GRALISTAIR

If you were a business man with ORD so close, and having all the other hubs, would you keep Cleveland as a hub?

pdx1M

Personally I have decided to write UA with specifics on flight and crew that did it whenever I hear this type of nonsense from either PMCO or PMUA crews. It isn't professional and the longer it continues the less likely the customers are to see consistent and unified service. There is one company now - customers and employees need to deal with that like grown ups.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Agree. Im from the CO side of the airline, however all my announcements are now "on behalf on United, Star Alliance network, and your Newark based inflight crew we thank you for choosing to fly with us today etc" Whenever Im not flying the ISM position, or am simply flying as a passenger on a either sCO or sUA aircraft, and hear those announcements I just roll my eyes and think to myself seriously ppl we are supposed to be in this together, and from my personal point of view, it seems the ones who make these type of announcements are the ones who have been with either airline for longer then 15 years. With that said I welcome the 119 sUA FA's who decided to take the crossover program, and welcome them to the sCO side. Look forward to working with them in the future. In fact I had a very excellent sUA crew on my recent EWR-SEA flight while flying back to SEA to visit some family. They were attentive, outgoing, nice and went out of their way to make sure I felt welcome.

copperred

I haven't been through CLE but know lots of people who have and it doesn't have much to recommend it I hear. It's not close to any major metropolitan area, it's not like Cleveland is a major destination, RnR HOF excepted (or proximate in EWR's case) in its own right like all the other hubs. Is there a financial incentive to keeping the hub?

TWA Fan 1

If the crews are really going to insist on identifying their legacy companies, why stop at United and Continental?

After all, these companies both went through a few iterations.

On the Continental side, there are still some people who were merged into CO while they were working for PeoplExpress and I don't really think there is any reason not to tell the passengers.

Can you just imagine it?

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Newark. Thank you for flying on this United flight proudly operated by a Newark-based PeoplExpress crew."

But we could go even further back. By a twist of fate, both United and Continental were started by the same person, Walter Varney, and not omly would it be accurate to tell passengers that the flight was operated by a "Varney Air Lines crew," but since both UA and CO started out as Varney, it would have the further effect of unifying the two camps and breaking the ice...

copperred

Was LAS a PMCO semi-hub or something before the merger? There was a GS at the UC when I arrived who was annoyed that she couldn't get in without having her card on her. The desk staff couldn't look her up. It was a bit DYKWIA but I get it. I figured she was just not having the best day and she left in a huff saying something to the effect of "...we'll see if I'm a GS next year!" Had she stuck around I probably would have carded her in as a guest, no skin off my nose to be a little nice after a long week.

I didn't think much of it but the staff manning the desk were having a number of very loud conversations for the next few hours of my stay and I had to move to the windows before the TV drowned them out. Let's just say the conversation was less than positive. Thankfully I had many TV episodes to watch and time to kill.

I know mergers are hard, and I know they're not unicorns and glitter and awesomeness. The merger has not been handled well from a PR perspective and personally I find Smisek a wee bit creepy, but even with that I don't see how the announcements are doing anyone any favors.

aluminumdriver

I think everyone is missing the point here. The reason some crews are doing this is to highlight that the PR campaign from Mr. Smisek that United has merged as of the PSS date is just that, PR. United is not merged, it's two airlines working under the UCH company. The pilots are still separate groups, flying their own equipment and not integrated.

AD

TWA Fan 1

That's correct, but there is no positive purpose in making these statements.

HP and US are still separate entities, but you will never hear an HP crew announce that the flight was operated by an "America West crew."

I can appreciate the real issues behind the scenes, but those issues are not advanced in any way by making these statements.

Whether or not UAL still consists of two workforces operating segregated routes and a/c is irrelevant to the flying public, who are doing business with United.

copperred

^ +1

It's not like we're talking about IAG and BA and Iberia.

jacroweORD

geeze...how easy is it for these employees to leave the politics out of it for the customers?...we don't care. if you hate it so much do something else. more unprofessional behavior. i am sure they are well informed as to how to run a biz too...hell, most on FT can't comprehend sentences...

uwr

We understand that the merger is difficult for the employees.

It's also difficult for the paying customers. We just want to be transported safely and treated with respect. We don't want to deal with the many hassles that the merger has created.

And we definitely don't want to be involved with the airline's internal politics. It is irritating. Why should we care if the pilots or FAs are separate or integrated?

I have enough issues to deal with in my professional role and personal life, and I don't know why a professional would feel the need to get me involved in his or her workplace politics.

It only hurts the employees in the long run if this negative attitude shows through.

jacroweORD

^^^^^^^^^^^

SICK of hearing the complaining from employees..here, at airport, on plane.

malgudi

Splitting hairs, mon ami ... much as you would like to defend your mates, this is beyond the pale. We DON'T care about your internal politics. Keep them to yourself or vent elsewhere.

tjl

On a US Airways flight once, the plane was marked "operated by America West Airlines", presumably because they were still really two separate airlines for a while after the corporate merger. But the flight crew made no such announcement.

tom911

Who is this "we" you're speaking for? Did you mean to say "I" as you're not speaking for me and I suspect many others here.

I rather enjoy getting aluminumdriver's perspective on what is going on with the contracts, unions and UA management and hope he continues to post here. Posts like yours will just run another UA employee off this forum.

Once their contracts are all settled, won't that go away? Seems like the easiest way to make that happen is for UA management to finish those contracts.