gettinbumped

Booked my flight home from my PT a month and a half ago. Luckily, we were able to hang on to first class travel because it was oversold in coach when I tried to make the reservation. I got the last seat in first. So for the past month and a half, no one has been able to give United their money to take this beautiful RJ from DEN-PDX.

Walking to the gate, in the super passenger-friendly RJ terminal, I noticed gates next door to each other listing Aspen as their destination. Error? Nope. United has 2 70 seat RJ's scheduled to fly to Aspen about 35 min apart. Even the bean counters at UAL should be able to figure out that it makes more economic and practictal sense to put 1 A320 on the route.

One of the main premises that UAL blows out their butts justifying their stupid obsession with inefficient RJ's is that the customer wants more frequency, and they need smaller RJ's to provide it. What a load of total crap.

Lambourne

Is the A320 Aspen capable? I know they had some issues getting RJ's in there.

flyandive

Aspen has a wingspan limitation of 95'
Not to mention not to many aircraft have the performance to get in and out. SkyWest is heavily weight restricted and has a waiver to operate in there. It's rare for them to be able to carry a full load of 66 or 70.

Normally a part 121 carrier needs to specify a single engine go-around procedure from 50ft. Most airports it's just straight out or via the published missed. If neither is possible then the airline has to come up with it's own. Which is quite common in mountainous areas. From what I have been told, the CRJ700 is not able to clear terrain from a single-engine missed. So SkyWest has a waiver that once passed the missed approach point they are committed to land regardless of what happens.

gettinbumped

Oh.... Crap. Well I'm still ****ed!

All three gates that I could see from where I was sitting were taking denied boardings; some voluntary, but some not. Fine. The RJ can have Aspen. The gate next door was an RJ to Vail.

flyandive

I hear ya, I still think it's kind of messed up to have so many flights back to back and it's even funner when the weather is bad and they all cancel. Some sick part of me misses flying in there... sometimes. I definitely don't miss some of the passengers though. Vail is nicer just for that reason!

gettinbumped

I can imagine. Just think of Dumb and Dumber when you deal with Aspen peeps.... Makes it much more amusing

RJDio

Aspen might be out of reach but your observations are not limited to you. Every morning we have two RJ's departing from FAT to DEN within an hour to an hour and a half from each other. The times I do those flights we are pretty much full. I've often wondered why is United running 2 RJ's instead of running an Airbus. I won't believe that it's more economical to run 2 full RJ's than a full Airbus. And there are many more routes where this is happening.

But then again why is United putting crj 200's on LAX-SMF, LAX-PHX, LAX-PDX, LAX-SJC, LAX-LAS....and so on. Especially when we require an alternate, we often find ourselves leaving pax and commuters behind .

stratoduck

the CASM for the regional service for UAL has been running around 50% higher than mainline service. it is sometimes listed in the quarterly financial reports, but sometimes not and you have to subtract it out. it has been very consistent for a number of years.

ronnie also makes a good point about alternates. when the weather goes down, alternates are required, and flights are canceled, these aircraft often have to leave with 10% of the seats open during a period when there are 20+ people on standby in addition to the normally oversold flight. a 10% reduction in revenue, further reduction in revenue as free tickets are rewarded, and an increased number of passengers stuck.

it was difficult leaving the gate with seats open, and people in the terminal wanting to get on. i never saw that happen with the 737, even in the worst weather.

it really does exasperate an already bad situation.

gettinbumped

You are so so correct. I watch two 50 seaters leave PDX-SFO almost daily without the ability to take a jumpseater. I keep PRAYING its going to make me miss a trip, but I always seem to make it down to work, and have trouble coming home.

The problem is, United doesn't care about the financials of the RJ. They see it as a weapon to use against us, and they realize what a big stick it is. Look no further than the mostly empty 70's they are flying out of IAH. The financially smart thing to do would have been to stick those right back into the UAL system and put the 50's back down there. But NOOO.... they are gonna show us who's in charge! Bonuses all around. Losers

Scott Stoops

Because they think they're winning the battle with the union by doing so. Endgame - that's apparently their goal. We have 40% fewer pilots, half as many airplanes, basically the same costs, far less efficiency and revenue generation potential, but man we're killing the pilots from a management perspective. What a f'ing joke this company is. We used to have 5+ guppies a day SFO-EUG, SFO-MFR, SFO-SLC, etc, all mostly full. Now we have 4-5 RJ's that can't haul a load. 600 seats to 200 seats per day. Heck, I tried to get out of PHX to DEN the other day on a Sunday and our last flight left at 1700. Between 1700 and midnight there were an additional 7 flights by other airlines - all 100% full. UFB.