Hate to even say it, much less post it here, but it's true.

Last four or five trips on US have been less than great. Counter personnel are increasingly new hires (as the mainline folks have either left their jobs or been let go) working for the affiliated commuter carriers --- they are new to their jobs and doing the best they can, but are making a whopping $8.66 an hour and ..........

I've seen plenty of elites in small stations getting stuck or up against some tough situations (like missed connections, etc) and few employees are willing to go out on a limb to work to fix things. It's altogether possible that they don't really know how.

The last 3 or 4 times I've called Gold Res, I've had frankly dismal service. I would suspect that the opposite would be true as the core of res agents that is left these days is made up of folks primarily with 15+ years experience with the company!!! Today I called and the rep answered with her greeting and then instantly told me she needed to place me on hold (before I said a thing) and then left me there for about 2 minutes ! ! ! ! When she came back, I told her that I wanted to ensure that my next 3 trips had all legs listed in the UG queue (I can't do that online since my company's corp TA blocks the records from virtuallythere.com, etc) -- that normally takes a good agent about 40 seconds to do it all. Today it took her more than 10 minutes -- much of that I was on hold and she kept asking for assistance.

I am not one to get negative, and I really hope to see US pull this one out and be wildly successful in the months and years ahead, but with this sort of stuff on the front lines, count me out.

At my home airport, practically all of the former US agents have left when the station went mainline express -- the same is true for nearly all of the cities I travel to for work. In almost every one of those cities, I knew the old agents by name and knew a lot about them. I saw them go above and beyond the call of duty for me and many others countless times. 'Tis no more.

:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Today I called and the rep answered with her greeting and then instantly told me she needed to place me on hold (before I said a thing) and then left me there for about 2 minutes ! ! ! !(

I hope this wasn't because of me. I had called the Gold line from outside the U.S. and was working a complex issue with a very polite agent. It was complicated and took quite a while to explain and then, understandably, quite a while to resolve. In any case, I got disconnected. When I called back, the new agent (quite wisely, IMO) said that it would be best to speak to the original agent since the process was already in motion.

It could've been one of those situations where she chose, right or wrong, to come back to the case-in-progress and put you on hold. I'm not excusing it; just maybe explaining it.

I know the chance is probably a small fraction of 1%, but FWIW, just in case it was because of my return call, sorry.

While the stress of the current circumstances can sometimes even affect the best of the frontline staff, IMHO the sour faces and attitudes mostly come from the small number who have always had sour attitudes.

While the stress of the current circumstances can sometimes even affect the best of the frontline staff, IMHO the sour faces and attitudes mostly come from the small number who have always had sour attitudes.

I agree. There have always been bad apples...but in general, my recent interactions with frontline staff have been great - as usual.

-Chris

I agree. There have always been bad apples...but in general, my recent interactions with frontline staff have been great - as usual.

-Chris

Same here, especially the CP desk and the folks in the Clubs in PIT(Nov. 29) and DCA(weekly). They have all been friendly and helpful.

I have had some of the best airline service in recent weeks on U (11/25--11/30 bos-phl-fco r/t and 12/3--12/5 bos-clt-cae r/t).

I have seen an honest effort by some long-time U employees to keep the ship afloat. Long before the financial woes of the last couple of years I often witnessed the poor efforts of service people from U and other airlines. Overall the instances of rudeness, incompetence, lazy and unprofessional behavior remain fairly constant--as it does in every service industry.

I think some people may be looking for any signs of discontent--and when you look you will always find it.