Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?
09-21-2012, 06:18 AM
Happy to be here
Joined APC: Jun 2006
Position: A-320A
Posts: 18,563
09-21-2012, 06:23 AM
Moderator
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: B757/767
Posts: 13,088
Ok, Here ya go.....all has been said is very interesting, but here is a new thought.....This from a source whether it is reliable or not is the question. Being in BK allows the company to do nothing, (IE. purchase anything)however it doesn't stop Big D from doing something and with regards to when they (pinnacle) come out of BK, whether it be owned by D or on its own. This source said that Pinnacle has CRJ 1000's on order. Now the question lies how much will one work for just to fly the shiny new 1000. 
This speculation is overly crazy (IMO.) You do know that a CRJ 1000 has to be purchased new. There are no used 1000's on the market! The sticker price is over $42 million, not to mention that the max number of seats according to Delta scope is 76 seats. I guess technically any regional could take delivery of the 1000's; but it would still have to operate under the 76 seat scope that exists today. That would technically mean roughly 60 coach passengers with 16 First Class! The CASM on an RJ purchased at let's say even half market value, $21 million, is crazy considering the 717's coming online are going to purchased for cheaper, and will hold about 80 coach with 16 in First Class!
09-21-2012, 07:56 AM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: 7ER Capt
Posts: 461
Quite a bit more in depth than the "In Command" I remember. Recommend it highly.
09-21-2012, 07:59 AM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: 7ER Capt
Posts: 461
09-21-2012, 08:10 AM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2009
Position: Stay THIRSTY, my friends!
Posts: 1,898
We have an aggressive delivery schedule of the 739. But as always, it all hinges on marketing and their plans, so the timeline could slide a bit.
09-21-2012, 08:18 AM
Line Holder
Joined APC: Nov 2011
Posts: 35
What pilot domiciles fly the AMS and NRT flights out of PDX?
Is it a deadhead to start and/or end, or part of a larger multi-day back and forth trip?
Is it a deadhead to start and/or end, or part of a larger multi-day back and forth trip?
09-21-2012, 09:11 AM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2008
Position: erb
Posts: 646
757's
Singing your praises the other day LTD...howz the Left Coast treating ya? Bummer about those numbers, anyhow thanks for the report and Cheers H
09-21-2012, 09:21 AM
West Side
Joined APC: Oct 2010
Position: A330
Posts: 47
I think the AMS flight is either SEA or LAX
09-21-2012, 09:49 AM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2008
Posts: 272
Attended the "Left Seat" conference this week... basically a symposium for senior Captains. Highly recommend this for all senior Cappies.
First, a great experience and chance to have a 2-way exchange of information with senior management. I learned a lot more about our company, especially about the many departments other than flt ops.
Second, from the horses mouth... if the 9's stay, we hire next year... if not, 2014. Also, unfortunately for me, coinciding with the arrival of the 100 900's over the next 3 yrs, is the departure of btw 60 - 70 757's.
First, a great experience and chance to have a 2-way exchange of information with senior management. I learned a lot more about our company, especially about the many departments other than flt ops.
Second, from the horses mouth... if the 9's stay, we hire next year... if not, 2014. Also, unfortunately for me, coinciding with the arrival of the 100 900's over the next 3 yrs, is the departure of btw 60 - 70 757's.
12 years with this company and still in bottom15% of list. 22 years to crack top half of list. I thought the union said we would hire lots if I voted for the contract, I must have misunderstood. Sorry got my grump on today.
Cheers
09-21-2012, 09:54 AM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: Dismayed
Posts: 1,598
Just got this from the AMR thread. Thought we should all be aware of whats going on. You might want to wander over there. Thanks nwaf16dude!
copied from another site, de-identified....what a mess
Good luck AA guys
From an XXX FO:
I'm just here to do a job, my job.
5:00 AM show for a 6 o'clock go in XXX this morning. Took the 4:40 shuttle from the short layover, and after 4 stops, got through security at 5:10. Straight to the jet which sat all night.
Parking brake pressure sat around 2,000 PSI, in the orange band.
3 of the 4 main tires with low pressure.
A chip in a fan blade in the left engine.
Cracked taxi light.
2 of the 3 exterior emergency exit placards under the FO window deteriorated.
Exterior Evacuation Slide placard on the forward galley door deteriorated.
Did I mention this thing sat all night at a maintenance base?
