smackahoCEO

My airline is NOT a United Express carrier thank God.... but I ride United a LOT and see Mesa, SkyW, etc. etc. employees getting charged to get a seat in the back of the plane. I believe it is payroll deducted. Not cool. Hopefully ASA will not have to pay that! I feel kind of bad as an "offline" jumpseater (another Express carrier) when I get on a UAL plane, sit in first class, and some Mesa guy has to pay $$$ to jumpseat (in the cabin). Some gate agents are cool about it, some are NOT. Unfortunate situation.

dojetdriver

True, I've 2 legged it through ORD a few times from the east coast. And it is UGLY. Where I live is a rather popular place to live for one of the legacies that has a pilot/fa domicile in ORD. There were occasions where I'd show up for an OMC pass there were already 3,4,5,6,7,8 mainline guys ahead of me on the list, as well as some express people. To compound the issue, post 9/11 as well as post economic crash many of those pilots that once lived where I do have been displaced to ORD, making it even worse. But to be fair, ATL can get ugly as well, so can DFW. Any super/mega/ubber/fortress hub can fall apart REAL quick on a bad day. Especially if where you're trying to get to from the hub is a frequently served destination, and/or is hub to hub. If one of those flights tanks/cancels, the rest of that day can screwed up to high heaven.