Originally Posted by
HercDriver130
In theory thats a great plan.......... more power to ya...
You are right ...dont screw the pax....it doesnt take but one overly anxious gate agent to strand a bunch of pax....... as happened with a DAL agent the other night in ATL. She was very vocal that this was her last flight to work for the night.... told us she had a full boat... then recanted about 10 prior and said they were all accounted for ..... while we are finishing the paper work the NINE passengers where were "running" appeared in the concourse window...givinging us the "whats up look"..... so we TOLD the gate agent....her response ......."they should have run faster".......called ops ... they said to tell the agent to call them.... bottom line is if we had just taken the gate agent at their word.... well you get the point. And yes, I know this is NOT the norm.......but it is an example of what can happen.
personally Im for the 5 minutes or less crowd. Its just my opinion but 10 is a bit much. I commute and did years ago when I was in this business, and if the AA 727's out of JFK to RDU and routinely left 10 minutes early I would have missed my morning commute home dozens of times. Hell most of our block times are sooo generous its difficult to over block anyway.
FWIW.... its a damn good plan.
Our block times in ATL (CR9) are way over blocked and it's nearly impossible to make anything extra. But on the EMB, with only 30 seats and dealing with small out stations with no jetways; 5-10 minutes is cake to make.
Back when I was on the EMB as an FO I averaged an extra 7 hours of pay per month from over blocking. It's easy on the prop but not anywhere near as easy on the jet, it’s just two different worlds.
My main problem with some CA’s is that they don’t fully understand how the brake/door relationship works and what it can cost you. Sometimes when flying into an out station you have a very short taxi from the RWY to the gate but you still need to cool the engines. Usually you set the brake well before the time limitation for shutting down the engines. Then after waiting the minute or two plus the time it takes the prop to stop turning, 3 or 4 minutes can go by. Now if you tell the FA to open the door before you reset the brake the ACARS or AFIS will use the original brake set time as your block in which causes you to lose those 3 – 4 minutes of pay. This is aggravating seeing that the money is rightfully yours but your CA's voluntarily giving YOUR money back to the company. 3-4 minutes per leg per trip per month per year is an incredible amount of money.
I’ve respectfully chuckled at quite a few of my CA’s when they’ve complained about how they get paid. I then ask them how much more they would like to get paid. Afterwards I would educate them that if they just used the brake properly they would make more than the rate they just told me they wanted. You’d think they’d know this seeing that they understand the systems but they just don’t understand the relationships.
Bottom line, we all want more but there are some ways we can get more without screwing the passengers or the company. Yes the extra money we make costs the company more but with the fuel savings and on time bonuses we create and they receive, it more than makes up for your measly 5 extra minutes of pay per leg. Just consider it your “Self-Made Profit Sharing Plan.