Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?

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03-15-2012, 11:38 AM

#92951

Timbo

Runs with scissors

Joined APC: Dec 2009

Position: Going to hell in a bucket, but enjoying the ride .

Posts: 7,730

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sink r8

I thought we went from 30% pre-PBS, to 15% now. I've never verified this.

With all the wide reports published and available for all to see, it's pretty easy to click on any category and scroll down, see how many total lines there are, and how many reserve lines there are.

I have not done it, but if you've got the time, you can check it out. What I do look at every month is, the first couple pages of line awards, just to see what the most senior guys are bidding...and guess what, those guys can do the Math!

Most of the guys are sharp enough to put trips together that come in right at the max value per month, every month, which is 81:30 for my category. There are several junior guys who only get about 68 though, because of our trip mix, there's no 'short trips' left to fill up with, after about page 3 of 20! And there's rarely any open time left after initial awards, so little hope of picking anything up in the first PCS run.

They have been pulling guys out of the category from the two bids prior to this one. We are now minus 30, which on a total of 200 (now) is a 15% reduction. And that's at the top of the food chain, so that snowball rolls all the way down the hill...

03-15-2012, 11:38 AM

#92952

LeineLodge

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Apr 2008

Position: DAL FO

Posts: 2,169

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadkill

I've got a buddy retiring from USAF, wondering about airline career... where is the best place to send him to read for pay, career outlook at different airlines, who's hiring, what it's like at different airlines? I told him airlineapps.com and these forums, but really don't know what forums/threads would be best as I only read here. When I did the job search 13 years ago, I had a giant binder of charts from Kit Darby air apps or whatever... no idea what the current best spot is?
Thanks.

ps. I told him a Burger King manager job was likely superior if he could bag one...

Airline Pilot Central (sorta part of this forum site) has a good breakdown of payrates for the various carriers as well as fleet types, bases, etc. It's a good starting point at least and then he can search the forums for more specific information once he's decided where he wants to go.

You probably already know all this, but the "best" company varies pilot to pilot. The biggies are:

Pay?
Bases?
Fleet Type? (ie domestic/international)
Future Prospects? (scope, retirements, aircraft orders, etc)
Retirement Contributions?
Time to Upgrade? (see future prospects above)
just to name a few.

It all depends really on what he wants. Some gigs like World Airways are great for guys that don't mind being gone for long stretches. They have home-basing (basically) and decent pay/bennies. Sometimes it pays to think outside of the box, especially if you don't want to live in a hub or commute. There are plenty of options besides the traditional route of Delta, AA, United, SWA - of course there's not much hiring going now anyways so he's got some time to do his research.

Oh yeah, I heard FedEx pays okay too.

Ditto on the Burger King advice

03-15-2012, 11:48 AM

#92953

Timbo

Runs with scissors

Joined APC: Dec 2009

Position: Going to hell in a bucket, but enjoying the ride .

Posts: 7,730

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wasatch Phantom

Timbo,

I've really been enjoying your stories today. Good thing I haven't had a beer in my hand or it would be all over the keyboard.

To be fair to Leo (speaking of Rat Bastards...) my recollection is Delta made an agreement with Priceline very early and got a percent of Priceline's shares and a whole bunch of Priceline warrants which required Delta to meet certain sales goals WRT Priceline ticket sales of Delta seats.

Priceline's stock subsequently took off and Delta cashed in big time. I am decidedly not a fan of Leo Mullin, but I think in this case selling some seats for cheap paid off in a big way.

Yeah, I remember it, and I would say Leo made a lot of coin, but what it really did was to devalue our product, and teach our customers to wait until the last minute to book a flight, as late as midnight the night prior to an early departure, because DL would dump the empty seats onto Priceline last minute, where guys like that one I mentioned above, would scarf them up for $20!

I also recall that at that time, Delta got rid of a lot of contracts with Travel Agents, and/or cut their commissions way back, some of whom sued Delta over their sale of seats on Priceline, undercutting them.

Overall, it was a short term gain (from the Pricline stock runup) which then lead to a long term meltdown in the industry pricing power.

Leo taught our customers to shop on-line for the lowest fares, rather than go through a travel agent.

