On Saturday June 10th, I was confirmed on flight 196 from Philadelphia to Manchester. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:35pm. We did not board the plane, although it had been sitting at the gate for the last 2 hours, until 9:00pm. There was no reason given, nor was there any announcement made by the gate staff as per the official US Air notification procedures. After we boarded, we were held at the gate for another 2 hours due to what the captain called 'unknown reasons'. The crew did not provide any information except twice during those 2 hours and each time it was 'I dont know why but it looks like something with the bagagge'. There was no beverage or food service during those 2 hours we sat in a hot airplane. After 2 hours, the crew finally offered 'free' headphones for all passengers as compensation for the 2 hour delay. We took off from the airport at 10:45PM. After about an hour of flying, the captain came back on and said we were returning to Philly due to another malfunction with the windshield defroster that was supposedly fixed while the plane was at the gate previous to boarding. We were ushered off the plane and onto another gate to await another airplane. After waiting for an hour and a half, the flight was finally cancelled because the original crew had gone home and they could not get a new crew to staff the flight. At 3:00am, I finally retrieved my bagagge and headed home. I received no overnight accomodations nor an offer to rebook my flight because, as the gate manager said, 'There are only 3 of us and 287 of you so if your originating flight was from Philly, please go home and your flight will be credited'. That's it. NO food and no drink for 6 hours while we were held in stasis by USair. The storees were closed when we landed back in PA and the crew claimed they had asked catering to bring snacks and drinks for the passengers. Needless to say, the food never materialized.
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