Res -
I have been lurking on this board for the past week, when all the Chapter 7 talk started. I have been travelling a LOT this year. I started on Delta. I thought I was going to hate my job. But around Easter, when Delta was full, I took a flight through Charlotte on USAir.
I realized I didn't hate my new job, it's just that life with Delta in Atlanta was making me miserable.
I see all the bickering here with the planes that touched in Philly a few weeks back. Well, in Atlanta, every single week, from this passenger's perspective, something was ALWAYS wrong. Flight attendant got hit in the head when a door was closed too early and passed out. We had to wait for an attendant to be called in. And apparently traffic was bad. Once we were delayed for 5 hours and I saw someone crawling backwards out of the engine with a blowtorch. Once the printer wasn't printing at the gate for whatever paperwork needs to be done (the boarding passes were fine, it was the paperwork.) Took them an hour to count the passengers on the plane and reconcile. I took a flight out of Tampa and the plane smelled like it was on fire and all the smoke alarms went off in the restrooms but we kept on trucking. Pilot said it was normal for a plane that had just been out of maintenance. UH HUH. Well I was about last off the plane being in the back and I overheard the crew huddled with maintenance and they were all talking about how this valve wasn't working, and they couldn't get fresh air into the plane, and they almost landed in Tampa.....I swore that was my last Delta flight. Once we landed in Atlanta and the generator on the 727 died. Notice I haven't even mentioned weather as that's out of the airline's control. You would think this was six years worth of travel. It was six WEEKS. SIX WEEKS!! How anyone gets by on Delta I just can't imagine.
USAir is far better. Employees are polite and turns planes around very quickly when late. Far more quickly than Northwest or Delta. On my flight back from RSW - PHL - ORF today I did some light chatter with several employees and everyone still seemed friendly, chipper, and happy. A few weeks ago when the snowstorms blew through all the hubs I saw some really amazing efforts both from being called and rerouted on my cell phone and employees assisting those stuck in Charlotte for as much as 2 days.
If, behind closed doors, employees are depressed an unhappy, that's understandable. But to me, I don't see it in real life.
I think USAir rocks. You are certainly appreciated by me!