rdg_dc

all were express / mainline transfers

FlyingNut724

Yet more questions about whether the workers have proper security clearance....

http://www.denverpost.com/business/c...oper-clearance

Clearly the Denver press is all over this debacle....

pinerd

Everyone should read the comments on this article - really interesting insight on what's going on...

Alpha Golf

For a chuckle, United is helping them recruit (see midpage): http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...r/default.aspx

You have to love the irony that it's listed under "careers." It's about as much a career as collecting cans from trash.

(Don't wanna hijack, but I also loved this: "At United, we're focused on being the flyer-friendly airline that customers want to travel on, employees want to work for and shareholders want to invest in. We are thriving in the culture that our employees have helped to create, one that values exceptional customer service, encourages new ideas and rewards performance."

vicmmen

Still waiting for bags in Den coming from NRT. 45 minutes and nothing. Not many other flights either.

tom911

Imagine they'll be some more applications for Simplicity and UA vacancies after this announcement, though the new vendor for Frontier will offer preferential interviewing and hiring to workers losing their jobs:

http://www.denverpost.com/business/c...ervations-work

They're contracting with Swissport at DEN.

Interesting that the lowest bid was not key factor with Frontier at DEN. I wonder where Simplicity fell on the list of UA bidders for ground ops at DEN.

tom911

http://www.denverpost.com/business/c...dia?source=rss

So maybe all the baggage issues at DEN weren't Simplicity's fault. Will be interesting how many workers that were layed off 7 years ago want to come back.

exerda

I'm curious, though, how furloughs from 7 years ago would be responsible for the current baggage issues at DEN. I think it's 100% on Simplicity (and UA for choosing Simplicity).

tom911

I've seen UA unnamed employees/union folks in several media pieces reporting that their workers have had an increased workload because of the change in who handles what at DEN, without any increase in manpower - basically an issue of how the ground work there is divided up. It all came about with the Skywest departure.

Here's a section from the article I linked:

DENviaLAX

Furloughed employees who are being called back aren't necessarily people who left the company. They could be people who chose to transfer somewhere else or in many cases stayed in DEN but took part time, along with people who took the street. This call back is just bringing back 30 full time employees, but it may not necessarily mean bringing in too many additional bodies if all or most of the people being called back are already in Denver working part time.

Either way though, more manpower and more full time is always good. They're also hiring additional part time employees off the street. Should've done it sooner, but better late than never.

boycruz

Denver narita 25 min delay today waiting for bags

although door closed early

cargo not loaded until 15 min before departure

poor operation

exerda

I was glad my bag made its connection DEN-IAD Sunday night, as I needed it for my upcoming trip tomorrow to Asia. I was hesitant to book through DEN for that very reason, and even changed my reservation to return Sunday instead of Monday to give an extra day of wiggle room in case of issues. (And no, I'm not just reacting to stories of baggage horrors at DEN; I'm speaking from experience, as someone who in the 2nd half of 2014 had bags delayed a full 75% of the time I traveled.)

At DEN, the ground staff were horrid at offloading our Q400's green-tagged bags; the conveyor belt operated looked like he was doing on-the-job training and couldn't line it up right with the plane. (This after waiting for the gate to open up due to W&B bag issues on the plane at our gate, FWIW.)

I was wary that they were going to put my green-tagged bag on the checked-bag cart, as though the ramp staff was scanning each one correctly, the guy loading the cart was not paying much attention and was letting bags pile up--then started to put them on the wrong cart until a coworker caught the mistake. Then they started to leave some bags on the tarmac until again a coworker noticed and tossed the bags on top.

These were not crippling issues, and I'm sure my tight connection and ensuing anxiety made them seem worse than they were. And they were a one-off anecdote. But it was clear to me that the DEN ground staff, at least those working the United Express wind tunnel, were not all that adept at their jobs.

Hawk Circle

My bag somehow made it last week on my mainline-RJ connection through Denver, but we were delayed 30 minutes because the boarding stairs were stuck in the RJ's door. Ground crew seemed to have no clue about what to do. Eventually, the unhappy pilot got involved and five minutes later we were on our way.

DENviaLAX

UA employees handle all the transfer bag operations now and generally do a really good job at it. Simplicity only handles the actual loading and unloading of express planes and well, still don't do such a great job at that.

weirdlyndon

This has nothing to do with Simplicity and UA outsourcing ground ops at DEN, since this was a mainline flight and ground crew working were UA employees.