Originally Posted by OscartheGrouch

Whoa there Airhoss! Hold your horses! I waited to reply to this because as usually happens someone else beats me to it, but not in this case.

I am baffled why you have such a negative attitude towards the concept of a "servants heart." While I think part of your post in tongue and cheek, your underlying resistance to it might reveal a flaw in your thinking. I thought the airline industry was a service industry. Therefore by providing a "service" to our customers we become servants. I thought about your resistance to this while alone on the aircraft with and hour and forty minute delay. I walked through the cabin and found that the departing flight attendants had not done what I consider to be a sufficient cleaning job. I then picked up all the trash (including in the seat backs) and even got a hokey and swept up all the crumbs and peanuts that a hokey will allow you to. No one will know that I did this but as a service industry employee (i.e. servant) I thought that the plane should be cleaner for our customers.

While the attitude of some of my fellow pilots might be that the customers exist to serve them, I feel that thinking is misguided. Gone are the days that you can treat customers poorly and expect them to pay high fares to support high salaries and a cushy retirement. You have to earn their loyalty and then they will transfer their wealth to your company and you will be compensated accordingly.

So Hoss. Does this make sense or are you still confused? With my hourly rate (12 yr) and position I still feel that I am not beneath cleaning up the cabin or pushing a will chair if it provides a service for the customer. How about you? Folks can bring out the koolaid comments and other disparaging remarks, but I enjoy coming to work and helping others even after over 20 years of "service" at SWA. Can you say the same Hoss? Did I say the pay and benefits are not so bad either?

The Oscar

Still a hijacked thread. My apologies.