America West FlightFund (Discontinued Program) - Is Mesa EVER on time?

I had a wonderful AWA Express (operated by Mesa) experience on Saturday morning. I was flying from PHX to OAK, on a beautiful CRJ900. I was at the gate at 6:45am for an 8:10am departure. At 7:50am, I realized that a gate agent had NEVER shown up for this flight. I asked the agent at the gate next door to please call and let their Operations department know.

Finally, after inquiring a second time, the gate agent shows up at 8:00am. All the while, the gate sign says "ON TIME" at 8:10am. Naturally, passengers start asking the gate agent if we are leaving. She begins to get very upset with the passengers and finally makes an announcement that "a crew member is missing and we are trying to locate a replacement".

About 8:25am, the replacement FA shows up and we depart at approximately 8:45am. Then, we get to Oakland 30 minutes late and, of course, the gate is now OCCUPIED. We sit on the tarmac for 15 minutes and then pull into a gate. Then, it took 15 more minutes to get our carry-on luggage (approx. 50 bags) out of the cargo hold. The baggage handlers were literally carrying them over 2 at a time (using no cart or anything)! We couldn't get off the plane until all carry-ons were delivered.

I was impressed that the CAPTAIN went out and helped the luggage handlers carry over some of the carry-on luggage. When I got home, I checked flight status for this flight. It shows that the flight arrived ONE MINUTE EARLY (which is blatant lie -- we arrived at the gate 45 minutes late)! Does anyone know if I can report this to the government?

I have flown on 5 AWA Express flights over the past 6 months. All of them have been at least an hour late. One time they changed our gate 3 times before leaving PHX. What a poor excuse for an airline!

I have flown on 5 AWA Express flights over the past 6 months. All of them have been at least an hour late. One time they changed our gate 3 times before leaving PHX. What a poor excuse for an airline!

Mesa is generally late, at least by my experience. I've found that when I arrive in PHX and am scheduled for the return on Mesa (sometimes it is unavoidable) if I go to customer service and request it, they're happy to rebook my return onto a mainline flight. Especially if I stand there and BS with them about the Mesa related shenanigans I've experienced.

The folks in PHX don't have much love for Mesa, I've seen.

Does anybody know if Mesa is as problematic on other airlines (UA, etc)?

I was impressed that the CAPTAIN went out and helped the luggage handlers carry over some of the carry-on luggage. When I got home, I checked flight status for this flight. It shows that the flight arrived ONE MINUTE EARLY (which is blatant lie -- we arrived at the gate 45 minutes late)! Does anyone know if I can report this to the government?

I have flown on 5 AWA Express flights over the past 6 months. All of them have been at least an hour late. One time they changed our gate 3 times before leaving PHX. What a poor excuse for an airline!

You can report this to the DOT but I would report it to AWA instead. Mesa has to pay a penalty (from what I understand) to AWA everytime they don't meet operational objectives, such as on-time. Lying about their performance to AWA is dishonest and taking advantage of their customer.

It doesn't help that Mesa employees can't stand working for Ornstein. He pays them nothing and treats them like dirt. We the customer are the last person they want to see at the airport.

AWA seems to be late quite a bit lately. When I'm on Mesa it's almost guaranteed.

No they are not, they absolutely suck :mad:

does this only happen with the america west operation, or is it the same with the usairways express operation on the east coast

does this only happen with the america west operation, or is it the same with the usairways express operation on the east coast

It's the same on the east coast. I've had to use United a few times to get to smaller east coast cities and I've connected at IAD to Mesa flights.

They are a disaster there too. I actually think they may be worse at IAD then they are at PHX. They bus you from the C concourse out to temporary loading area. Planes and bags are going every which direction. Then you board your flight and ask the FA if you are on the right flight and often times she doesn't know and has to look at her paperwork! On-time is a foreign word there.

United, US Airways, and AWA use Mesa because they are cheap. When I used to use Continental I was always impressed with the Expressjet operation and how seamless it was. Mesa is the complete opposite. If I remember correctly United dropped Mesa a few years back because of poor service. They were more than happy to have them back in bankruptcy court it seems!

As a Mesa refugee myself (two airlines and about 11 years ago), I can tell ya first hand, that place is a DAMN JOKE. I thought it would improve with some experience, but it's tough to gain experience when you alienate and run off your employees.... they're just a lot bigger joke now.

Travis

Please for your customer's sake Doug Parker will you ban them from HP when their contract is up.

BTW does anyone know when it expires?

Please for your customer's sake Doug Parker will you ban them from HP when their contract is up.

BTW does anyone know when it expires?

Who do you propose Doug replace them with?

Mesa is here to stay for the foreseeable future!

Who do you propose Doug replace them with?

Mesa is here to stay for the foreseeable future!

Out of curiosity what ever happened to Freedom, or Chautaqua?

I agree Doug et al may be in a sticky situation.

Out of curiosity what ever happened to Freedom, or Chautaqua?

I agree Doug et al may be in a sticky situation.

Freedom was actually Mesa operation under a different name, due to a contract issue that was in place not allowing Mesa to operate aircraft with over a certain amount of seats. Chautaqua went away with the Columbus hub.