So saying goodbye to someone and being courteous to a gate agent is going to mask the problem of 100+ cancellations on a blue sky day, roger.

You’re acting like flying the contract and being nice to people is like walking, chewing gum, and doing brain surgery simultaneously. I’m not being an odd ball or doing anything different than what I see captains I fly with doing. I can assure you I will be the first to leave my hat behind if/when DALPA says to do it. My original point is that they seem to be encouraging flying the contact and just being nice to other people as opposed to being intentionally unpleasant “just to stick it to the company” as some have suggested here. I understand that is a minority opinion.

 

The problem with your point is, a few years ago, the pilot group was generally content and happy to do occasional favors like those when it didn't inconvenience them. But then, snowballing cancelations spiked, every other week became an IPOP, due to the fault of FLOPS, ignoring the IROP recovery lessons of crowdstrike, and the company objectively started acting in bad faith and flat out lying to us:

1) Claiming hold times are 2 min average (several screenshots on facebook of 1hr+ )

2) Claiming PB days were removed due to schedule churn (HT later accusing us of "racketeering"). Keep in mind those PB days were earned under a premise that disappeared overnight, when they could've said it applied to all PB days earned moving forward, or given a 1 year phase out date. Nope, done during March (maliciously).

3) Claiming swipe-to-sick worked after agreeing to it in the last contract, then sending out sick letters to cancer patients because they didn't like their side of the lookback suspension outcome they agreed to. Casting a net that wide to intimidate sick usage is illegal btw, even if you catch one good fish with the bad fish. Ask your rep about the legal action now being taken in 2 states. Company got caught breaking the law.

4) Begging for the c20 batch size giveaway, after paying out hundreds of batch size violations, introducing auto accept, then blaming us for using it when every callout is 100+ batch size and they can't staff reserves properly.

5) Claiming pay accuracy was a "top priority" 3 years ago, but then as of this month several thousand hours of GS was missing. Easy mistake to automatically audit, but they still missed it since no QC system is in place.


Unity my friend, it's a powerful thing. It's the only way to turn these gumpster fires around if they wanna play hardball.

Favors of kindness drive NPS. NPS drives premium. Premium drives this entire brand's strategy. Management cares GREATLY about these things, even if they won't directly admit it. Don't do it for free when the company isn't keeping their deals and actively lying to us.

 

Oh, I didn’t say he said he’d deny a kid. Was more just pointing out that “killing them with kindness doesn’t work” implies that, as pilots, our only recourse is to deny those flight deck visits, say goodbye to customers, etc., and I’m not sure I believe that’s true. Not directed at him specifically, more the general idea. Suppose I should have led off with that.

 

I think you’re conflating “being nice” with “going above and beyond” — which is exactly the way management wants it.

I treat passengers with courtesy and respect when approached. I accept flight deck visits when asked, especially for kids. I treat coworkers (across all divisions) with courtesy and respect as well.

I don’t wait around to say goodbye to every passenger at the end of every flight. I don’t stock up on trading cards. I don’t do any cabin PAs and I keep all other PAs to the absolute minimum. I don’t hand out “captain cards”, nor engage in awkward forced interactions with customers in hopes of being featured in the next Deltanet fluff piece.

None of those are things would make a customer say “that pilot wasn’t nice”. For the most part, they don’t even notice or care. Those duties are not required by our contract, nor do they fall within the industry-standard duties of an airline pilot.

However, management wants us to perform them, and they hate when we don’t.

 

nailed it…..

 

hoping you are right. And more importantly that it’s the right deal.

agreed. The tone of the MEC chairman’s email seems to support the idea that a deal may be coming sooner rather than later. We will see in the coming weeks I guess

 

I didn't read anything in his letter that lead me to believe a deal is imminent. It said DALPA is exploring the possibility of an accelerated/condensed process, and that we should know soon(ish) whether it might work or not.

There have been what, maybe 2-3 negotiating sessions with DALPA and mgmt? There is just no way a TA or even an AIP is "close." I think any clarity on whether this gambit is viable is at least 3-4 weeks away. Let's wind the clock and prepare for the eventuality that mgmt will turn this opportunity into sh!t, just like everything else they've touched recently.


Personally, I'm planning on a normal negotiating cycle, and will be shocked if there's a good deal in the next few weeks. Mgmt will find a way to dick it up.

 

A rep I recently spoke to said if we don't have a deal by the second or third week of May, expect the shift to the long negotiation route.

 

Ask anyone else who works for a Fortune 500 company if they are routinely shorted money from their paycheck, and therefore require an app (designed by an employee) to ensure they are paid correctly.

Please report back with their reaction.

 

the fact that he doubled down on the quick process and asked for our unity led me to believe there is at least something there. If the company had completely balked at our initial proposal we would have likely heard by now

I believe they have been meeting 3x weekly since the week of the 6th. I could be wrong but I thought that’s what I heard. And since we are only opening up a few sections it’s not like it should take forever if both sides are motivated.

im fully prepared for the long game but interested to see if there is a deal sooner.