Is ASA America's worst airline?
 

I hate to generalize from personal experiences, but the general incompetence I recently experienced flying ASA through ATL would easily peg them as the worst domestic airline.

It wasn't just the fact that each of my flights was 3 hours late (without significant weather issues). It was the WAY in which the flights were late. Leaving ATL tonight, up until 10 minutes before departure, we were "on time." Without providing a consistent explanation -- I heard late inbound aircraft, late arriving crew, aircraft swap, etc. -- we slooowly incurred a 3 hour delay. All in 20 minute increments. They certainly appeared to be Manana Airways. And while there are no departure boards in D (a nice touch, along with the out-of-service bathrooms), I doubt there was a single ASA flight close to being on time tonight.

I know it's a tough summer this year with ATC delays and such, but ASA seems to be entirely unable to cope with any irregularity. Their system just collapses. I would submit that in their current form, the airline is unflyable. I will look for other alternatives.

My answer is No.. :D

My answer is: Yes!

Atlanta's Substandard Airline -- the Delta Misconnection.

They are called that for a reason.

American Eagle is no gem either but I find ASA to be vastly worse... the employees dont seem to care and there is a total lack of professionalism in most everything they do. Total amateur hour - just what I want in an airline!!!!!

Delta seriously neglected ASA after they purchased the airline. Rather than upgrade automation at both Delta and ASA and merge the IT shops, Delta continued to run ASA separately. The IT shop there was just a couple of geeks and home built software in the office with green screen terminals at the gates from the 1980's (and they still are mostly).

ASA wasn't given any of the new toys that Delta built and is taking advantage of to run a better airline. I don't think that's the case with American Eagle. Senior management at Delta doesn't understand even to this day that people associate ASA's suckitude with Delta. When people have a bad experience on ASA they have a bad experience on Delta.

Hopefully the DL management that lurk on this forum would understand this ...

I'm sure the management who lurk on this board understand this; it's their bosses who don't. Senior management doesn't lurk on these kinds of boards - only their lackeys.

Well, how do you define senior management? There are some people right up there on the totem pole at Delta that read this. I don't think Jerry G. is one of them but I think he hears about some of the stuff first hand. Of course, if we have a good idea, I am sure the manager that brings it up takes credit for it. :)

ASA is right up there with the worst IMHO. There are other regional airlines that aren't very good either. I am not a huge fan of Great Lakes Aviation. I was just on ERA and that is pretty much a joke. Mesaba has never struck me as terribly professional either.

From my limited experience, ASA's inflight service was fine -- the flight crews seemed professional and (hopefully!) maintenance is as well. Where the airline breaks down seems to be is in nuts and bolts operational management, and also in recruitment of quality ground staff and facilities in ATL.

In my 4 hours at ATL's Terminal D yesterday, I could see that the airline was having a hard time matching up crew with aircraft, leading to several delays. I'm sure the weather was bad SOMEWHERE in their system yesterday (not ATL), but this kind of mickey mouse "no one to fly the planes" ops was ridiculous. There were also a bunch of unexplained maintenance delays. NOBODY was getting out on time, and obviously the delays were just cascading through the system.

They also seemed to be making "seat of the pants" scheduling decisions. My flight was actually called (only 20 minutes late!) before they told us to sit back down. They decided to use our aircraft for another, later flight. The gate agents then seemed to have absolutely no idea when our flight would be rescheduled. This was a scene repeated over and over: none of the pax in the terminal had any real idea when they would be leaving.

The gate agents seemed like rookies who either didn't know how to retrieve accurate flight information or simply weren't provided with that information. I saw several pax leave for other terminals to talk to "real" DL employees about reaccomodation and such.

Terminal D is also uncomfortable, with lots of ripped chairs and carpeting and inoperable restrooms. One half of the concourse (and it's huge) currently has no restrooms, which is kind of a problem when you have absolutely no idea when your flight will be called and they keep doling out the delays in 15 and 20 minute intervals.

There are also no flight schedule monitors in the terminal and, at the gate, the display information tends to run on autopilot. Like the screen flashes "boarding" for your flight even though your plane isn't yet in ATL! When they do decide, inexplicably, to board your flight, unless you are sitting within 20 feet of the gate (good luck finding a seat!), you'll find it almost impossible to hear the gate announcement.

