My 20 years have been just what you described. I don't applaud them.
So far, only one bankruptcy, which is a good thing. We are so massively over complex and inefficient right now, it scares me. If the next downturn happens before we get lean again, it is going to be a very painful time. Again.

I would view this as an observation on more than just our flying.

It's how the airline operates. Smizek wasn't an operations guy, he was a lawyer. He didn't understand that in order to be competitive you need to compete. I can't attest to the UAL organization, chain of command, and staffing models prior to the merger but from what I have heard it is pretty similar.

Many layers to the onion. The same thing we see in flight ops is what we see within the company structure.

I do believe that UAL sees/views its people differently than other companies and cultures. At UAL, pilots are mere economic widgets. Our flying is inefficient because Howard Attarian doesn't see the need to compete. He is using the sheer mass and inertia of a large staffing model to mask the lack of planning and communication that is rife within the department.

We have too many "silos" where no one talks or communicates.

We have too many people within the decision making process and very little accountability.


I once had an issue with an expense report. I called the U source people to explain the issue fully. No luck. I asked for a supervisor and asked that person to phone my chief pilot and talk it over because after 3 months I was tired of chasing this down. He declined my request. I asked him to email the chief pilot, again he said no. I tried to get him to simply communicate. No way. I then called the chief pilot and put him on hold, then I used my I phone to merge the call and wham-bam, we had a conference call. I had to use trickery and deceipt to get this guy to simply do his job. Took over 3 months to get a U source reimbursement taken care of.

The complexity and inefficiency is built in. Normal folks would have given up on the reimbursement. But, I really find this inefficiency everywhere. When a stupid pilot bulletin comes out that contradicts the ops manual, or even common sense, you call or email the accountable party and you quickly learn they are making decisions on a script, often times they know their memo is stupid, but they do it anyway because someone higher up said to do it.

If we ever get to a point where we actually do need to compete (oil prices go up), it will be tough sledding. Our culture needs to change, and that needs to change within the corporate structure first, and then down to flight ops land.