I was one of the ones that didn't make it yesterday. My background is all civilian, 135 charter, Check Airman. Capt. Kraby told me I did fine on the testing, but came up just short on the interview. No details were given on where I faulted in the interview. He told me that typically the interview portion prevents applicants from getting a second chance at interviewing, however, he said my score was so close to what I needed that I can re-interview in a year.

I have re-hashed the interview in my mind several times and I am not sure what happened. One thing I thought of was the answer I gave to a hypothetical scenario. You're the FO, plane has mx issue at the gate, Capt. asks you to announce to the pax we have a delay due to weather. What do you do? I asked the reason for the Capt wanting to say weather and they replied he doesn't want to scare pax with mx issue. I said I respect the Capt. and his authority, but think we should tell pax it is mx, unless we were assured by mx it would be fixed quickly then we could use the wx excuse. We just need to be careful if we use the wx excuse so we don't look foolish later if the mx issue forces us to cancel.

Looking back, I am wondering if they were testing to see if I would stand up to the Capt. in defense of being totally honest with the pax. Maybe that hosed me? I dunno. Could be that or something else, but that is the only thing that stands out in my mind. Fortunately, I was offered a second interview for next May.

I was also very fortunate to be offered a job at US Airways the same day so off I go. In a year if I can get a CJO from Delta on the second attempt, it will be decision time. Maybe stay at US/AA? Time will tell.

Delta was a big disappointment as I always wanted to work there, but this new opportunity at Airways is exciting. I hope the new American proves to be successful going forward like I expect Delta to be.

Good luck to those who have Delta interviews in the near future.