Any "Latest & Greatest about Delta?" Part 2
02-17-2026 | 03:18 PM
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I don't think you really believe a single syllable of what you just posted. "The worst flu season" (true by the way) just happens to explain all the surge in sick calls? Good luck trying to claim that to some neutral mediator if such a thing ever came about.
Pilots tend to call in sick more when there isn't a disincentive, and we call in less when there is.
Example (I've been here awhile). After BK and all that mess, we negotiated huge concessions, to include a major change to our sick policy. It was a complex system and no one really understood it. But as my rep explained to me it ended up like this.
1. If you only called in sick once or twice a year, you would notice no change.
2. If you had a significant illness, injury, etc that had you out for weeks or more, you would indeed take a pay hit, but even that could be made up with a "rapid recharge" or some such slogan.
3. If you were the kind of pilot who called in sick once every month or two just because (insert reason), you would see a very big hit to your earnings.
Guess what? Sick leave declined a lot.
The system thankfully didn't last that long. Profitability returned, and a couple of years later, our negotiators wisely negotiated a return to, and even improvements to, our original sick leave system that we enjoy today.
"Shockingly" sick leave went right back to where it had been, traditionally.
"Flu season?" Please.
Pilots tend to call in sick more when there isn't a disincentive, and we call in less when there is.
Example (I've been here awhile). After BK and all that mess, we negotiated huge concessions, to include a major change to our sick policy. It was a complex system and no one really understood it. But as my rep explained to me it ended up like this.
1. If you only called in sick once or twice a year, you would notice no change.
2. If you had a significant illness, injury, etc that had you out for weeks or more, you would indeed take a pay hit, but even that could be made up with a "rapid recharge" or some such slogan.
3. If you were the kind of pilot who called in sick once every month or two just because (insert reason), you would see a very big hit to your earnings.
Guess what? Sick leave declined a lot.
The system thankfully didn't last that long. Profitability returned, and a couple of years later, our negotiators wisely negotiated a return to, and even improvements to, our original sick leave system that we enjoy today.
"Shockingly" sick leave went right back to where it had been, traditionally.
"Flu season?" Please.
How is lookback any more of a hindrance than GFB? IMHO, GFB is the worse of the two because it can occur at a much lower threshold. Neither have ever stopped me from calling in sick though.
Every pilot here either allows their sick call behavior to be influenced by GFB / lookback, or they don’t. Nobody is significantly influenced by one form of verification but not the other.
02-17-2026 | 03:49 PM
Roll’n Thunder
Joined: Oct 2009
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From: Pilot
A bad flu season can easily double, triple, or quadruple sick calls from the baseline. Talk to anyone at AA or UA, and they’ll tell you that sick calls have surged there as well.
How is lookback any more of a hindrance than GFB? IMHO, GFB is the worse of the two because it can occur at a much lower threshold. Neither have ever stopped me from calling in sick though.
Every pilot here either allows their sick call behavior to be influenced by GFB / lookback, or they don’t. Nobody is significantly influenced by one form of verification but not the other.
How is lookback any more of a hindrance than GFB? IMHO, GFB is the worse of the two because it can occur at a much lower threshold. Neither have ever stopped me from calling in sick though.
Every pilot here either allows their sick call behavior to be influenced by GFB / lookback, or they don’t. Nobody is significantly influenced by one form of verification but not the other.
02-17-2026 | 04:01 PM
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jul 2022
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That’s the true data we need. We shouldn’t be comparing this winter to our previous winters. We need to compare our sick increase vs the sick increase at the other legacy carriers. If we spiked say 50% but UA and AA spike the same (or even more) then there is really no case to say that the increase was due to the suspension on look back. If, however, UA and AA spiked 50% but we spiked 100% then it would more stand to reason that at least some of our increase was due to look back suspension vs the bad flu season.
02-17-2026 | 04:39 PM
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From: Enoch Powell Enthusiast
02-17-2026 | 04:41 PM
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Sick time and calling out sick are misnomers. They should really be called "not fit to fly" time, and calling out "not fit to fly. We- pilots and companies alike, call it "sick", I guess for ease of use in saying "sick" vs "not fit to fly. That's somehow made it into the culture, where there's this self imposed burden among some to actually feel "sick" in order to use your "sick" time. Also on the company side, a need for you to prove you're "sick", when you call in "sick".
Meanwhile, anytime youre not feeling fit to fly via the IMSAFE checklist, you owe it to yourself, your passengers and even your airline to call out "sick".
I had some very stressful, worrisome stuff going on at home a few weeks ago. (All is fine now) I was absolutely in NO condition to focus on flying an airplane. I called in "sick" even though I wasn't "sick", I just wasnt fit to fly.
Being "sick" seems like the whole basis for the GFB, or look back stuff, and if you reframe "sick" as "not fit to fly", then the GFB, and look back lose some of their teeth....not that they ever really had any to begin with....I mean....you can literally **visit a virtual doc, say your finger hurt and you can't manipulate the controls properly. They can "agree" that you were too "sick" to fly and put in their note that they saw you related to musculoskeletal issues. **
**for illustrative purposes only. I've never had a GFB or lookback.
Meanwhile, anytime youre not feeling fit to fly via the IMSAFE checklist, you owe it to yourself, your passengers and even your airline to call out "sick".
I had some very stressful, worrisome stuff going on at home a few weeks ago. (All is fine now) I was absolutely in NO condition to focus on flying an airplane. I called in "sick" even though I wasn't "sick", I just wasnt fit to fly.
Being "sick" seems like the whole basis for the GFB, or look back stuff, and if you reframe "sick" as "not fit to fly", then the GFB, and look back lose some of their teeth....not that they ever really had any to begin with....I mean....you can literally **visit a virtual doc, say your finger hurt and you can't manipulate the controls properly. They can "agree" that you were too "sick" to fly and put in their note that they saw you related to musculoskeletal issues. **
**for illustrative purposes only. I've never had a GFB or lookback.
02-17-2026 | 05:52 PM
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From: B737 FO
02-18-2026 | 05:12 AM
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That’s the true data we need. We shouldn’t be comparing this winter to our previous winters. We need to compare our sick increase vs the sick increase at the other legacy carriers. If we spiked say 50% but UA and AA spike the same (or even more) then there is really no case to say that the increase was due to the suspension on look back. If, however, UA and AA spiked 50% but we spiked 100% then it would more stand to reason that at least some of our increase was due to look back suspension vs the bad flu season.
Even then, how much of that raise is also caused by the types who normally (unreasonably IMHO) fear a GFB? Also a consideration is how much of it is a generational difference in how sick is viewed. As a young FO, I flew with a fair amount of "get the mission done" types, who were big on the "it's just allergies." If everyone actually called in when they could not pass the IMSAFE checklist, our sick would naturally rise. Some meds require a 2.5 day wait time after last dose, how many people don't follow that?
Last edited by crewdawg; 02-18-2026 at 05:57 AM.
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