Anyway, a MX team showed up to work. Then they quit. Apparently AA schedules a maintenance shift change right at the morning push with all the so-called critical flights. New team shows up. Work is being done with all the passengers politely watching from their assigned seats. Departure time keeps getting pushed back. At 7:00, the #1 tells us the flight is canceled and they're deadheading on the 7:10 flight to XXX. So are we. Maintenance tells me the jet is OTS because 2 brake metering valves are leaking.
We gather our stuff, (well most of it, my CA left his earpiece in the jet), and head to the new gate. A manager, K, is working the 7:10 flight. He's stressing. Tells us he's putting us on the next flight, not this one, and to leave him alone. No problem, just means we will be late for our return flight, but we aren't in charge of manning, deadheading, scheduling or XXX, so we sit in those cool round red chairs out of the way and watch the show. Long lines, cell phones out everywhere, agents gate checking bags, and the manager running around trying to keep up.
7:10 comes and goes. The gate door is shut. A gate agent makes the following page in the terminal, "K, return to gate X. The captain (working the flight) wants to talk to you." K refused to talk to him. The door opens again, and agents are sending down more passengers. Important-looking people are talking to their respective travel departments and jockeying for position at the gate to get the last few seats. Apparently, they tried to close the flight out with 20 empty seats and a long line at the gate from our canceled flight. The captain called bull.
Our names are called. We weave through the important people to the gate. The agent looks at us, "What's up?" "We don't know, you called our names." "Oh, you're deadheading?" Again, we don't know. "Go sit down." OK.
5 minutes later, our names are called again. "You're on. We're checking your bags." "How will we get our bags in XXX?" They are "Escort Tagged". They will be brought up the jet bridge in XXX with strollers and wheel chairs. "OK, cool". All middle seats in coach, my favorite! We push at 7:33, 23 minutes late. Critical flight canceled and another D+23... We arrive in XXX A+8...
On a side note, our crew breakfasts were not provided on the deadhead, so we hadn't eaten since the night prior.
Our departure back to XXX was scheduled at 12:40, so we figured AA had the flight boarded and ready. We are standing on the jetbridge waiting for our bags. Passengers are deplaning. They're done. The crew leaves and another shows up. Still no bags. Oh , and no keys or vests to go find our bags. We wait. After all, baggage handlers know how to do their jobs, and it's not my job to prod everybody along. We're all highly trained professionals. They board the next flight so we clear the jetbridge into the gate area. They finish and the agent asks us what's going on. We tell her the story. She goes to check. At that time, almost an hour after we arrived, crew tracking calls. "Why aren't you at the next flight?" Captain tells her our story. Here we are. No bags, no manuals, no keys, no nothing. Oh and by the way, we haven't eaten since last night. Tracking says nourishment's hotels and limos' arena.
Tracking calls back. She called the ramp manager. The ramp manager gave her the crew chief's cell phone number. She asked the chief about our bags with the "Escort Tags" on them. He told her no way was he going to carry them up the jetbridge stairs so he left them on the ramp. After a while, he took them to baggage claim. She said he was ****ed. We told her that's fine, just have them delivered to the departure gate, which did board on time, ready to go at 12:40. It's now 13:40-ish.
Nobody can deliver our "escort bags" to the new gate, so we go outside security and grab 'em. Come back through security in D, catch the train over to C and to the new gate. No agent, door shut. (Remember when a key would allow us to get to the jet? Not my problem anymore.) Screw it. I walk to McDonald's. Did I mention we hadn't eaten since the night before and it's 14:00 now?. I get back to the gate. The captain's studying the 18-foot-long flight plan. The agent lets me down the jetbridge.
Upon entering the jet, the flight attendant says, "Can you make a PA and tell these passengers why you're late?" She's standing next to a first class passenger in the galley. I say, "Well hi there, I'm Bill. How are you?" Eyeballing my little McDonald's bag, she says, "I'm not getting paid, we boarded over an hour ago, and I can't get off to get food like you have." "Hey I'm sorry, we haven't eaten since yesterday. We deadheaded in and AA lost our bags." I look at the passenger and say, "Hey there, how are you? Can you believe AA would lose our luggage?" He understood and was in a good mood. No problem with him. Just the FA.
I walk around the jet. The captain comes down and we start making our nests. "Cabin's ready." SLAM. Ahhhh, peace behind the cockpit door. I've come to really like that door over the years. We're loading the box, flipping switches, all that cool stuff we do before we get paid. DING, DING. Captain answers, Yes? "Why aren't we moving yet?" Well, we just got here. Now we're running all those checklists we do before we go fly. A few minutes later, DING, DING. Yess? "Can you make a PA and tell these passengers why we're still sitting here?" I'm not making this up.