Just a very bad experience. I know DL is losing customers with this kind of service.

Those of you who ask/agree with this obviously have never had the (dis)pleasure of stepping aboard Trans States, Air Wisconsin, or Mesa!

Now that Comair is likely to be history, expect a lot more ASA in your Delta flying routine.

Not true. I don't know about Grinstein, but I know several who report directly to him do.

They are also ware of the many issues and are working with Sky West to clean it up. I've suggested they clean house in ATL and start all over. One of the biggest issues are the unions and they complicates the matter.

One of the less colorful names I have for ASA is "America's Sorriest Airline" If I'm really upset with them I tend to switch the "S" word, which I can not type on here lest I go the cornfield..........

I really don't understand where you get this from?!? Please explain.

That's BS. They've been 'working to clean up' ASA for 5 or 6 years now.

If they wanted ASA to be better it would be better by now. It's not the most difficult task they are facing by far and would have one of the greatest returns on investment. Unfortunately a lot of that return wouldn't appear immediately on the income statement or balance sheet so they don't bother.

It seems to me that ASA and Colgan are competing for this title. Bleh.

The BK Judge says Comair can throw out the F/A contract. So I'm guessing they will strike and be gone.

Comair in its glory will not be in existence again. The plans for FA's, pilots, and mechanics make it one step up from Mesa. Comair used to be right up there with SkyWest as the best in the business. With the new "concessions," they will lose a lot of good senior people. Good senior people make a company strong.

Comair will most likely eventually be sold off or will go out of business completely if the FA's do strike. Even if it does survive, the glory days of it being among the best will be long gone. Sorry to break it to you, but that's the future.

Exactly. ASA should be up to SkyWest standards by now, but it's far from it. It is better than some, though. But there's a reason SkyWest didn't fully incorproate ASA into the SkyWest brand instead of keeping them as their own brand. They don't want to be completely associated with them.

In order to fix ASA's problems, SkyWest would basically have to clean house and get their people in there. It may happen eventually, but it will be a decade or more before they weed out all the bad in ASA. In the meantime, SkyWest cherry picks the best of the lot and leaves the rest for ASA.

The facilities are sort of out of ASAs control. The entire ATL airport is undergoing a renovation and with that includes the restrooms. They are also replacing the chairs as well. The restroom on one half was probably closed due to renovation. While they can complain to Hartsfield managment I'm sure it's not going to do much.

I love how everyone jumps to conclusions on this. Just because that happened doesn't mean the airline is going to be gone/there will be a strike. There are many solutions to the problem that will probably happen before they close the doors.

Wow we have a fortune teller here. Quit trolling.

Can't say that I disagree with you, and in fact agree with you. however I'm going to give the current COO a chance to see if any progress can be made. Time will tell.......

ASA is a flying (occasionally) pile of whale dung.

Some of this is, but a lot of it is because Delta never bothered to make ASA's facilities up to the same standard as mainline's facilities.

Just another example of neglect and ignorance.

Now for all of the bashing ASA deservedly gets on the ground (and the bashing I give Delta for allowing it), I believe that their in-flight crews (pilots and FAs) are outstanding. Same for Comair.

Is ASA America's worst airline?
 

Well in a nutshell if you have to ask that question then you have not had to fly "Atlanta's Sorriest Airline" very often.

No question about it it ... my vote is YES! End of discussion.

I avoid ASA at all costs - primary problem with all of their incompetence is directly related to:

1. Poor personnel selection and screening during the hiring process.
2. Lack of customer service & skills training to a level required that would
allow the poorly selected/hired personnel to function at an acceptable
level of competence.
3. Attitude - ASA management obviously does not instill/enforce the proper
work ethic with the pitiful customer treatment being the end result.

AirTran has some of the same issues but they normally seem to be a little more "user friendly" and informative when things go down the tubes. ASA will NEVER get it right - that's a given - just try to completely avoid them. I even use other carriers I don't normally fly/alternate hubs just to stay away from ASA. :)

Please don't call them "lackeys" I would respect them for trying to make a difference by gathering information to improve the company for which they work.

