Originally Posted by gloopy

i'd agree with that were it not for the bs about a pilot is expected to avail themselves of this clause only a few times in a career. That is way over the top. If you follow the 2 flights/reasonable report time guidelines to begin with, you will make it to work the vast majority of the time anyway. Add to that the vast majority of pilots who will pad those guidelines/rules in the face of challenging commutes anyway and you have a pretty good system.

Why it then has to be not only reduced to the least common demoninator to rein in the considerable minority of renegade dice roller commuters, but done in such a way that it gives this or any future management team the ability to point to the "rules" and say "you can only use it a few times in an entire career" is insane and it needs to be fixed.

The outright condescending flavor of "you commute by choice" being used to justify it only adds to the negative tone, both now and in the future.

If you follow the rules, you can still miss a commute at any time. The fact that you miss a commute due to the logistics behind it hitting the fan in no way guarantees you will make your next commute. You are still at the mercy of the system. If the airline culls the schedule with extreme predjudice everytime the forecast calls for the remote chance of dot rule shenanigans and/or the airline regularly overbooks or reroutes or downsizes equipment to the point that a regular commuter who follows the rules gets burned more than a few times in a career, that is as much the airline's fault as it is the pilot's fault.

Either we are serious about "unleashing the dna of delta" or we're not and its just corporate double talk. If we are serious, the "a few times in a career" needs to be stripped immediately and the condescending language describing commuting as a hobby bordering on a recreational eccentricity needs to be removed as well.

If you follow the rules, it "should" only come into play rarely. However one can easilly follow the rules and then some and still have it happen way, way more than "a few times in a career" and any company/leadership that cares about good labor relations should know that. The tone of that letter strongly suggests they do not, yet within that there is an opportunity for someone to make it right. Let's see if they do.