What is going on?
11-07-2023, 05:38 AM
#82
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2013
Posts: 3,721
During the captain leadership waste of 24 hours of my life, we had an inflight VP there. They are new. Many of the same points were brought up. While there was a little bit of "that's the way we do it", I will admit that he was refreshing in his insistence that the Covid hangover "too bumpy to serve" thing is going the way of the dinosaur. His number one goal is to get flight attendants up and serving, even if it means they only get half a tray out. In other words, they should always be trying to serve unless they are in moderate.
My personal technique is to arm them with the best knowledge I have, which isn't great because WSI sucks. I will sometimes have them stay seated if I know it's going to be bad, but after that...they are on their own. I am not going to make any calls on the ground about serving during cruise ever except maybe in a COS-DEN situation. That's on them. If they don't want to serve they can justify it to Dallas, but when the seatbelt sign goes off and customers are sauntering by them on their way to the bathroom, don't expect any top cover from me. For the most part, this has worked very well for me. I have had one or two problem crews that have insisted that the back of the airplane is in severe turbulence when it's occasional light chop in the front, but those are outliers. Most know that if they can't con the captain into providing cover, they are doomed to at least try.
My personal technique is to arm them with the best knowledge I have, which isn't great because WSI sucks. I will sometimes have them stay seated if I know it's going to be bad, but after that...they are on their own. I am not going to make any calls on the ground about serving during cruise ever except maybe in a COS-DEN situation. That's on them. If they don't want to serve they can justify it to Dallas, but when the seatbelt sign goes off and customers are sauntering by them on their way to the bathroom, don't expect any top cover from me. For the most part, this has worked very well for me. I have had one or two problem crews that have insisted that the back of the airplane is in severe turbulence when it's occasional light chop in the front, but those are outliers. Most know that if they can't con the captain into providing cover, they are doomed to at least try.
11-07-2023, 09:31 PM
#83
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2022
Posts: 120
Peanuts? This isn’t 1979.
How about a variety of full sized snacks for people to pick from? Better yet, let’s sell food the customer is actually willing to pay for? Then let’s CLEAN the lavs periodically and maybe buy some paper towels that actually FIT in Boeing towel dispenser rather than cramming them in there. As long as we’re dreaming, how about assigned seats, a few rows of premium class, and professional. recorded boarding and safety announcements? Tell the FAs to stop surfing on their phones during boarding and deplaning? Finally a minimum of THREE flights a day to every city that receives daily service. Morning, mid day, and night.
Then again, there’s a reason I’m not an airline manager. I’d probably bankrupt the place inside of a week trying to fix it.
How about a variety of full sized snacks for people to pick from? Better yet, let’s sell food the customer is actually willing to pay for? Then let’s CLEAN the lavs periodically and maybe buy some paper towels that actually FIT in Boeing towel dispenser rather than cramming them in there. As long as we’re dreaming, how about assigned seats, a few rows of premium class, and professional. recorded boarding and safety announcements? Tell the FAs to stop surfing on their phones during boarding and deplaning? Finally a minimum of THREE flights a day to every city that receives daily service. Morning, mid day, and night.
Then again, there’s a reason I’m not an airline manager. I’d probably bankrupt the place inside of a week trying to fix it.
11-10-2023, 06:25 AM
#86
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2019
Posts: 341
Rumor is the company is looking at adding another class, as if we have any class, up front and wil assign those seats in attempt to curb the jetway jesus syndrome. If true, why not simply start assigning seats and charge for the premium seats (bulkhead/exit rows) and aisle/windows in the forward section.
Always trying to reinvent the wheel while the answer is staring you in the face.
Always trying to reinvent the wheel while the answer is staring you in the face.
11-10-2023, 07:42 AM
#87
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2022
Posts: 195
Rumor is the company is looking at adding another class, as if we have any class, up front and wil assign those seats in attempt to curb the jetway jesus syndrome. If true, why not simply start assigning seats and charge for the premium seats (bulkhead/exit rows) and aisle/windows in the forward section.
Always trying to reinvent the wheel while the answer is staring you in the face.
Always trying to reinvent the wheel while the answer is staring you in the face.
11-10-2023, 07:43 AM
#88
gets time off
Joined APC: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,250
Does the booking software have the capability to charge for seats and assign them? They bought the cheapest version they could find and got the base model, so this is an honest question, can they actually charge for specific seats? I was told years ago they couldn’t charge for bags because the booking software wasn’t set up for it.
11-10-2023, 07:51 AM
#89
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2022
Posts: 195
I don’t know man as that was brought up and he stated it would be a complete rewrite of the code as it was set up as additional luggage, but they just added bag tracking so maybe they did it and are slowly working it in. If I pay money for a bag it better be able to be tracked.
Maybe they wait till the new CBA and turn that function on and BOOM they don’t have to worry about the cost of the CBA as the ancillary income more than offsets the cost. Then blame the pilots if passengers complain….that’s what I would do.
Maybe they wait till the new CBA and turn that function on and BOOM they don’t have to worry about the cost of the CBA as the ancillary income more than offsets the cost. Then blame the pilots if passengers complain….that’s what I would do.
11-10-2023, 07:59 AM
#90
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2013
Posts: 3,721
I don't believe a single person who claims to know anything about our booking software and its limitations. It is used by tons of airlines that do lots of big boy stuff, so I am pretty sure the software is no longer a limitation, but I don't know, just like every other pilot who claims they do.
Assigned seating in some form is coming, the sooner the better. The toothpaste is out of the tube with the whole pre board hack and people are just going to continue to do it. You can't build a premium category (A list) when the peasants get to jump ahead of the premium customers just by going up to the counter and asking to. It makes the premium customers angry and then they just switch brands. Those customers account for a significant portion of the revenue and especially the credit card revenue, which we all know is way more important than actually flying airplanes.
My A list friend contacted me the other day and asked why family boarding is now before A list. I told her it was probably just a rogue ops agent and went and asked. They confirmed it was a recent change. I told her to contact the company via Twitter. She did and got a nice email from the head of rapid rewards telling her that she was wrong and that it was just a mistake. So basically, the rapid rewards folks have no idea what is going on with their product. She did get a $100 voucher for her troubles.
This place is run by morons who have no idea what to do with their dated product that they just can't come to grips with.
Assigned seating in some form is coming, the sooner the better. The toothpaste is out of the tube with the whole pre board hack and people are just going to continue to do it. You can't build a premium category (A list) when the peasants get to jump ahead of the premium customers just by going up to the counter and asking to. It makes the premium customers angry and then they just switch brands. Those customers account for a significant portion of the revenue and especially the credit card revenue, which we all know is way more important than actually flying airplanes.
My A list friend contacted me the other day and asked why family boarding is now before A list. I told her it was probably just a rogue ops agent and went and asked. They confirmed it was a recent change. I told her to contact the company via Twitter. She did and got a nice email from the head of rapid rewards telling her that she was wrong and that it was just a mistake. So basically, the rapid rewards folks have no idea what is going on with their product. She did get a $100 voucher for her troubles.
This place is run by morons who have no idea what to do with their dated product that they just can't come to grips with.