03-15-2012, 12:01 PM

#92954

buzzpat

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Feb 2008

Position: Urban chicken rancher.

Posts: 6,070

Quote:

Originally Posted by iaflyer

Tell him you're not the Hollywood type who's flying his own 737 (even though he's seen you on the Tee Vee), just a poor airline pilot, so it needs to be cheaper.

Better answer: EKG is $233, non-EKG is $142

Hee hee. I'll have to try that next time.

Thanks IA. I lost a little in the transaction.

03-15-2012, 12:04 PM

#92955

scambo1

The Brown Dot +1

Joined APC: Jun 2009

Position: 777B

Posts: 7,775

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timbo

Just be sure you take what you'll need out of your Jacket and put it in your shirt pocket before you leave the house!

I've got two "Dumb Shidt" stories for you, hope you can learn from my mistakes!

DS story 1: I'm flying MD-11 F/O, it's my first trip in March (1998ish) and I've got my jacket on, forgot to leave it at home, but when I get to the lounge the other guys say, "Hey, it's March! We don't need to wear our jackets." so I leve mine in the commuter room and we head off to Narita.

Well we didn't need pasports to get into Narita in those days, so I was not even aware that I didn't have mine, until we came home and I'm filling out my customs form as we taxi into ATL...and then the light in my head comes on...NO PASSPORT!! It's in my JACKET!

Well, as luck would have it, we parked at E5, right above the pilot lounge back door to the ramp. As soon as the jetway is hooked up, I look around for customs guys, seeing none, I hot foot it down the stairs and started banging on the door, until someone opened it, then ran in and got my passport, ran back up the stairs to the jet and proceded as normal. None the worse for it, but a close call!

OK, I'll never do that again: Which leads to DS story #2:

LAST WEEK...It was early March, and I said, "Oh thank God I don't need the Jacket!" so off I go for my commute flight up to ATL and as I'm nearing MCO (after driving 90 minutes) I realize...my ID IS ON MY JACKET!! DAMIT!!!

No time to go back home and get it, (3 hours round trip) so I call the CPSC, tell them about it, they sent a message to the gate of my commuter flight to ATL and I was able to get on the jumpseat without it...but the Security Clown at the Employee Parking wouldn't let me into the lot! Rat Bastard! I had to go to the Blue lot and pay $30 to park!!

I got past the MCO TSA with my driver's license and when I got to ATL they already had my new ID waiting for me. The old one was going to expire soon so they already had a new one made up.

So...if you are going to ditch your jacket, be sure you take your passport out of the breast pocket and unclip your ID from the lapel!

Sucks getting old...the first thing to go is your memory and the second thing is....

Oh, and for you whipper snappers out there laughing at the old farts, remember, nobody's getting any younger, so here's the 3 rules for when you get older, as told to me by an Old Fart back when I was a Baby Pilot:

1. Never trust a Fart
2. Never walk by a bathroom
3. Never waste a hard-on, even if you're alone

Words to live by.

You DA MF, You crack me right the F up!

Oh yeah, you're under arrest. (smiley)

03-15-2012, 12:05 PM

#92956

shiznit

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Feb 2009

Position: right for a long, long time

Posts: 2,642

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timbo

Well...if that 1% number is true, HOW is the "Average" line guy flying 87 hours, EVERY MONTH??

Did anyone ask him that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by capncrunch

They're not. That number is pure bologna.

I agree with capn.....(Gosh that was hard to type.

) We are not flying 87 hours every month.

It is the calculation of the "pay hours" that lineholders are earning each month on average is how the max was established. The max is adjusted each year based on what the pilot group ends up earning in pay hours. (I don't know the time that the "1 year lookback" is based on. The MEC Sec./treas. would know..... Or you can look in the MEC Policy manual.

Also keep in mind that any person who gets even 1 minute of flight pay loss cannot be paid more than 87 hours for that month.... No GS, no WS, no IA... It is a PAY HOUR limit.

Also volunteers are unable to pick up any flying that would have given them a "denied due to 30/7" if they had worked the trip that was dropped.

You CANNOT drop a 23:00 block 4 day for ALPA work and then within the next three days that immediately follow the dropped rotation pick up a 6:31 block day trip. IOW, it had to be legal to pick up BEFORE you drop a trip.