Professor

As an aside, speaking of Shuttle America...while I dig their planes, i constantly worry about what outsourcing does to the Delta brand.

Yes, we often times do ourselves no favors with cabin service, however, a recent shuttle america flight I was on makes me worry.

I was going from MDW to LGA on a 175. It was hands down the worst cabin service I have seen up front. Its nice to be well treated up front when we non-rev, but these observations are not about how I felt, or felt I should be treated. If this is 'the year of the customer' or whatever the hell it is, we should be really concerned about how our premium pax are being treated by our DCI.

I was in first, and half of the passengers had to ask the f/a working f/c to hang up their coats. I had a black wool overcoat...huge...and just kept it on my lap to see if she ever asked to hang it up. Door closed, nope. Pushback, nope. Seatbelt security walkthrough, nope (even though it was covering my seatbelt). So I said screw it, and stuffed it next to my window.

Then as we were getting de-iced, she walked up to every f/c pax and simply said, "what do you want to drink"..not,"i'll be serving drinks after we are airborne what may i get you" and to every pax never said thank you.

So airborne she comes out with food. So I think to myself, "huh, didn't even hear her say there was food on the flight."

So she starts throwing trays at people. I mean walking out, pulling out people's tray tables for them and plopping trays down. Not saying a word.
Oh, and by the way, turns out there were two meals boarded. Didn't ask a single person what they would prefer.

Then another ten minutes go by and the drinks start to come out. That finished, she disappears for another 25 to help with the service in the back....for 40 people?!?!

Paying pax had trays sitting in front of them trying to get back to their work for that entire time. There is more, but you get the idea.

I personally expect very little when I non-rev. But I do expect someone carrying my co's name on their flight to treat OUR pax with a bit of courtesy and actually demonstrate a modicum of service etiquette.
This f/a's attitude, tone and demeanor were all completely inappropriate of someone at McDonald's let alone of someone working in first.

On the flip side, the trip up to MDW from ATL was fantastic and the a-line was really great.

However, if the DCI's aren't training on how to do the service in the front, they damn well need to be. Every 900 and 170/175 has first in it. Yet another reason to reign scope in tighter if we can.

johnso29

Pensions are dead. They need to let that one go because that ship has sailed, and it ain't coming back.

Dirtdiver

Anyone that's flying DCI from Columbus, GA to ATL instead of driving is an idiot.

Had a long conversation with a pax about how "Delta" ruined her trip of a lifetime to India. She lives in Auburn, AL, a 2 hour drive to ATL. Didn't take long to figure out all of her problems were with ASA MGM-ATL. The time from her doorstep to ATL terminal was longer with the connection flight even if it had gone as scheduled.

Mainline subsidizes tons of these short flights, and if they're uneconomical for DCI to fly and charge a reasonable fare, then they should disappear.

Bucking Bar

Prof - good point!

Of course, in corporate communications Delta is sure to tell them they are not part of the team. Having worked for a DCI carrier, our President flat out said he did not care about fuel costs, or even if Delta went bankrupt. His attitude is we make money flying the airplane regardless and if Delta goes T U then we'll fly for someone else. Amazing ...

Worse, wait until you see how they handle IROPS. Delta did not include pax handling in the contracts and so the vendors don't want to spend a penny on handling a IROP pax. If you want to know why they try to make them spend the night on a jet, there is your answer. My former CPO literally screamed at me for letting passengers off the airplane on a diversion. The airline's plan was to keep them on the jet from 11PM until around 11AM the next day - no I'm not kidding - first name starts with a D, ends with OUG.

But that is what happens when you give operational control to a third party who does not share your common goals.

Frankly, this very poor management of outsoucing is why we now live under the Passenger Bill of Rights.

forgot to bid

So why are we willing to spend a billlion dollars to enhance our product but we leave the most critical part of our operation, passenger transportation and service, flapping in the wind and out of our control?


rhetorical question.

See, we wrote off a lot of "goodwill" on balance sheets because at some point accountants became economists. Yet bean counters cannot seem to grasp the cost that outsourcing costs. Sure DCI has high CASMs, but tack on the loss of control and quality control and you've got CASMs that should not be justified if anyone was worth their paycheck.

Professor

ummm, true?

no, C) the Caspian Sea

no no 3) The Crimean War and Ho-Ho's

close?

acl65pilot

Sat, the ROAR is on the C44 website. If you cannot get to it I can send you a dpf copy. Just PM me your addy.

As for that LCA. I bet I know who it is, and I bet that he has an advanced degree.

Bucking Bar

Why do we constantly beat up on Comair while enriching Republic and SkyWest?

Yeah, I know, Comair ****ed us off, struck, etc ... BUT they are on our balance sheet. They are Delta Air Lines Inc.

So your kid poops the bed. Do you send your next door neighbor's kid to Harvard to fix the problem?

If we really wanted to sell Comair, then why didn't we give them Shuttle America's flying and new jets so someone like Republic or SkyWest would want to pay us a couple of billion for all the "new opportunities?"

Just like DCI handling of IROPS. The whole handling of our outsourcing is not very smart and is executed poorly.

We need to focus on doing this flying ourselves (we're good at that by the way) and meet our customer's needs better than our competition. All this distraction does not help us.

It just occurred to me how much more time I would have if it was not for spending hundreds and hundreds of hours fighting outsourcing. It really is such a waste of our Company's resources and employees time & effort.

acl65pilot

Trust me, I have gone hoarse telling guys this and the ins and outs of why. All they see is this is what I have, and I am willing to anything to get it. That includes selling out the pilot group that gave them what they have and still have.

They do not grasp the logic that because they did not save, it is not my problem to deal with. There were and are a great many senior captains that always saved as much as they could in their B fund. Many saved outside of it. They are fine. The ones that do not see gaining a pension again as another win in the lottery. They do not care about the costs or the reality of the situation. Much like someone that plays the lottery they just dream.
Problem is that if they got their pension pack it would more than likely benefit them. That is a fact. There is no way they would get credit for YOS.

The point in this diatribe is to point out that even those that do not understand the score get a vote. That is why communication is key.

One point I agree with in that ROAR article is that given the state of our current contract recapturing the 76 seat flying would just cost to much. The author is dead on when he states this. Pay will come first.
Sometimes people do not like the facts, but those are the facts.

Simply put, we need to get a 100 seat jet on mainline. It needs to be viable for the company, and that means a lot of things. Many of them I have spent considerable time trying to educate people about. None of it is a "B" scale. People that state that do not understand what that means.

forgot to bid

+1 but man there are a lot of senior folks who really really want it. I must've heard it from a lot of the ER pilots I flew with.

Hell, the solvency of government pensions is starting to become an issue, I cannot imagine leaving my retirement in the hands of an airline.