Originally Posted by
PCLCREW
United had 3 good companies working as UAX (ACA,SKW,AIRWIS) and the customers responded with high remarks. Then United figured they could get the same service using Mesa/TSA/Colgan. They were wrong. UAX went from good to bad quickly. United didnt care about the product, they only cared that someone would do it cheaper. That's what ended ACA and almost AIRWIS. In the end if you cant beat the cheap crappy companies I guess you join them, I work for Pinnacle. Simply the best.
Getting rid of ACA actually improved the UA operation. Reliability with the new carriers has been much better than when ACA was doing the flying. I am not buying that the passengers preferred a J-41 versus the RJ's now offered. I think the current mix is pretty good with the exception of ASA. Expressjet, Skywest, Republic and TSA seem to offer better service than in the past. Don't think I have ever been treated better than I have by the new UAX carriers when I have ridden on them, versus ACA and ARW. UA has fixed some of the issues at ORD, revamped the old ACA gates at IAD with good FIDS screens in the gates, at LAX we moved UAX to the 80 gates. It has been an evolving process.
I think letting ACA go was the best thing for UA the company. ACA was like the lazy guy that lives on unemployment and plays video games all day. It wasn't until the checks stopped coming that they realized they were in trouble. At any rate UA won the ACA war and has been financially and reliability better off without them. Too bad the employees of ACA bought into the big ideas of their management.