keenster

Scoop,
Great post and I agree with you on most all of your points. Our fustration comes from your flight ops side in trying to deal with procedures in flying the 747-400. We seem to run into a brick wall in every aspect of things we try to talk to flt ops about. We are getting used to the phrase "no carve out". It is as if everything we want to discuss is not even open for discussion. One example was the charter ops we talked about. We had a great charter operation and show the numbers of around 40K yearly to take care of datbase updates vs 2.5 mil for the dal way. Again we were told not open for discussion. This bothers me because I care about the success of this comapny and do not want to see waste just because "that's the way we have always done it and no changes" seems to rule on things that could be improved. I know that it will take time but the door policy here seems to be somewhat closed vs at NWA it was a very open door policy when it came to ideas about saving money. We used to have a special system to submit employee ideas about how to save money which resulted in savings of millions of dollars to the company. So I do not whish to slam the south guys or your- now my way of doing things. It is just a litle frustrating when you hear that the fleet captain is getting shut down on most all of the things he is batteling for especially when all the pilots are just shaking thier heads. We do have 30 plus years of flying the 747 to draw experience from. There may be a few good reasons not to start landing on the short runway in NRT but I hear that we are going to do it because a flt ops VP says that is the way it is and no discussion. Applying your break system to the airplane is causing huge problems with our crews as well as the musical chair of rotating out of the cockpit 2 more times dealing with the lavs and flt attendants a real pain in the bu--t also telegraphing every move to the terrorist. JUst crazy!!!!
Again no discussion and "NO CARVE OUT" If every single aircraft were configured the same I would have no valid argument. These are just a few examples.

I want nothing more than to improve every facet of the operation and take the good from both sides. Maybe we just want things to happen to fast, but we keep hearing the same names from instructors and fleet captains that seem to squelch most of our attempts to make things better. Hopefully this will change in the future??????

Sorry for slamming things but gotta call them like I see them and the IT side of DAL is horrible. I have heard the former NWA IT people came over and hopefully that will make things better. I am sure it will take time. So enough about that.

Good luck to us all!!!

keenster

Not the case with me and if has seemed so I apoligize. I just want to move forward and make this a better airline. Both sides have good things and bad things. My vote is to try and bring some of the north good things over and many of these things are out of our hands. It is up to the company. If you guys don't know about them then it is difficult for all of us to get the ball rolling. Just one thing that we had that was nice was the minute you had a change to your schedule you got a robo call to your home phone and cell phone as well as notification posted on sign in on the computer. I am not sure if this was contractual or not but it sure was nice. Unless I am wrong, I think the standard way here is you have to check the computer to see if anything has happened to your sch. This is just one small thing that might make everyone's life better.

keenster

Well if you start hounding your reps that you want something and talk to the alpa comittiee guys that work on the area you are concerned about wheather it be rotation construction, rotation notification, improving acars, improving landing currency info, having better info on currency on the fltplan etc etc things might get improved. We are loosing about 30% of our acars functions. I wish that would go the other way and give everone 30% more functions. The squeaking wheel gets the grease. I am complaining left and right to the guys I know that are on the scheduling and jumpseat commities. Also busting every apd that gets on to give a line check. May not do any good but gotta try.

keenster

I would say that being reserve on the big iron as you put it is not something that I want to do or more correctly being junior on that particular piece of equipment. Plus the fact that I will probably have to stick around until 65 now does not make me happy either. Boils down to quality of life and dollars, could care less about which piece of iron I am flying. You can't tell me that number 1500 has the same quality of life as 360 when you retire. Did not really want to go here but don't care to hear about how fair the percentage deal was. Life goes on and this had nothing to do with the south guys it was in the hands of an arbitrator. This will make you happy, I was hired in the second class at DAL in sep 85 so I would be around 350 now instead of 2700 plus. was at NWA for 4 days when the call came, 2nd question -are you employed at another major carrier? Should have lied I guess but the answer was: DAL policy we do not hire from other major carriers. Gotta laugh on that one.

Model Citezen

Thanks for the reply back.

tsquare

So what then is your problem? What is it exactly that you are so ticked off about? I looked up a few numbers for you. Number 1300 would be 174 of 240 in ATL on the 777... Lineholder. On the 7ER.. nevermind, that's not real widebody flying..right? On the 757 in MSP, #1300 is 45 of 220... That MIGHT hold a line... I dunno.. In DTW. A330 55 of 154. I could go on, but it is obvious to me that you haven't done your homework other than the raw number.

As far as QOL, that is EXACTLY what I am telling you. At the same company, you are right, but you are comparing a number at a pre-merger company, and one at a post-merger company... apples... oranges, even if you refuse to see it. Because you say that you aren't particularly interested in heavy metal, I would bet you could pretty much have any holiday vacation AND summer if you want it. Fly 737 Captain at that seniority, and you can have greenslips out the wazoo. There's your $... the QOL at that point is up to you. The age 65 thing... sorry, can't help you there... I don't like it anymore than you do.

Doesn't make me happy, but I don't care either. You are so myopic in looking at the raw number. Look at just how much MORE widebody flying the merged company has. Especially if you stoop to counting a 767 as widebody flying.

keenster

Yes you have a point that the combined carrier has a lot more flying and opportunity than the 2 stand alone carriers. Wish we could sit down over a beer on this. You might see some of my points and I might see some of yours. The bottom line is that we are all pretty much the same -a bunch of greedy self serving pilots that like to tell you how bad things are>

iceman49

Keen..you have a pm

tsquare

First round's on me...

keenster

Do you ever get to NRT. If so the first round will be on me. I do get to LAX occasionally.