Originally Posted by LivinTheDream28

I work for XJT and just wanted to comment on my experience the past few months flying as United Express. I think I can speak for all of us when I say it has been shocking to see the type of service and conditions UAL provides to its express carriers. I don't know if it’s common or if Continental has just spoiled us for all these years but this is truly unbelievable. I was doing a walk around the other day and couldn't believe how filthy the aircraft was as I had never seen a plane so dirty before. One of our supervisors informed me that at CAL our planes are washed daily to maintain a clean appearance. I never knew that before, I guess I just always assumed our aircraft didn't get that dirty since we fly higher and faster.

Anyway after this, I went inside to help the flight attendant cross seat belts. I was appalled at how dirty the inside of the plane was. The flight attendant informed me that she was trying to do the best she could but at UAL they don't have cleaners cleaning the inside of the aircraft after every leg like they do at CAL. Again I never realized some airlines don't do this. Finally, I went to the back to use the Lav. It was absolutely appalling. I couldn't believe the smell and condition. Again, I was informed that at UAL, they don't come inside the aircraft after every leg, wipe down the lav, or spray air freshener. I never knew that this wasn't the norm.

Then our flight got underway and I waited for our PDC to come up on my FMS screen. I was then informed by the captain that at UAL, we don't get PDCs and we have to call and get our clearance. After waiting to get a word in for 10 mins I finally called and got the clearance. After we were in flight a while, I decided to send a weather message to get the latest TAF and metar for our destination since it didn't have digital ATIS. I was informed that at UAL, we don't have weather messages and have to rely on our 5 hour old TAFs in the weather packet we received prior to boarding. I couldn't believe it. About 40 mins from arriving, I went to send the in-range report to find out our gate, where the aircraft was going, if it was on time, where we were going, and to let ops know of our specials. Well, you guessed it, no in range reports at UAL, we have to call ops from in the air. This is something I have never done in my almost 5 years here. We have to call ops when we land to tell them we're on the ground? I constantly forget because again, I've never had to do this, it comes up on their computer as soon as we land and they are always there waiting for us. Not at UAL.

Waiting for marshallers to park us? Barely ever seen that, they are almost always waiting for us at the gate with no call required. I am quickly realizing how much extra work some of these other companies have to do in a given day! No wonder you guys are tired! While I realize a lot of this stuff isn't a big deal (with the exception of cleaning the aircraft cuz that’s nasty), it has really opened my eyes to how what we are used to isn't the norm. While I'm happy to get additional flying (but not happy about Mesa guys losing work), I'm really going to have to get used to this. What have your guys experiences been?