JOSECONLSCREW28

My dismissive attitude? No dude my dismissive attitude is from people like you who can't get out of the past and think that everything UA needs to be kept while erasing everything CO. And for the record the merger between DL & NW some things were brought over from the NW side and I suspect some things from the US side will carry over with the AA/US merger.

And as usual these threads always turn into a "CO was such a horrible airline and UA was so perfect" kinda thread.

channa

Is he an employee?

Customers can have whatever attitudes they want, but for an employee to think poorly or negatively of half of the organization is unacceptable.

Sadly this behavior is condoned by the CEO, as evidenced by his recent comments.

united4

Ah, but you have no problem living in the past referring to yourself as an "sCO" employee, and are also defensive if anybody dares try to state the FACT that Continental Airlines is dead. You are on record to saying to legacy UA flyers on this site that the tulip is dead and they need to get over it, yet you have not "gotten over" the fact that your airline was acquired and you have been a United employee for nearly 4 years.

You have no problem with almost everything going the CO way, and with it being shown not to really work, blast anybody who dares suggest that they should've kept more of the legacy United policies/systems/branding.

bhrubin

UA lifetime Gold here. I don't hate on UA like most, but I acknowledge that UA has plenty of room to improve. That being said, AA and DL aren't a lot better in my experience, as I've had numerous challenges with them, too (and I've got DL Plat status largely through credit card spend and moderate flying).

Those who think the name is an issue are kidding themselves. UA's problems stem from mismanagement, labor issues (the fact that the UA and CO unions will not merge has been tragic for everyone), market competition, and the like...much as is true for AA and DL even now. UA needs to change, but so do all airlines. Change is pretty difficult with the union forces fighting them at every step, too...which is one reason UA suffers so many mechanical issues and delays which could be avoided, since the mechanics unions for UA and CO are not permitting members to work on the other airlines original planes! Unions are important, and critical, but the insouciance of the unions here is causing a major headache for everyone. That isn't a management problem.

Everyone seems to see the grass greener on the other side without ever having spent much time there. For former CO flyers, yes, I'd agree that CO service was far better before the merger, but I'd also had pretty decent service whenever I flew pre-merged UA, to be fair. I'd say UA service and responsiveness are better now than before the merger. I'd say CO flyers have far more options and a better route map than they had before the merger.

Life is change, and some are simply holding onto the vestiges of the past regardless of the fact that it's dead and gone. Suck it up.

channa

In fairness, this is the nomenclature that is used, which is another management fail.

US used US East and US West to quickly eliminate the HP name.

Like the company being United Continental Holdings (another management fail), they should have used other names for the workgroups rather than the legacy company names.

jlivengo

Just looking at the arguments on this board prove this article is spot on. From my experience. UA was great during IRROPS, excellent customer service in the late 2000's. In contrast, CO always got me there on time. Which one was better? Don't care. Today I have bad IRROPS experiences with poor customer service.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Can UA be a great airline? Of course it can. If I didn't want to stick around I would've left years ago before the merger. I enjoy working here and I enjoy the people I work with. My issue is from people who can't get out of the past rather then living in the present and the future. CO is dead old UA is dead lets move onto the present and the future rather then dwelling on the past.

nikolastojsin

^ +1 Spot on, on all counts.

Definite opportunity missed - pmUA employees were so hopeful at the time of the merger (I remember this), and pmCO ones were still on board from old days...

Pulling the merger of two radically different businesses was way beyond the abilities of current management - and that is all there is to it, really.

For what is worth, this pmCO guy kind of liked the last iteration of the tulip...

JOSECONLSCREW28

Let me give you a little history lesson. The FA group is still separated. sCO FAs can only work sCO aircraft and sUA FAs can only work sUA aircraft. That's why FAs still refer to it as sCO/sUA. And where in any thread have I mentioned I haven't gotten over that the Continental name went away?

channa

That's fine, so let's fix the future. Maybe you can start by telling your union not treat the crossover FAs so poorly and honoring their seniority until an agreement comes out.

That's just an example of how the divide continues -- take suboptimal work or a layoff, but only apply it to one side of the company.

US and HP had much the same restrictions. They referred to themselves as US West and US East.

JOSECONLSCREW28

So should a crossover FA who was hired on the UA side in 2006 have more seniority then a CO FA hired in 2005? And for the record I have yet to hear anything negative from the crossover FAs working on the CO side.

tuolumne

United was a big airlines with a big fleet, transitioning liveries a handful of years after 9/11, SARS, Ch.11 protection, and thus doing it slowly during maintenance checks. What would you have them do, reduce regular maintinence procedures because it didn't have the same color? Not to sound trite, but "your airline" never had to deal with these problems, as they were using a livery designed in the late 80s.

He never said that! This isn't a zero sum game, it is in fact possible to disagree with this current management team and not believe in "erasing everything CO" or however you put it! I think you're a good guy, Jose, so tread carefully. This is the internet, and I can all but guarantee someone from Willis is reading what you write...

channa

Not sure how it's calculated, but it should be calcualted fairly.


Of course not. I pegged a crossover FA on a CO flight recently (before door close, it was easy, you can tell by how they serve you). When I mentioned it, he was very discrete about saying anything, because the rest of the crew were COers and he feared they would not necessarily agree with his perspective.

It seems these folks may not be comfortable speaking with their CO counterparts.

Yet another problem in the organization's culture, which this article refers to.

entropy

I think most people know/acknowledge (including UA elites, myself in that) that UA wasn't the greatest for hard and soft product for most of the 00's.

They did however, treat their elites exceptionally well, and had a mileage program that was rewarding and biased towards flying UA metal (500's/CR1s only earned on UA BIS).
The way they treated their elite customers in IRROPs was best-in-breed, and they had the policies and technological means of getting people on their way efficiently and reliably.

THAT is what is sorely missing from my perspective. On UA, they may have had MX issues, but they got me where I had to go, quickly, without a fight. It seems that with CO you have to fight to get reaccomodated within a week.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Were supposed to have a joint contract by July next year so hopefully all this bickering and pointing fingers will end. I actually look forward to working with FAs from the sUA side and having the chance to work a 747 and 763.