MrMan

Thought I would get you guys thoughts on an experience I had yesterday flying DFW-CID. CID and Baton Rouge flight both delayed and leaving at same gate same time. No announcements why delayed, when to expect etc. This was an Envoy gate. Gate agent disappeared quite often without any news on how two flights would leave at the same time. Many inexperienced flyers nervous without any news. Basically an issue of lack of communication. Walked over to next gate as we did not have a gate agent at posted time for flight suggesting they get a manager. Gate agent was working a Republic flight. Very resistant calling a manager as it was obvious she couldn't call one on an Envoy flight. Same uniform, same signage all Eagle, but it appears not same Gate manager. We ended up leaving to CID under the Baton Rouge banner further confusing everyone, and a gate agent that could not comprehend that this was an issue.

Questions I have now that Eagle has different flavorsrs, who's employee manages and who's employees work the gate and ground?

I have always been pleased with my DFW Eagle experience, but my feeling its has gone to the way of ORD Term G.

bchandler02

I've always felt that Eagle @ORD was much less organized as well - likely stemming from the fact that they are multiple carriers and don't seem to operate as one. Been a while since I've been on Eagle @ DFW, but with them coming to OKC I'm sure it will happen again soon - but never had an issue there in the past.

JohnAx

I saw something that made me think that American Eagle as an airline no longer exists, and USdbaAA now contracts with a long list of regional carriers I really don't want to fly - the low bidders who actually pay their pilots less than a living wage so that they need a second job to get by, and endure commutes that cause them to show up for work without enough rest.

FWAAA

American Eagle the airline (MQ) still exists, at least for a while. It has changed its corporate name to "Envoy Air," so now the words "American Eagle" refer to the marketing brand name for regional flying. Before the name change, the words "American Eagle" could have meant the carrier's corporate name or the brand of regional flying.

That said, Envoy pilots refused to entertain more concessions on top of the bankruptcy concessions, and thus Parker and Kirby have set in motion plans to transfer the CRJ-700s to another regional carrier in addition to the earlier announced threat to assign new E175s to other regional airlines. Accordingly, Envoy (MQ) will slowly wither away as its Embraer 44-seaters and 50-seaters are retired.

As for ground handling, as far as I know, Envoy is the primary (maybe only) domestic outsourced ground handling company used by pmAA. Republic, SkyWest, ExpressJet and Mesa supply pilots and flight attendants, but no baggage handlers or passenger service agents - those are all Envoy, for now. AFAIK, the Eagle agents at DFW are all Envoy, so I don't know why the agent wouldn't summon a manager. Doesn't matter which airline was operating the flight - the agents inside are Envoy.

JohnAx

Thanks very much for the 'Envoy' information. I wasn't aware of the change.

It seems that no matter what they do to disadvantage their employees, most CEOs truly can't imagine that many of them will react by reducing their personal committment to the company and to passenger service.