Originally Posted by jetlag7

Several years ago, I used to work for a carrier that flew both United Express and Delta Connection feed.

Two completely different worlds.

What you are witnessing has been going on for years -- United has completely destroyed their brand because for whatever reason they haven't "figured out" that the flying public doesn't differentiate between United "mainline" and United Express. There is zero support for Express -- it's all about contracting with the most "bargain-basement" feeder company and committing the least amount of resources to that endeavor.

Next time you're parked at the "F" gates in ORD, and your praying none of your passengers slips on the long and icy trek out to your plane, take a look across the ramp at the "G" gates and all the Eagle flights boarding with jet-bridges over there. When you do, ask yourself, if you were a member of the flying public, who would you put your money on?? (you'll understand my point when you see what I'm talking about)

United routinely likes to "eat their young." It gets really interesting when they start playing games with departure slots... United dispatch will routinely re-assign EDCT's into slot-restricted airports from United Express flights and give them to Mainline flights in order to "pump" their DOT performance numbers -- even if doing so will delay a United Express flight several additional hours. (to the detriment of those United customers on that Express flight) I sat in Buffalo for 4 additional hours one afternoon because they took our departure slot from us and gave it to a mainline flight departing out of another New York area airport who had a much later slot time. My company took the hit in the DOT "on time" rankings for that trip (and many others like it) while United mainline was able to maintain more "marketable" numbers.

I spent several years on the United Express side of my company when I eventually moved over to the Delta Connection operation. I was shocked at the difference in culture.

I got the impression that Delta mainline had figured out if their regional feeders looked bad, their customers were not happy and it made them look bad - so they did everything they could to make us look good. The amount of support and resources they made available to us was simply phenomenal. As a result, we were able to deliver a top-notch product to their customers.

I sounds like Continental shares a similar philosophy with their feeders ... sorry to hear you're stuck with the disaster United has created with its feed.