to send all these people over there) and to go wait "10 minutes" outside for the shuttle bus to come.

This is where stage 3 of my frustration kicks in. 25 minutes into waiting, the shuttle finally comes. There's already a sizable crowd waiting, but at least we're going, right? Then the driver hops out and yells for everyone to step back from the bus. She then takes a few steps towards the building and waves. And who comes out and starts filing onto the bus? Any guesses? It's a large group of US Airways pilots and stewardesses laughing and giggling all the way to the bank. That's right, US Airways commandeered the shuttle bus to get its own paid employees out to the hotel at the direct expense of its paying customers.

This is also when we find out that the hotel is about 20-25 minutes away from the airport, meaning that we'll have to wait another 40 minutes for the bus to go and come back. At least we're getting that discounted rate, right? Well, an hour later when we all finally get to the 'luxurious' Gloucester City Quality Inn (which is about as nice as it sounds), I let me curiosity get the better of me and ask the hotel clerk what the going rate without the discount is. He sort of smiles understandingly and quietly tells me that for tonight it would have been $81.00 + tax. Yep, it cost US Airways a whopping $1.01 to for each 'distress discount.'

After a night in a neighborhood where I wondered if the door lock was going to be a sufficient deterrent and probably the most soggy grease-filled complimentary breakfast I have ever had, I finally caught my flight and made it home a mere 15 hours behind schedule.

Now I'm the first to admit there have been much more gut-wrenching horror stories of problems with the airlines. Mine was unpleasant, but ultimately only a major inconvenience and some careless and apathetic affronts to my consumer ego. But the bottom line is this: I pay for travel - to get me from one place to another. That is the only thing that this particular business transaction is about. If an airline is unable to keep up their end of that contract, then they simply need to take responsibility for it. And being unwilling to fulfill your end of the transaction because you didn't calculate very well is no excuse. Is this industry's business model really worth saving?