Philadelphia

We had to wait for hand luggage to be unloaded and than I headed to the gate, where the shuttle buses to Terminal A leave. Just some minutes later the bus arrived and with me entered a family with two chuckling and giggling girls in the age of probably 15 or 16. They gave some silly comments about the planes and you hear their stupid comments at every seat in the bus. There are moments I like to have a pair of noise cancelling headphone with me ….
At Terminal A I headed for the US Airways Club, which is located on top of the Arrival / Departure hall. At the counter I was informed about my gate and got several other information about the lounge facilities. I also asked, if the plane was full and the seat beside my seat was still empty. The friendly and helpful agent told me, it was and also that the load was low with one free seat in Envoy but 71 free seats in Economy.
The Club has two sections, an Envoy Class section on left and the normal Club on the right side. The Club was not very full. I took a lounge chair at the windows and enjoyed the views of the Tarmac, watched LH 427 leaving PHL with a delay.
The Club offered not much of a service, coffee and cappuccino were available by self service, while you had to ask for other (soft) drinks. A small selection of packed cheese and crackers are available. What I was missing was a wider selection of papers and magazines. On the other hand, it was calmer; you could relax and just sit there in a more comfortable surrounding than at the gate.

The access to this Lounge is as far as I know also included in the Priority Pass Membership, which comes with the Platinum Amex in (at least) Switzerland and Germany.
Boarding was announced at 19:30 and I headed to gate A 20, but boarding had not started yet. After a few minutes all passengers who still had the departure record attached to their pass should come to the counter. While I queued to get rid of my departure record boarding was announced with Envoy and Star Gold Members. Not sure, but I think there addressed also Star Silver for priority boarding. At least I was not refused to board, but at this time also my zone was announced.

19 January 2006
PHL – MUC
[Philadelphia – Munich]
UA 14, Boeing 767
20:10 – 10:25 [20:20 – 10:20]
Economy Class
Seat 08 B

This time I was greeted while I entered the plane. I passed the in - my impression - small and old styled Envoy Class Section and headed to Economy. Overhead bins were not opened in the middle part of the plane but above the window rows. Plenty of room to put my luggage in and I placed all the things I needed during the flight like glasses, psion (I know it not up to date to use a psion), biro, etc. on the free seat beside me.
The plane filled with people and many passengers moved to other seats. The flight attendants know rows, which remained empty and told passengers to move to these rows. Therefore nearly everybody had a free seat beside him.
The plane itself was old and again several stains and scratches were visible at the cabin wall and the carpet. The pillow was of low quality and so was the blanket. The seat pockets were partly ripped and the board magazine of US Airways again not in a good condition.
Safety demonstration was done by a film shown on the big screens. I have not seen these screens since my first international flight in 1996.
We were pushed back at 20:20 and rolled to the runway, where several other planes were ahead of us and we had to wait some minutes before it was our turn and wheels were up at 20:32.

In the air, the flight attendants sold headphones again before approximately 45 minutes after take off the meal service began. We had the choice between pasta with tomato sauce and chicken with mashed potatoes. I opted for the chicken. Meal came aside a paper box with a pudding, cheese, a cracker and butter in it. The knife was plastic as the combination of fork and spoon was (n Germany we call it “Göffel”). It is nice to eat the pudding with a fork you have used for the chicken before, gives the pudding an interesting taste! Really, is it necessary to safe the costs of an additional spoon on the outbound flights? The food tasted not very good or in other words there was no taste at all. I had some pieces of the chicken and a few of the mashed potatoes and then I decided to skip dinner. At least I got a can of Coke, had a cup of coffee and a glass of water after the so called meal. Trays were collected a few minutes later and after 90 minutes lights were dimmed. This was the time I reminded of a fellow flyertalker who flew back from SIN to FRA in LH C the Thursday night. I think I have made a mistake in 2004 to fly an international trip in Business. If you have done this, you would not like to sit in the back of a plane again. Thinking about this, no, it was not a mistake, I have made so many mistakes in the past, every time I bought a ticket in Y ….
I decided to read a little bit. The film was shown on the screen but it had a malfunction as the picture was running up and down and flight attendants tried to fix it several times but it appeared after several minutes again. This must be annoying for all passengers who bought the headphones to watch the movie. I cannot remember which film was shown, but it did not sound very interesting as in this case I had remembered it for sure. I relaxed and even dozed two hours.

I walked to the galley in the back to get several glass (in fact cups) of water during the night. No flight attendant was seen in the cabin during the night; they sat in the back and slept or chatted with each other or some passengers.

Round about 90 minutes prior to landing the light were switched on. Ten minutes later it was time for another beverage round. Beside beverage, one got also a buttermilk roll. This seemed to be breakfast. It was cloudy outside so no good view to the Alps while approaching Munich.

In Envoy Class one of the flight attendants chatted with some passengers, while the rest of the crew prepared the plane for landing. We touched down at 10:14 and were at our gate at 10:20. Again Economy Passengers where not hold back, so it was little bit of a mess in Envoy as several passengers where not ready and Economy passenger could not pass them.

After two flights with US Airways you learn that Lufthansa is not that bad at all. You see and feel the cutbacks in details like the low quality of food, the missing spoon or the fact that you have to pay for some sorts of beverage and the headphones. On the other hand the Airbus had an AVOD system, but you did not get it on every flight with US Airways. The condition of the planes is worse than LH and Envoy Class seems also not to be the best product in comparison with other airlines, especially if you have the older Envoy Class. The Envoy Class on the Airbus does not look that bad, but is still no comparison with the product of NH, SQ and CX. I know you cannot compare US with any Asian airlines; they are all more than two levels better than US in service, but hey, at least SQ is on the transatlantic route a competitor. Also I think the most airlines care more for their planes as US did. Even on older LH planes there are not that many damages at the seats and so many stains at carpet.
Seat pitch was okay, but as the seat beside me remained empty on both flights I had plenty of space myself. I could imagine it is not that nice if you have a full flight. Fortunately US Airways planes seemed not to be fully booked many times this.
The crew could have been friendlier. They did their job, but no smile and no word more than necessary. And it is still not an issue to ask “Would you like pasta or chicken, sir?” instead of “Pasta or chicken!” as they did on both flights. As always, the small things make the difference.

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