Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
As with every thing. DAL probably has run the numbers and the cost of this policy is more expensive than what we are doing now. They almost never cancel a flight because of a commuter not showing up. A lot of guys live near our bases and have WS and GS in. IF there is not a reserve avail, they call one of these guys up for a turn. Works out real well for them.
Here is one observation and I had this backed up two weeks ago here in ATL. When a live-in-base pilot messes up their schedule, scheduling finds out 1 hour prior. If a commuter messes up scheduling usually has a few hours to rectify it. The only miss trip I ever got was as an RJ pilot when I read 1530 as 530pm, and I had a Captain misread a 1310 show as a 310pm show. I never made a mistake like that as a commuter, just as a live in base guy.
Originally Posted by
acl65pilot
Also, when you look at former bases like MCO and DFW, the amount of commuters sends shivers down the spines of managers contemplating this policy. They look at this and figure that 95% of the tickets issued would be bumping revenue out of these two cities.
DFW still has 400-500 pilots and a ton of FA's. One gate agent told me that 3000 or so ppl still commute out of there. See we have mechanics, gate agents, rampers, et al that still commute from there. Heck even a VP or two does it. Most of the FA's, Mechanics etc are way senior to the pilots so they see this as a way for them to PSY all of the pilots from cities like this.
Why not open a DFW or MCO base again that, like all of the other bases, does one leg out to another base and does flying from there and then one leg back? Put A320s in there, DFW-MSP/SLC/MEM/DTW flying or MD90s and do DFW-SLC/MEM/CVG/NYC/ATL flying. I'd give up something to get that and I don't even live or ever plan on living in DFW. Its for the common good. I want senior people to acknowledge I exist and I am willing to help senior people get something they want.