Originally Posted by
labbats
I flew MD80s for years and I'm no superpilot. What is with all of the talk of what a handful it is? I don't see much difference between that and a CRJ200... which has had low experience upgrades for years and years.
Factor in all the proper pieces in place at Delta from MX to Dispatch to rampers and it's a walk in the park compared to Allegiant who has dozens of new hire captains in the MD80 and all the support of your average Part 135 outfit and an abysmal MX record. Oh and flights to small runways. In fact I would love to see a Delta pilot fly into Ogden, Provo or Roanoke with four MELs and snow like we do every year. Yet the hiring department at Delta has no time for us.
Labbats,
Hope you can get on as soon as possible. IMHO the best thing Delta has done since BK days is to put a laser focus on completion and reliability and will go to great lengths to minimize delays and not cancel a single mainline flight when possible.
I agree that some travelers expectations are a little high..... One morning after a 1.5 hour delay for a flight to MIA, I had three different pax say they were going to miss their cruise ship boarding window that they had planned to walk off the plane and go straight to on an extremely cold winter's Saturday morning. No room for error. I felt bad and our company had let them down.... but there was nothing I could do, and I hate that feeling.
The other day at the airport I saw a late 50's couple, woman crying, both on cell phones with their ALG receipt from their printer in their hand frantically trying to call someone at ALG due to a recently canxed flight. I couldn't even make out the reason they were both upset, but it didn't really matter. They asked me as I walked by (in different company uniform) if I knew of any way to help get a hold of ALG. I walked them over to the airport info guy who was at his desk about 25' away and I said do you have any special number or way to talk to someone? Apparently, the ALG ticket desk had shut down and vacated for the day and the couple felt abandoned. He looked at all of us and said, "no, and daily I have crying disappointed passengers here that ALG has left stranded".
Of course he was probably exaggerating to make the people feel better, and I had to leave to catch my JS, so I have no idea what happened in the end, but that kind of unreliability and reputation will catch up to a travel company eventually if it is widespread enough.