Finally time to push. 14:50 local. D+130 minutes. BANG. The tow bar breaks. DING, DING. Yesss? "What was that??" Don't worry about it. We have it under control. Please let us do our jobs. MX inspects the jet. No problem. Meanwhile, the agent lets PAX off - without their bags... We can't leave without them. We finally push at 15:52 local. D+192.
After the flight, one of the passenger got in the captain's face as he was deplaning, pointed his finger in his face and said, "You're a THUG! A union THUG! The captain replied, "Sir, you don't know me, but I assure you I'm nothing like that." Yes you ARE! A union THUG! and left.
Maintenance came on and asked who the thug is. Captain fessed up. He laughed. Then he talked about a flight that canceled this morning because the crew "wrote up 19 items 20 minutes before departure". He got a bull[Content Deleted] look from the captain. Then he said, "Of course, the jet did sit here all night with our night shift."
We get to the hotel and on the elevator. A guy says, "Hey, you're not the pilots that just came in from XXX..." We braced and admitted it. No punches, but he said, "We heard you went to lunch before coming to the plane." He knows that not to be true now.
The hardest part about this day was refraining from repeatedly stepping into the other departments and telling fellow employees what needs to be done. It is engrained in usto anticipate and fix problems we see coming. Once I overcame the urge to tell others how to do their jobs, it actually became quite entertaining to watch the operation.
My advice to you is to not let the frustration of watching others without guidance raise your blood pressure, but to embrace the comedy of errors that ensues.
Do your job. No one else's. Do not tell others what needs to be done. Do not continually follow up. You called MX once. They are aware. No need to stress them out. The agent told you to sit down. She knows you're there. Don't stress her out. Roll with the flow. They're all highly-trained professionals.
It's a hard habit to break.
Good luck AA guys
From an XXX FO:
I'm just here to do a job, my job.
5:00 AM show for a 6 o'clock go in XXX this morning. Took the 4:40 shuttle from the short layover, and after 4 stops, got through security at 5:10. Straight to the jet which sat all night.
Parking brake pressure sat around 2,000 PSI, in the orange band.
3 of the 4 main tires with low pressure.
A chip in a fan blade in the left engine.
Cracked taxi light.
2 of the 3 exterior emergency exit placards under the FO window deteriorated.
Exterior Evacuation Slide placard on the forward galley door deteriorated.
Did I mention this thing sat all night at a maintenance base?
Anyway, a MX team showed up to work. Then they quit. Apparently AA schedules a maintenance shift change right at the morning push with all the so-called critical flights. New team shows up. Work is being done with all the passengers politely watching from their assigned seats. Departure time keeps getting pushed back. At 7:00, the #1 tells us the flight is canceled and they're deadheading on the 7:10 flight to XXX. So are we. Maintenance tells me the jet is OTS because 2 brake metering valves are leaking.
We gather our stuff, (well most of it, my CA left his earpiece in the jet), and head to the new gate. A manager, K, is working the 7:10 flight. He's stressing. Tells us he's putting us on the next flight, not this one, and to leave him alone. No problem, just means we will be late for our return flight, but we aren't in charge of manning, deadheading, scheduling or XXX, so we sit in those cool round red chairs out of the way and watch the show. Long lines, cell phones out everywhere, agents gate checking bags, and the manager running around trying to keep up.
7:10 comes and goes. The gate door is shut. A gate agent makes the following page in the terminal, "K, return to gate X. The captain (working the flight) wants to talk to you." K refused to talk to him. The door opens again, and agents are sending down more passengers. Important-looking people are talking to their respective travel departments and jockeying for position at the gate to get the last few seats. Apparently, they tried to close the flight out with 20 empty seats and a long line at the gate from our canceled flight. The captain called bull.
Our names are called. We weave through the important people to the gate. The agent looks at us, "What's up?" "We don't know, you called our names." "Oh, you're deadheading?" Again, we don't know. "Go sit down." OK.
5 minutes later, our names are called again. "You're on. We're checking your bags." "How will we get our bags in XXX?" They are "Escort Tagged". They will be brought up the jet bridge in XXX with strollers and wheel chairs. "OK, cool". All middle seats in coach, my favorite! We push at 7:33, 23 minutes late. Critical flight canceled and another D+23... We arrive in XXX A+8...
On a side note, our crew breakfasts were not provided on the deadhead, so we hadn't eaten since the night prior.
