Their seats did that for me. I’m 5’11", not a giant, and my knees were straight up jammed into the seat in front of me. Completely insane that they’re even legally allowed to sell those to people as seats. They might fit a child.
What did it for me was a long delay that got me landed at my destination after car rental was closed
Not so much the delay itself, that upset me but I get things happen
It was there reason for the delay: a simple maintenance thing with the plane had them taking the engine further and further apart while we watched from the terminal, ultimately deciding they weren’t getting this thing back up and running again anytime soon
Why couldn’t they figure it out? Because they didn’t have anyone who knew how to work on that plane model available
There are so many ways that pisses me off and makes me never want to trust them again
Also, every flight I had with them, including the return trip that I’d already booked from that trip, was miserable
Say what you will about Southwest but they know their damned planes inside and out and overall run their fleet efficiently and consistently. It’s like riding a bus that flies
I have no idea what it is you’re trying to say here or how it relates to an airline running planes without having maintenance crews that can actually do the work on them… And that they worked on it anyway without apparently having the required training for it…
This comment directly speaks to your lack of understanding of how airline maintenance works. The point though is there are a shortage of maintenance personnel in the industry. People are retiring all the time and nobody is filling those billets once they leave. And airlines don’t just have a maintenance crew at every airport because there’s not enough, and it wouldn’t be cost effective. Be as angry as you want that airlines are running on such terrible margins that they can’t have a backup plane. But do understand that this is not the fault of the maintenance personnel.
Who’s blaming the maintenance personnel? I’m expecting the airlines to actually have their maintenance crews trained for the planes they fly.
I don’t think this is a particularly unrealistic expectation.
Nor do I think the expectation that crews without enough training on a plane to tear its engine apart and put it back together not be tasked with something that will have them tearing the engine apart.
I don’t need to understand how the maintenance works to expect it be done correctly for something that’s going to be moving my ass at hundreds of miles per hour, thousands of feet in the air.
I don’t blame the maintenance personnel for not giving themselves adequate training on the machines they’ll be servicing; that’s on the airlines to ensure they get that before telling them to work on those planes. I don’t blame the maintenance personnel for being ordered to then work on planes they don’t have training on.
And if “that’s just how the industry is”, that doesn’t make it any better.
Either way, flying with an airline that runs basically one model and can ensure every maintenance person knows that plane and every pilot knows that plane seems a good way to avoid the issue, so I’ll stick with what I’ve got for now, thanks.
Did it ever occur to you that they don’t just have maintenance personnel at every airport? Because what I’m saying is that no airline in the world has maintenance personnel at every airport.
Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant are Airbus only and would require an Airbus tech. Airbus planes are pretty decent on that the A19-A321 planes are pretty much exactly the same in parts and configuration except that some are longer and or wider than others. On the other side of things Southwest has only Boeing planes, mostly 737 and 747.
Pretty much every other airline has a mix of different planes (Boeing, Airbus, and Bombardier, Embraer). To do what you’re talking about every airline that flies more than one plane would have to have a technician for each of those plane types on the ground at every airport they fly to. That’s 5000 airports, with at least two technicians per airport (assuming they only have one flight in and out of there at a time which is ludicrous). The average number of flights going in and out of any one airport at a time. Daily there are about 45,000 flights per day per FAA statistics not including private flights.
At Delta’s hub in Atlanta, there are around 2100-2700 flights per day. Delta says they have about 6,400 AMT’s. One singular airport out of 242 airports that Delta flies to. 24 hours a day for most airports. They would be required to keep at least 6 people per airport per average number of flights leaving or arriving per at the same time. Let’s say that at their hub they only have 5 planes on the ground at any given time ( a gross miscalculation of how many planes fly into their hub, but the math is cleaner). Delta has 4 different plane manufacturers’s planes in their fleet. That’s 4 mechanics on an 8 or 12 hour shift multiplied by 5 planes let’s say per average turn around time of 30 minutes. You’d need 20 techs
At every single solitary airport Delta flies to. Per shift. Supplied by the airline. It’s a logistical nightmare and this number balloons when you realise just how.many departures and arrivals there are and at what intervals at pretty much any major airport. 9,640 AMT’s assuming 12 hour shifts. Just for domestic USA flights, not including planes that are down for maintenance outside regular maintenance schedule. When the fleet only emplyes 6,400 AMT’s world wide.
I cannot stress this enough, but you’re making a lot of assumptions here. And you don’t think it’s an unrealistic expectation specifically because you have no idea how any of this works.
I still fail to see how this makes it okay for techs to be told to tear apart an engine they weren’t experienced with.
You can try to keep talking around how that’s actually no big deal and I just don’t get it. Totally your right. Just be aware that from my perspective you’re trying to argue that it’s acceptable to work on components without training that could cause a plane crash with people on board if it fails, and I just don’t see how you can make that scenario okay, like, at all.
This just confirms my decision to never fly United again
But now you can silently judge your neighbors for the ads they are seeing.
Or be jealous.
