Why fly crummy E175 on IAH-LGA?
Why does United fly this tiny plane on this 1600 mile route? Do they really have that little business? Is WN and AA completely kicking their butts in the NYC market? Is it either this, or drop the LGA routes, like they did with JFK?
I was on an IAH-LGA flight on Saturday. It was delayed due to the weight restrictions caused by the jet stream dipping south. At first, the pilot threatened to offload half of the customers. He wanted 30 persons to take an alternate flight out of Newark. Not enough people took the offer. So instead, he decided to fly to Savannah (SAV) of all places. We then had to fly west back to IAH. (The flight was even more miserable than that. The lavs ran out of potable water. The flight attendants ran out of food and drinks. There was no catering crew in SAV to re-cater the plane. An engine light came on, and we had to wait an extra hour, for a maintenance person to come out, and check out the light. Predictably, it turned out to be nothing. We arrived five hours later into IAH. And to put a cherry on top of it, the bags came off the wrong carousel, after which the lazy personnel in IAH baggage claim didn't even both to announce the proper carousel to get our bags. God, those people suck.) All in all, it was a completely miserably flight, all because United refuses to use a 737 or A319 when flying this route - into the nation's biggest city. It makes no sense - like most of what transpires on this airline. This is the last damned time that I take a E175 cross country. I am done with this. If I have to switch to WN to avoid this, I will. |
Originally Posted by LEONIDES
(Post 31775915)
All in all, it was a completely miserably flight, all because United refuses to use a 737 or A319 when flying this route - into the nation's biggest city. It makes no sense - like most of what transpires on this airline.
Yes, there are some advantages to the 737/A319 — most notably, hot food. However, in my opinion, the E175 is far more comfortable in Y, and similar in F, than the narrowbody mainline fleet. The other things you mentioned — including weight / balance issues — could have happened on any plane. |
Geez, is their service on the 737 product that bad now? Is their 737 service really that much worse than the E175 service? That's stunning. Because the E175 service sucks.
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Originally Posted by LEONIDES
(Post 31775965)
Geez, is their service on the 737 product that bad now? Is their 737 service really that much worse than the E175 service? That's stunning. Because the E175 service sucks.
I think you’re extrapolating a lot from one experience. The winds must have been fierce, as LGA-IAH is nowhere near the E175’s range limit — UA flies SFO-MSN on the E175, and I don’t remember hearing anything about regular technical stops or blocked seats. |
Originally Posted by LEONIDES
(Post 31775915)
Why does United fly this tiny plane on this 1600 mile route?
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Originally Posted by LEONIDES
(Post 31775915)
Why does United fly this tiny plane on this 1600 mile route? Do they really have that little business? Is WN and AA completely kicking their butts in the NYC market? Is it either this, or drop the LGA routes, like they did with JFK?
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Originally Posted by jsloan
(Post 31775937)
No, it was a completely miserable flight, despite the fact that United refused to stick an inferior 737/A319 over the E175 on this route.
Yes, there are some advantages to the 737/A319 — most notably, hot food. However, in my opinion, the E175 is far more comfortable in Y, and similar in F, than the narrowbody mainline fleet. The other things you mentioned — including weight / balance issues — could have happened on any plane. |
Count me in as someone who would happily take an E175 over a Boeing/Airbus narrowbody on a midcon flight.
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The E75 is my favorite narrow body. More comfortable than anything else they have by far.
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Originally Posted by LEONIDES
(Post 31775915)
...The lavs ran out of potable water...
E175 is by far the most comfortable of the UAX fleet, and as noted above there are several categories in which they offer an improvement over mainline. How they do the calculus that puts this plane on that route is anybody's guess... |
I actually do that. But I ran out of water, because the flight was supposed to be 4 hours, but wound up taking 9. :mad:
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Originally Posted by bart889
(Post 31775994)
Not to nitpick, but IAH-LGA is 1,416 miles.
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From a pure plane vs plane perspective, the E175 is more passenger friendly from a seating perspective, especially in Y. The 737/A320 families are slightly faster from a cruising speed perspective.
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Count me among those - that I believe is the majority on this board - that would take an e175 transcon in a heartbeat over a UA 737 or A319/20. In coach I’d take it over any plane in UA’s fleet. From reading your post it sounds like a lot happened that had little or nothing to do with the aircraft.
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I much prefer the 175 to a 737...
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