Our departure back to XXX was scheduled at 12:40, so we figured AA had the flight boarded and ready. We are standing on the jetbridge waiting for our bags. Passengers are deplaning. They're done. The crew leaves and another shows up. Still no bags. Oh , and no keys or vests to go find our bags. We wait. After all, baggage handlers know how to do their jobs, and it's not my job to prod everybody along. We're all highly trained professionals. They board the next flight so we clear the jetbridge into the gate area. They finish and the agent asks us what's going on. We tell her the story. She goes to check. At that time, almost an hour after we arrived, crew tracking calls. "Why aren't you at the next flight?" Captain tells her our story. Here we are. No bags, no manuals, no keys, no nothing. Oh and by the way, we haven't eaten since last night. Tracking says nourishment's hotels and limos' arena.
Tracking calls back. She called the ramp manager. The ramp manager gave her the crew chief's cell phone number. She asked the chief about our bags with the "Escort Tags" on them. He told her no way was he going to carry them up the jetbridge stairs so he left them on the ramp. After a while, he took them to baggage claim. She said he was ****ed. We told her that's fine, just have them delivered to the departure gate, which did board on time, ready to go at 12:40. It's now 13:40-ish.
Nobody can deliver our "escort bags" to the new gate, so we go outside security and grab 'em. Come back through security in D, catch the train over to C and to the new gate. No agent, door shut. (Remember when a key would allow us to get to the jet? Not my problem anymore.) Screw it. I walk to McDonald's. Did I mention we hadn't eaten since the night before and it's 14:00 now?. I get back to the gate. The captain's studying the 18-foot-long flight plan. The agent lets me down the jetbridge.
Upon entering the jet, the flight attendant says, "Can you make a PA and tell these passengers why you're late?" She's standing next to a first class passenger in the galley. I say, "Well hi there, I'm Bill. How are you?" Eyeballing my little McDonald's bag, she says, "I'm not getting paid, we boarded over an hour ago, and I can't get off to get food like you have." "Hey I'm sorry, we haven't eaten since yesterday. We deadheaded in and AA lost our bags." I look at the passenger and say, "Hey there, how are you? Can you believe AA would lose our luggage?" He understood and was in a good mood. No problem with him. Just the FA.
I walk around the jet. The captain comes down and we start making our nests. "Cabin's ready." SLAM. Ahhhh, peace behind the cockpit door. I've come to really like that door over the years. We're loading the box, flipping switches, all that cool stuff we do before we get paid. DING, DING. Captain answers, Yes? "Why aren't we moving yet?" Well, we just got here. Now we're running all those checklists we do before we go fly. A few minutes later, DING, DING. Yess? "Can you make a PA and tell these passengers why we're still sitting here?" I'm not making this up.
Finally time to push. 14:50 local. D+130 minutes. BANG. The tow bar breaks. DING, DING. Yesss? "What was that??" Don't worry about it. We have it under control. Please let us do our jobs. MX inspects the jet. No problem. Meanwhile, the agent lets PAX off - without their bags... We can't leave without them. We finally push at 15:52 local. D+192.
After the flight, one of the passenger got in the captain's face as he was deplaning, pointed his finger in his face and said, "You're a THUG! A union THUG! The captain replied, "Sir, you don't know me, but I assure you I'm nothing like that." Yes you ARE! A union THUG! and left.
Maintenance came on and asked who the thug is. Captain fessed up. He laughed. Then he talked about a flight that canceled this morning because the crew "wrote up 19 items 20 minutes before departure". He got a bull[Content Deleted] look from the captain. Then he said, "Of course, the jet did sit here all night with our night shift."
We get to the hotel and on the elevator. A guy says, "Hey, you're not the pilots that just came in from XXX..." We braced and admitted it. No punches, but he said, "We heard you went to lunch before coming to the plane." He knows that not to be true now.
The hardest part about this day was refraining from repeatedly stepping into the other departments and telling fellow employees what needs to be done. It is engrained in usto anticipate and fix problems we see coming. Once I overcame the urge to tell others how to do their jobs, it actually became quite entertaining to watch the operation.
My advice to you is to not let the frustration of watching others without guidance raise your blood pressure, but to embrace the comedy of errors that ensues.
Do your job. No one else's. Do not tell others what needs to be done. Do not continually follow up. You called MX once. They are aware. No need to stress them out. The agent told you to sit down. She knows you're there. Don't stress her out. Roll with the flow. They're all highly-trained professionals.
It's a hard habit to break.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
