Sounds like you had the misfortune of flying with Air Atlanta who actually operate the larger a/c types, albeit painted up as Excel. They bought a large chunk of Excel last year and have been working hard at ruining its reputation ever since. Excel proper (as was) only operated 737-800 series a/c with regestrations using GXL prefixes.
Anything else wears clown shoes and comes complete with spinning bow tie and comedy flower water pistol. If you've ever met an Air Atlanta engineer then you'd understand fully why the a/c are so knackered. Honk! Honk! Custard pie anyone?