SkyWest hasn't been working with them for 5 or 6 years. As I have said before, if SkyWest can make some progress and improve ASA, then they should get a new name for it. However, they must make the progress first.

I flew ASA today. I think they are getting better. My ASA flight only left 1/2 hour late today, but then so did my DL mainline flight. :rolleyes:

Care to source this information? If it is just your personal opinion, please label it as such. You're certainly entitled to post an opinion here, but an attempt to pass it off as indisputable fact will get challenged every time.

If the FAs want to strike, then I guess it's their right to do so. Let the chips fall where they may. In my experience with OH, their FAs were above industry average, but certainly not deserving of the highest pay among the regionals and definitely not irreplacable.

And on topic...ASA surely gets my vote for worst, but in fairness, it's been a long time since I flew Mesa. ;)

Fortunately, my most frequent destinations (PNS and VPS) are also serviced by DL mainline flights, so I always book it that way, leaving enough time in ATL after the int'l arrival. That way, you also get an MD-88 instead of a CRJ.

I started doing this years ago when I noticed that ASA simply cancelled flights if they weren't full enough (particularly the first one in the AM). I missed too many connections in ATL because ASA thought it was better to inconvenience pax rather than fly a potentially unprofitable leg. So, short term, they saved money. Congratulations. Long term, they lost my business.

I wonder if this is somehow related to the fact that the DL MD-88s to VPS and PNS are almost always full and frequently overbooked... hmmmm.

Asa
 

I routinely fly ASA out of APF (Naples, FL) and never have a problem. Most of the flights are never full and I have never had one cancelled. As for delays, I have experienced a few when leaving from ATL back to APF but never more than I have experienced on regular Delta flights and have never had one cancelled, (yet).

Well, you are lucky. BTW, if "most of the flights are never full", you won't have these flights for much longer....especially with RSW close.

SkyWest has had only about a year to work on it, and I tend to believe that eventually they will work ASA into shape.

David

RSW has gotten extremely busy, and yields are no doubt suffering due to WN entering the market earlier this year. Plus RSW has JetBlue, AirTran, Frontier, and USA 3000.

Additionally, I-75 is just a disaster in Lee/Collier counties during the season, and the trip from RSW into Naples can take quite a while.

Operating costs at RSW may have gone up to pay for that big new terminal, but I can't find any information on that. Can't be good for operating costs to demolish a terminal that is about 20 years old and have to build a much bigger one.

ASA is the only sheduled carrier into APF (Naples Airport web site) , so I would speculate that yields may be decent. There may also be a subsidy going on.....

Scheduled service into APF has come and gone over the past couple of decades. But given the continued growth in the area, the competition at RSW, and the road congestion in the area, I would speculate that ASA is there to stay. If they were going to drop the flights, they would already be gone as this is the low season...

Plus APF is "the best little airport in the country." Well, that's what their web site says!! :rolleyes:

David

My recent OAK - SLC roundtip on ASA / Delta couldn't have been better.

On time and no complaints for this part of my transcon. Great crew and smoothest landings ever. ^

I would be on that.
If they can make money for SkyWest and Delta via the monopoly, then great.

This is a very innaccurate comment. It was quite obvious to all of us at the VR Event that the top of the food chain is VERY VERY well aware of what is said on FT and does read what is here!!!!!!

And from an email I got from the VP of marketing (very high up the ladder) they are also aware of how ASA's problems impace their FF's (we discussed this back when the CRJ survey came out).

I mentioned ASA's problems to Kevin Pinto and he was very surprised. However, this is far from his area of responsibility being in charge of SkyTeam and Asia.

The conversation I had about it started because of, as I said, the CRJ survey. I made the suggestion that one thing they missed on it was rating things by the carrier, because the planes and the experience are very different depending on who you fly with. and as part of her response said (direct copy of one piece of one email from a series).....

"You make a very good point - the survey perhaps could have provided
better information if we broke it down by regional partner. We gather a
lot of customer satisfaction data by carrier through our monthly
surveys, but the RJ survey could have helped our understanding of
service gaps between partner carriers even further.

We are concerned about recent service trends (friendliness and
helpfulness of staff in particlular) at certain carriers and are
addressing specific issues with their management teams."

and will admit ASA was the certain carrier we were discussing.