Originally Posted by
dragon
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.
FWIW
When I saw this thread started I had no doubt as to the validity of the letter and no doubt it was a bad thing for our policy. So I went to the source and contacted my chief pilot and he said emphatically "NO" letters are not being put in files. He has no knowledge of these particular circumstances but from his office "NO". I believe him and trust him and I am a FORCED commuter, so I have skin in the game.
In a general sense, I would love to hear all sides of the story when a pilot gets done in a chief pilots office, but it will never happen because only one side is free to to talk about the details. Either we have a policy or we don"t that is clear. If someone is abusing the policy then we have a clear process for remedy. I think a particular CP office was seeking to remedy an issue and felt a letter was the way to handle it. I think it "MAY" be an individual thing and a bad response to a particular situation on part of the company.
I have no issue ever using this policy and feel confident it will work as intended and I will use it as intended if I need to. So, now I will get ready for my commute (7th one in 4 weeks) Gotta love 10 hr 3days.