PE.com - Tourism Blog

I love this airline. I hope they start service out of PSP. You feel like you're on someone's private jet. They still give you food and drink on short flights that you no longer get on most flights. Their prices are wonderfully competitive.

I flew ExpressJet back in June to Austin and I wasn't impressed with the gate crews at Austin on our return flight. The flight was delayed by "weather" according to the gate crew, but later we discovered that the weather was perfect at the other airport and that there was a mechanical problem (the pilot told me that it was a lavatory issue [FAA paperwork caused the delay] when I asked). Anyways, the airline insisted that the flight would arrive in about 30 minutes and that we would be on our way. We sat in the lower level of the airport for several hours waiting for that plane and it never arrived. We had arrived in advance of our 6something AM flight and were at the airport until the late afternoon/early evening. The gate crew was rude and completely clueless about the status of the arriving aircraft. At several points we were told that the aircraft was in the air when it had never left the ground in Corpus Christi. Eventually everyone was rebooked onto a late flight (we were supposed to be on an early morning flight), but we had to stay in the airport since we no longer had our rental car. In the mid-afternoon I noticed an ExpressJet plane taxing to the gate. I asked the gate agent about it and she said that it was the flight from the morning and that they were not going to fly any passengers on it to Ontario even though it was heading that direction. I became a little irritated since I had a young child with me and eventually she relented and went to see if we could fly back to Ontario on that plane rather than waiting until the night flight. Eventually they allowed the handful of us that were forced to wait all day to board the aircraft and fly home. There were 4 people on that flight and 3 of them were from my party! I ended up having to take an extra vacation day because I was not able to get back to the office in time for even a partial day of work. I was not happy that the ExpressJet gate staff continued providing inaccurate information and was not able to get their story straight. That being said, the air crew was terrific, super friendly, and gave personal service (easy with 4 people I suppose). This was my first time on a regional jet in about 12 years so I suppose I am used to the bigger carriers who have permanent gate crews and a full-time presence so they are able to share information more easily. I don't know if I will ever fly ExpressJet again based on the experience with the gate crew.