I'm a PHX FO, but I've done a few turns through DFW and let's just say it leaves a little to be desired. On one of those occasions every single Mesa CRJ was grounded for a lav waste compartment AD and we sat for 3 hours waiting for mx to show up.

Envoy ground crews seem to be the other half of the disastrous equation though. At the request of the CA, I went to grab the release and had to talk to three different gate agents to get it. Nobody seemed to know which computer to use or which printer it was sending it to. Passengers all boarded and ready to go but nobody could figure out how to get the paperwork in a timely manner.

Luckily for us AA doesn't give a rats ass about performance or passenger satisfaction, so unless we get really expensive I don't see any of this being a problem.

 

Yeah Envoy ground sucks!! They do better with us because thenpilots and MX carry them. The gate agents and rampers are trained in less than a day and shoved in front of an airplane/passengers with little to no help.

It's about to get ALOT worse. Every year once the weather breaks 90, as it did this week, rampers start dropping like flies.

 

I spent 6 days on reserve in CLT and only flew one repo back to DFW on day 1. I met another guy from my class who spent a 5 days out there and didn't fly once.

We must be fat on FOs this month for some reason.

 

Mesa has no staffing issues with the pilots. Read between the lines.

 

RV is correct. Qualifications matter not, I would argue that once you've been on-line in the 121 world for about 6-12 months then you've got the qualifications to do the job whether it's a regional or a major. Majors just have the luxury to be selective whereas regionals don't. When UA began their big hiring boom we were seeing average hours for new hires north of 10,000, now it's probably 6,000-7,000 and dropping.

Additionally, you go from the left seat of an RJ to the right seat of a 737 or Airbus because that's what your new seniority can hold. Sure you went from the left seat back to the right seat but chances are you'll be making more in the right seat of major than the left seat of a regional. Starting pay at UA is $70/hr 1st year and jumps over $100/hr 2nd year. Not to mention the work rules, retirement, etc.

I will agree that it is backward, and I'm all for the flying done by regionals coming back to the mainline. In fact, it slowly is. The 319's at UA are moving in to cover what the 70-76 seaters are doing, and the 70-76 seaters are moving to cover the 50 seaters that are getting parked. Word is DAL's TA lowers the cap for DCI from 450 hulls to 425, and UA is next up at the plate so we'll hopefully drop to 425 or better.

 

And ground services (staffed by Envoy). Admittedly, they have been improving, but are nowhere near acceptable for a major hub. We routinely get far better service at outstations. Absolutely no hustle among most rampers at DFW--and by "hustle" I mean moving with a sense of urgency, not the Urban Dictionary version. To most of Envoy's rampers, an aircraft waiting to be parked is not something to attend to quickly.

Just a couple weeks ago, we landed right before a nasty squall line hit the airport. We waited just off the gate for 10 minutes when the ramp closed due to the lightning threat, and then we waited another hour and 10 minutes, with an engine running (APU was inop), before the ramp was reopened and we were parked. I know damn well that the rampers wasted those 10 minutes inside, telling themselves "they're just gonna close the ramp".

But yeah, Mesa needs to stop treating their FAs like crap and pay them more, and they need to start being a little more proactive on maintenance.

 

Totally agree, the three main issue that I hope the company sees and plans on addressing are: rampers, MX, and the FA's. I would even be happy with just some acknowledgment from the company on these issues. However from my understanding we don't have any control over the rampers at DFW because they are employed by Envoy. Or is AA in charge of those guys they just fall under the Envoy brand name.

 

One thing I have noticed this week which is an improvement is the use of A/C carts. From what I was told last month none of them worked before.

 

Our gate agent didn't want to face the pax during the delays, so she just came down to the A/C to hang with the crew and grab something to drink.

 

The company acknowledging problems doesn't do dick for us.