Their seats did that for me. I’m 5’11", not a giant, and my knees were straight up jammed into the seat in front of me. Completely insane that they’re even legally allowed to sell those to people as seats. They might fit a child.
What did it for me was a long delay that got me landed at my destination after car rental was closed
Not so much the delay itself, that upset me but I get things happen
It was there reason for the delay: a simple maintenance thing with the plane had them taking the engine further and further apart while we watched from the terminal, ultimately deciding they weren’t getting this thing back up and running again anytime soon
Why couldn’t they figure it out? Because they didn’t have anyone who knew how to work on that plane model available
There are so many ways that pisses me off and makes me never want to trust them again
Also, every flight I had with them, including the return trip that I’d already booked from that trip, was miserable
Say what you will about Southwest but they know their damned planes inside and out and overall run their fleet efficiently and consistently. It’s like riding a bus that flies
I’ve reluctantly come to the same conclusion.
The median age for an A&P licensed plane tech is 55. Well welcome you to the ranks anytime.
I have no idea what it is you’re trying to say here or how it relates to an airline running planes without having maintenance crews that can actually do the work on them… And that they worked on it anyway without apparently having the required training for it…
This comment directly speaks to your lack of understanding of how airline maintenance works. The point though is there are a shortage of maintenance personnel in the industry. People are retiring all the time and nobody is filling those billets once they leave. And airlines don’t just have a maintenance crew at every airport because there’s not enough, and it wouldn’t be cost effective. Be as angry as you want that airlines are running on such terrible margins that they can’t have a backup plane. But do understand that this is not the fault of the maintenance personnel.
Who’s blaming the maintenance personnel? I’m expecting the airlines to actually have their maintenance crews trained for the planes they fly.
I don’t think this is a particularly unrealistic expectation.
Nor do I think the expectation that crews without enough training on a plane to tear its engine apart and put it back together not be tasked with something that will have them tearing the engine apart.
I don’t need to understand how the maintenance works to expect it be done correctly for something that’s going to be moving my ass at hundreds of miles per hour, thousands of feet in the air.
I don’t blame the maintenance personnel for not giving themselves adequate training on the machines they’ll be servicing; that’s on the airlines to ensure they get that before telling them to work on those planes. I don’t blame the maintenance personnel for being ordered to then work on planes they don’t have training on.
And if “that’s just how the industry is”, that doesn’t make it any better.
Either way, flying with an airline that runs basically one model and can ensure every maintenance person knows that plane and every pilot knows that plane seems a good way to avoid the issue, so I’ll stick with what I’ve got for now, thanks.
Did it ever occur to you that they don’t just have maintenance personnel at every airport? Because what I’m saying is that no airline in the world has maintenance personnel at every airport.
Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant are Airbus only and would require an Airbus tech. Airbus planes are pretty decent on that the A19-A321 planes are pretty much exactly the same in parts and configuration except that some are longer and or wider than others. On the other side of things Southwest has only Boeing planes, mostly 737 and 747.
Pretty much every other airline has a mix of different planes (Boeing, Airbus, and Bombardier, Embraer). To do what you’re talking about every airline that flies more than one plane would have to have a technician for each of those plane types on the ground at every airport they fly to. That’s 5000 airports, with at least two technicians per airport (assuming they only have one flight in and out of there at a time which is ludicrous). The average number of flights going in and out of any one airport at a time. Daily there are about 45,000 flights per day per FAA statistics not including private flights.
At Delta’s hub in Atlanta, there are around 2100-2700 flights per day. Delta says they have about 6,400 AMT’s. One singular airport out of 242 airports that Delta flies to. 24 hours a day for most airports. They would be required to keep at least 6 people per airport per average number of flights leaving or arriving per at the same time. Let’s say that at their hub they only have 5 planes on the ground at any given time ( a gross miscalculation of how many planes fly into their hub, but the math is cleaner). Delta has 4 different plane manufacturers’s planes in their fleet. That’s 4 mechanics on an 8 or 12 hour shift multiplied by 5 planes let’s say per average turn around time of 30 minutes. You’d need 20 techs At every single solitary airport Delta flies to. Per shift. Supplied by the airline. It’s a logistical nightmare and this number balloons when you realise just how.many departures and arrivals there are and at what intervals at pretty much any major airport. 9,640 AMT’s assuming 12 hour shifts. Just for domestic USA flights, not including planes that are down for maintenance outside regular maintenance schedule. When the fleet only emplyes 6,400 AMT’s world wide.
I cannot stress this enough, but you’re making a lot of assumptions here. And you don’t think it’s an unrealistic expectation specifically because you have no idea how any of this works.
Cool story.
I still fail to see how this makes it okay for techs to be told to tear apart an engine they weren’t experienced with.
You can try to keep talking around how that’s actually no big deal and I just don’t get it. Totally your right. Just be aware that from my perspective you’re trying to argue that it’s acceptable to work on components without training that could cause a plane crash with people on board if it fails, and I just don’t see how you can make that scenario okay, like, at all.