Travel to Europe just got much harder

Effective immediately, the only nonstop option that Europe-bound travelers have from Pittsburgh International is US Airways' daily round-trip service to Frankfurt. Other than that single flight, all transatlantic travelers will have to make at least one connection before leaving North America.

If they're lucky.

Even with reduced service, the carriers serving Pittsburgh International offer many possible routes to Europe through Philadelphia, Charlotte, Washington, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, even Toronto. Issues of price aside, all these routes will entail significantly more travel time and trouble for anyone whose luggage tags are marked PIT.

And as Jae Brown and Andor Jobb of Emlenton, Venango County, recently discovered, sometimes a journey can go very badly indeed, particularly if your transatlantic connecting point is New York City.

Although travelers can make foreign connections in many more cities than they once could, JFK is the East Coast airport with the widest variety -- by far -- of colorfully decorated planes, representing dozens of carriers, both U.S.- and foreign-flagged. Travelers who want the largest selection of transatlantic options will find themselves flying through JFK.

The problem is, you can't get there from here, at least not very easily.

Historically, US Airways and its corporate predecessors didn't offer flights from Pittsburgh to JFK because they had no foreign service from there. Why feed a competing carrier's business?

Various other airlines have offered PIT/JFK service in the past, but almost all have been eliminated. In fact, of the 479 flights that depart these days from Pittsburgh International, only one goes directly to JFK. Delta 5241 is scheduled to leave at 3 p.m. and arrive at 4:32 p.m., while the return trip, Delta 5245, departs JFK at 5:05 p.m. and arrives here an hour and a half later.

That's it, Fort Pitt.

If those times don't coordinate with your travel schedule or you're not lucky enough to get one of the 50 seats on that flight, too bad. You'll have to fly to either LaGuardia or Newark and take a cab, bus or subway to JFK or make an interim connection in some other airport.

Overland connections in New York are always a time-consuming, anxiety-producing costly hassle, especially for anyone burdened with lots of luggage, as overseas travelers tend to be. A cab ride can be $30 from LaGuardia and $50 from Newark, more if you have several people and extra bags. Less expensive direct bus service is available, but it takes a lot longer, especially in rush hour, which in New York can be any time.

On the other hand, catching two flights to get from Pittsburgh to JFK vastly complicates and lengthens the journey and multiplies the possibility of delays, missed departures and lost luggage.

No matter how you cut it, any JFK journey becomes a lot longer than an hour and a half, as well as much more arduous. It's a lose-lose situation.

The sad irony is that even those travelers lucky enough to get on that one Delta flight are by no means assured of encountering smooth connections.

Brown and Jobb are experienced travelers who were headed to Budapest, Hungary, where Jobb was to deliver a lecture. Booked on Delta all the way, they arrived early at Pittsburgh International to check-in for that 3 p.m. flight. The first clue that all would not be well was when their departure was delayed for nearly an hour and a half for weather-related reasons. By the time the flight landed at JFK, it was no longer possible to make their nonstop connection to Budapest. Since no other Delta flights were scheduled that evening, they were directed to other carriers. That was when the other shoe hit the floor.

The luggage they had checked with Delta at Pittsburgh was nowhere to be found. It hadn't turned up several hours later when they finally caught a flight to London, with a connection that landed them in Budapest more than 12 hours after they had been scheduled to arrive. In fact, four days elapsed before their bags arrived, and not without Brown spending several hours on a foreign phone trying to track them down. Not only were they without their clothes and personal effects, Jobb had to conduct his lecture without the printed materials he had packed.

What made them most furious, however, was the reason that their luggage had gone awry. Her sleuthing led Brown to discover what she considers "an incredibly deceitful baggage practice."

Since Delta 5241 is flown on a smaller, regional jet, which has more stringent weight restrictions than bigger planes, their bags had simply been bumped to accommodate freight that was also being shipped on that flight. Apparently, delaying checked baggage like this is not a rare occurrence because, to add insult to injury, the same thing happened on their return journey. Furthermore, Delta offered no compensation or even sympathy for their passengers' plight.

Jobb hopes other passengers will learn from her experience. She writes, "Although it may seem a ludicrous question for the traveler to ask, we strongly advise asking at check-in as to what the policy is regarding loading luggage."

Still, Delta's luggage practices notwithstanding, this JFK misconnection is a major hindrance for local passengers. "JFK connections are definitely a weakness in the scheduled service from Pittsburgh International," admits Jo Ann Jenny, airport spokesperson. "It's something we'll be exploring with the airlines. There's a real business opportunity for some carrier."

Perhaps now that US Airways is scheduled to join the Star Alliance, the consortium of 15 international carriers, it might reconsider scheduling a few flights that offer travelers in this region better daily connections to JFK. A modest proposal maybe, but one that would certainly demonstrate US Airways' commitment to creating an airline that begins with "U."

Or is that only the hyperbole of advertising?