paulyras and star_world,
I think you've hit the nail on the head.
My experience has been that mainline service has been okay. There are still some grumpy crews, meals have improved in some ways and declined in others, I have done very well with upgrades, we're now starting to see WiFi, upgraded cabins on intercontinental aircraft, and long-awaited updates to United Clubs.
A lot SHARES problems are getting better as s-UA staff get used to them. I now hear s-CO employees use words like "1K" and "GS," there aren't as many struggles with changes, etc.
The new boarding process isn't working yet, but they'll keep working on it.
The problem is with Express.
This isn't unique to United. I've done long tours of duty on troublesome American Eagle, Northwest Airlink, US Airways Express, Air Canada Jazz/Express, and Delta Connection flights. (Goodbye, Comair!) But that's not an excuse.
I'm forever grateful to Scott McCartney for making the Newark United Express delays national news.
I got stuck with one a few days ago (not weather-related). This is a mess.
Newark has a lot more connecting traffic than Delta out of JFK. Although they're competing, Newark is a different operation. Although they have plenty of O&D traffic at Newark, United has huge masses of connections, and so many of them are on United Express.
I've been stuck many times with Delta Connection at JFK before or after an international flight. Instead of competing on flat bed seats and DirectTV, I would like United to compete by saying "we've got a smooth, on-time operation at our East Coast hub." What happened to "Work Hard, Fly Right?" I feel like the United crews still want to fly on time; the Express crews seem to lack any incentive.
Of course it's not isolated to Newark, but that is the focus of the problem.
After 3407, I felt like United might switch to more mainline flying out of Newark. Nope. Their operation depends on smaller aircraft and thus decreased costs.
No wonder Southwest and Hawaiian do so well with on-time performance. They're not relying on constantly-changing contract operations to do their flying for them.
After Sunday's incident, I went back and pondered my options of switching to America or Delta. (jetBlue, Southwest, and Virgin don't fly where I fly.) After weighing all of the options, I realized that I'd still end up on ramshackle American Eagle or Delta Connection flights... nothing would really change.