Disillusionment with Delta is no longer limited to Chitchat. It’s rapidly spreading throughout all segments of this pilot group.

I don’t waste my unpaid time standing at the door and saying goodbye to the passengers. I make sure the appropriate checklists and pilot-related duties are complete, then leave. Just like my peers at every other major airline — who earn the same compensation for the same job.

Never once have I heard a passenger say “I’m never flying Delta again because a pilot in a goofy-looking hat and blazer didn’t stand at the door to thank me. I’ll fly AA or UA next time (where they also don’t do that).” What I HAVE heard are numerous passengers vowing to never fly Delta again due to management-induced blunders (the most recent being the SkyMiles fiasco).

Fortunately, the big 3 airlines have basically become the cable company of the 90’s. Consolidation and capacity control have removed choices. Even the largest management-induced customer service blunders aren’t enough to put a long-term dent in our revenue. Our current product is remarkably similar to AA’s and UA’s anyway.

I trust ALPA to hammer out the issues and non-compliance with management. Whether it’s today or a wait for a system board, this stuff with management will get fixed - I believe in our union.

But apathetic service isn’t going to fix contract non-compliance. I’m motivated by serving our customers. Management doesn’t pay us, our customers do. For all the “this is just a job”… well maybe it is for the flight attendants or management who can jump ship and get a job elsewhere in a lateral move, but sadly anyone with an ounce of seniority knows they’re married to this company for their whole career. Management comes and goes - I’ve seen it. Your seniority number only comes once. Jeesh, is this the attitude 3% unemployment makes?

We are the highest paid pilots on planet earth. Too many softies are worried about crew meals and deadhead fluff that is superfluous to 95% of what goes on right around here. That little stuff will get worked out - hang in there before you give yourselves an aneurism over stuff we didn’t even have 6 months ago!

All the time my wife and I remark the steady decline in service everywhere. Restaurants, fast food, vacation, hotels, stores, everywhere - it’s just way lousy compared to how it used to be pre-Covid. I refuse to give into this wave of apathy at the job. And with everywhere else equally sucking, perhaps my little extra would get noticed even more.

In the nicest way, have a Happy Thanksgiving and treat others how you would want to be treated. Don’t give up on going that extra mile, good goes around.

Look at the comments… 1300+ who notice.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cz360...M1YmI2Ng%3D%3D

The service that we, as pilots, provide is safe air transportation from point A to point B. I will never be apathetic toward that.

That said, the “Delta Difference” has become a fallacy that no longer means anything to me. Our compensation is nearly equal to our peers at UA and AA. I’m not interested in taking on a side job as a marketing representative for the airline.

Not sure about you, but I come to work for my liveliehood. I'm a professional pilot. This is a paycheck, not a community service project.

if management can't follow the contract they signed or pay me on time, I'm not rewarding them by juicing up thier NPS bonus numbers wasting my time standing in the door. I don't understand how that's in any way controversial. If I'm off the clock, I'm out.

Consider a new way to go the extra mile. Maybe volunteer at a church or a soup kitchen. But please stop being manipulated by the thieves and narcissicts in mgmt whose motivation is not for the greater good. They don't care about the passengers any more than they care about us. Their motivation is converting our time and effort (and as much of our unpaid time as possible) into bonus money for themselves.

The fact that we have pilots who are being cheated here every single day, yet professs alliegiance to the "delta family"and bend themselves into pretzels to explain away grossly unethical mgmt behavior is a remarkable and embarassing phenomenon.


Keep calm and Northface on.

Why are we carrying management's water when they aren't willing to take care of us? You take care of your employees because they take care of the customers. You want me to carry playing cards to hand out to the passengers but you take the most confrontational stance regarding our contract in recent history? No thanks. Get out here and hand them out yourself. I'm not here to get you your bonus. I'm here to fly airplanes. If you want me to go above and beyond, stop the middle managers from taking hostile stances toward the pilot group.

It's simple - management has shown and is showing that they put their own self interests above the needs of the company. I'm simply following their lead.

What's hilarious is that some of you are acting like this is something new.

Happy Thanksgiving.

LOL

What's sad is that you continue to enable and explain away mgmt's bad behavior. You got a chairman's club yet? hang in there, bud. it's going to happen

Happy thanksgiving.

Spot on, great post.