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Training

1. Training at jetBlue University is being pushed more and more for us to do during our free time. If we are going to be asked to do training that is required for our job, we should be paid for the time that we are supposed to be working and doing that training. Training via email is not a long term solution.

2. The one hundred questions that came out for our annual training was a good idea. It should provide a great source to prepare for PT’s and PC’s as well and day to day studying. Unfortunately, the question bank is constantly being edited and those of us who have already completed training are not being notified of the changes in the questions. The answers are being changed and if you do not have the update, we are studying outdated material.

Standards

1. I think it is inappropriate that our standards department does not do trend analysis on PC’s, line checks, or on IOE. We as a pilot group need accurate trend data on where our weak areas are and what we are doing well in. We should have an accurate idea of exactly how many people have had areas graded as less than qualified on a check ride. That information would allow us as a pilot group to be aware of our weak areas and then work to improve them. It seems totally unprofessional for us to not have that information.

2. I have recently flown with a lot our check airman and it troubles me to hear one of them say that he was told to take a month or two off from being a check airman, but was not given feedback on what specifically he did to cause him to need to take a “break” from being a check airman. If someone is not doing what the company wants them to do, open and honest feedback is necessary to give them a chance to change.

Flight Scheduling

1. The scheduling guide has more impact on the daily quality of life of jetBlue pilots and inflight crewmembers than any other document at jetBlue. It is continually being modified without jetBlue pilots or IFC’s value committee involvement. That has to stop. It is important that the one elected group of pilots at our company have a voice in the changes. Some of the recent changes, such as requiring pilots to accept trips that are less desirable when their trip was taken by a management pilot or to have to sit reserve during that time are unacceptable. If the management pilot needs landing currency so badly or wants to just help out the line pilots, they can take the other trip or sit reserve.

2. The concept of virtual bases sounds good on first blush, but in fact it will have tremendous negative impact on many more crewmembers than it will help. If a system like that is to be set up at all, just help facilitate swapping legs of trips in or out of a jetBlue city with other crewmembers that live in that city, but do not hurt the pairings of all JFK just to help 50 or so crewmembers that live in one jetBlue city.

3. Last year we were promised that this summer would be different and we would still be able to take some PTO. The upgrades to Captain have slowed to a trickle and here we go again for the third straight summer that I have been with jetBlue. The Captains at JFK had 98% of their PTO requests for July denied due to reserve coverage.

4. The reserve system for pilots is horrible. The talk of doing things to make it better is just that. It is talk. A poll of just those pilots on reserve needs to be taken to discover the actual problems with the system.

5. The crew scheduling software needs to be upgraded to handle the size increase of jetBlue. Jeanny Patterson revealed in a pocket session that our software was not designed to handle an airline of our size. She also said that when a crew was removed from a pairing during an IROP, they just fell out of the system and that they had no easy way to keep track of them and their remaining duty day available. Al Spain is supposed to be doing strategic thinking for the operations of the airline as the Senior VP of Operations. How is it possible that this problem has gotten to that point without something being done? Either he asked for improvements to the software long ago when we knew we were going to pass the capacity of the software or he has been a cause of the problems that we are now experiencing.

Leadership

1. Please help us understand how we can remain small as we grow if the leadership of the company at the senior-middle level is becoming so isolated from the employees. I don’t know how a senior leader such as Dave Bushy could push so hard for Bonnie Simi to be in a leadership position when she has so much distrust amongst the line pilots. If Dave Bushy really knew how much distrust there was and pushed her anyway, that is poor leadership unless he is able to mitigate the distrust through facts. If he was unaware of the level of distrust, then that certainly reflects a lack of understanding of the people he is responsible for.

I have not had a personal experience that causes me to have to have the level of distrust of Bonnie Simi that exists with most of our pilots, but I have made almost a dozen phone calls to friends at United and also spoken with the JFK assistant chief pilot for United about Bonnie and I have not been able to find one person that has positive impression of her from the time that they spent with her. I asked each of them to not tell me any rumors, but the reality is that when there is that much negative feedback, there has to be some truth to the problem that is now reflected in the feelings here at jetBlue.