Originally Posted by
Pineapple Guy
Relax -- no one is being punished. But DAL was willing to put a policy in place so long as it wasn't abused. When pilot's on this board say the NWA policy was "use it as often as you want", and assume that should be the same here, the policy will end up coming down. Once again, the majority who are using it as intended, will be punished by the few who abuse it.
The question is how many of these abuses are from the Pilot side and how many are from the FA side. Anecdotal evidence (possible sea story) from a DFW commuter I heard from was he was busy scrambling one day to get to ATL from DFW and he sees these cat ranchers just laying around reading Cat Fancy or some such thing not at all worried, because they'll not get on the first plane, call scheduling and get a PS seat.
Anyway, PG you have chosen not to commute Bravo for you. Come down off your high horse and see how the rest live before you sit in judgement. I've had 4 bases in as many years, two not by choice - should I move each time. Have you sold a house recently? Did you get what you needed to get the same standard of living? Anyway lay off the MGMT/DALPA koolaid and get your empathy on.
Pilots will call in sick and they'll even get doctor's notes. We're flying full aircraft with people who obviously didn't pay enough making our perks unusable.
The passenger on my recent 75E to CDG sitting next to the RP seat said he booked with us because we were half the cost of US Air. Our revenue folks need to raise fares enough and establish a load factor where we make money but aren't so stuffed that a rainstorm in ATL doesn't send the operation into a tail spin.