Lost baggage and poor child wrangling. It's all about employee empowerment.
I have the patience of the Madonna - all right maybe more like the Material Girl - but I am pretty laid back. After my humbling experience in the wine industry, I've been much more appreciative of service industry related jobs. But when employees are not empowered to answer the most simple of questions, and we're checking in on machines with nobody around to handle luggage, well...it's a disaster waiting to happen. It's an unfortunate thing that is supposed to help in keeping costs down and help with efficiency - but there's been consistent problems with all of my US AIRWAYS flights.
Let's throw JFK airport into the mix to help maximize the disaster...we ended up in Orlando. Waiting for our luggage. Luckily our toddler was entertained with the luggage roundabout...because we waited through two flight arrivals to retrieve one bag.
Family that met up with us for the 4th assured us US AIRWAYS used a really efficient delivery service...Apparently the lost luggage situation is pretty common.
Good thing the baby bug is a trooper when it comes to traveling - because Orlando trips tend to be family-heavy and the on-board US AIRWAYS staff consistently doesn't seem too thrilled to be dealing with even the well-behaved ones.