United Express
 

Is anybody else completely embarrassed to be a part of this operation? Don't get me wrong "united, please hire me", but OMFG! As a regional pilot who works for both united express and delta delta connection wow!

This raises a question from me. How much influence does mainline have on the day-to-day operations of their feed? I know mainline sets the schedules, and in some cases owns the airframes etc. But in the more day-to-day sense, what type of control does mainline have? For example...... can mainline make the call to cancel or delay a flight?

Everyone should be embarrassed. But that's what happens when you put someone who used to be in charge of Call Centers at CO, and is now in charge of United Express. They have no earthly idea what's going on, or even how to attempt to fix it. Their first problem is not having a consistent schedule. One day OO and EV may operate a certain city pair, and the next day its G7 and AX. There is no streamlined product between express and mainline, and the outstations are exceptionally bad. Lately, we have been showing up to planes at ORD that haven't been catered or cleaned overnight which delays the whole line of flying for the day. And it takes FOREVER to get potable water if we can even end up getting it and the truck isn't broke. It's a truly abysmal operation.

Not at all. Regardless of the fact that I'm way underpaid i provide 200% effort every day. I'm not a gate agent, or an airplane cleaner, so if there's a problem with that area of the product, the best i can do is be honest and communicate with the right people to make things work. The operation is only as strong as it's weakest link; don't let that become you. Talking to aa/UA/etc mainline carrier pilots while jumpseating has taught me that the grass is the color you make it. When we finally make it to the big show, there will be new things to complain about.

I've learned to not dare to ask for potable water on the weekends! How dare there be water for our 4 hour flight to Edmonton! "Mainline has priority and our other truck is broke." My favorite line is "yeah we don't hook GPU's for Express carriers." Yonited's company motto should just be "not my problem."

Im going to guess this will change. I predict UA will do a big UAX shift this fall. And "streamline" the UAX operation to 2-3 regionals for each hub city.. No more of this ORD mess....

You are making a bold assumption in thinking UAL has a competent management team capable of any form of 'streamlining' esp at UAX.

Like I said on another thread, nothing sucks like United Express operations. I'm SkyWest and usually fly Delta lift and occasionally United lift, I purposely bid avoid United flying. But when I do the difference is profound, I'm pretty sure United can claim victorious in providing the worst customer experience for regional flying. I mean, it's bad enough as it is, but United goes to incredible efforts and really digs deep to make it sickening. I used to try to make a difference, but have given up. I show up and fly, nothing more, I'm not going to give the only effort for a crap product when management has gone to extreme lengths to make flying United Express hideous.

There's a CPA running United, CPAs running everything, everybody makes money but nothing works. Smisek is running United and is the only major to lose massive amounts of cash while everybody else is making billions!

Like I said, nothing sucks like United!

United Express
 

It is truly an embarrassment to fly in the UAX system. Period. And yes, United pre-cancels way more Express flights before they'll even touch their own. I get it, but when you're running about 15% more outsourced capacity than your competitors, you'll have a major problem so quickly. United relies on the Express carriers so much for its North American feed. I won't even say domestic because it's not. Anyone one here that works for a carrier that flies for UAX understands. I saw a stat the other day that Delta has around 77% mainline capacity at its largest hub (ATL) while United is like 35% at ORD. Granted ORD is not Uniteds largest hub and is around half the size of the Delta ATL operation, but still. Seeing how ORD has gate capacity issues you would think that number would be higher. I would be interested to see what IAH runs as the largest hub for United.


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I've worked the Delta Connection side for 5 years and now I work for CommutAir. The difference in service is astounding. I find our crews are always busting their butts trying to make everything work right, but it's like leading a horse to water only to have it stand there stubbornly not drinking. I'm Dulles based and the ground handling from Air Wisconsin is absolutely abysmal. Trying to get a lav service, commissary, or ground air is an effort in futility. "Hey ops, we need blah blah blah." "Copy" Aaaaaand, then nothing happens until I walk into the commissary area and say we need commissary at gate so and so. Then I walk into the ramper break room and say, "hey guys, this is a Q200, we don't have an APU, we need ground air. It's 90 degrees today." And they look at me like they have no idea what I'm talking about. I won't even get started on the customer service agents "above the wing."

I feel so terrible for the passengers. By the time they get to my plane, they are already ****ed off. I try to make my part of the experience as enjoyable as possible (it is a Dash8 after all) but I can only do so much. I really hope United gets its act together....and soon!