Today's post is off topic.

I went to Philadelphia last week. The city is a wonderful city to visit. Pennsylvania has so much history and beauty, I fully recommend it to all. A Philly Cheesestake is a terrific culinary delight. A visit to the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall area (which is not just the hall itself) were wonderful. The visit to the new National  Museum of American Jewish History was a deeply emotional experience.

Now for the bad part. Air travel, and in this case US Airways is just despicable. The flight there was the red eye out of LAX. I don't remember being offered so much as a glass of water. The flight back is the one that really raise my ire.

Boarding began right on time, and as we sit in the plane, the pilot gets on the intercom and say's,"someone" dropped the ball and that the flight would be delayed until the food (not so much as a pretzel is given away) is loaded. I looked around and wondered if the someone was one of the passengers, decided that was unlikely. The pilot could not even say on behalf of US Air that "we" dropped the ball. No, he had to blame some unnamed person. Pathetic!

From my seat, I could see when the food modules were delivered, and the gent seemed to be moving in slow motion. He had to know he was holding up a plane filled with people anxious to get to where ever they were going and he could not have moved any slower. Finally we take off 50 minutes late.

I am absolutely understanding of weather problems. While I have come to distrust the "mechanical" excuse, particularly when late arriving passengers come on, I would rather have a safe plane. I can even understand the mistake, but not taking responsibility for it, I have no respect for. It reeks of bad attitude.

Now some might wonder what this seemingly little delay meant to me, and, it would be very little, except, the original flight got me to the airport at 12:55 pm, which would mean I was out of there by 1:30 missing all rush hour. A half our later, puts me in the beginning of rush hour, and adds an additional 30 minutes of driving to get home. And that leads me to my anger. In the name of full disclosure, the pilot did make up about 20 minutes of the 50 and I will also give him credit for a good landing.

I could see what was coming, was tired and angry, spoke to the flight attendant, and expressed my anger. Now just so you know, I only scream at sporting events, and I only cuss when I mistake my thumb for a nail when I do carpentry, or when I think I don't need a pot holder while cooking, never at other people. She took her cue from the pilot and said there was nothing she could do. Well duh! I know she does not have her hand on the throttle, but she could have at least said she would pass along my angst to the pilot.

So, what is my bottom line? For the foreseeable future, I will do all I can to avoid US Air. I will think of it as a third rate bus line, with a third rate concept of customer service. I will not cut off my nose to spite my face, so if I need to fly it I will, but not if I have a reasonable alternative.