Wow this is a very disappointing scenario and clearly badly handled by GA's and managers.
I flew 7 segments last week and everything went fine. I think inevitably that the 3/3 merger of the res systems was going to cause problems, but this seems to be a non merger issue.
I think most FT members have had their own horror stories on both airlines, and as poorly as this flight was handled I think we all need to take a deep breath and give it a bit of time. Both airlines have their share of bad apples and when situations like this occur it is very upsetting and disconcerting.
The potential of the merger is there to create a a world-class airline (American-wise). There will always be times that things go awry. Let's hope the story of flight 90 does get the attention of senior management and more resources and training get given to staff on how to to deal with a aircraft swap to a smaller plane.
Clearly the new UA will not be a success if situations like this become common. I think management needs to do a lot of work to do with frontline employees who are working in a very challenging environment.
The FT community is more adept at finding other options in this type of situation than the so called 'Kettles'. I have not had an irrop on the new UA so I have not experienced how things are handled, but as a long time UA flyer I definitely had some awful outcomes, but usually I got to where I needed to be in a timely fashion. Sometimes a flight delay is annoying and sometimes it is crucial to a business deal, or a wedding, or a funeral, or a 40th birthday party.
Thanks for informing us, Weatherboy, about this situation. Let it be a lesson to the new UA management on how 'not to' operate a flight.
Adam