Oh yeah, GPT overnight!?!

What the heck? I heard someone once say "BUT IT'S ON THE BEACH!" True. It's a really nice beach shaded by an overpass that somehow flies over the water.

And how come SWA gets all the specials at the hotel? Are they paying more or is it really because SWA pilots pick the hotels?

I was just talking about that with someone a week ago; it really would be the best spot for any airline's long layover and is the same driving time from DTW as downtown Detroit.


I live five blocks north of The Big House, which I have included a photo of below.

http://www.tailgatelot.com/storage/p...=1300671912746

Our RIC downtown location (if it's the same one I remember) isn't as bad as some people think. I know RIC well and it is a great city but you have to scratch the surface a bit. Might have to walk a bit but that wouldn't be such a bad thing for a few of our guys. I'll concede that downtown is an area that you need to be careful if out alone. Same can be said for a lot of cities.

You do realize that the company and union have the last say in hotels already, don't you? CTS just finds the hotels that are willing to take us, then the company and union go and inspect the hotels and have to agree on what is available. Sometimes the pickin's are slim.

Anyone remember the Sherry Frontenac in Miami Beach? When I was a new hire, we got sent to Pan Am for sim training. Someone dropped the ball and didn't book hotel rooms for us. Since it was during Boat Show week, there were no rooms to be had. We got sent to the Sherry and were one of the first Delta crews to stay there.

They were ecstatic to have us. Had a huge banner across the lobby proclaiming "Welcome Delta!" and bending backwards to help us. Fast forward several years and they couldn't wait to get rid of us.

The "specials" are part of the negotiated rate. Delta just isn't interested in "negotiating" as hard as SWA for their employees apparently.

Given the industry vacancy rates, I respectfully disagree...

Cav I'll say it like this, one of the last times I was in RIC I took a walk over to a place west of the VCU campus. It was okay, Sunday morning, quiet. I walked back on the street the hotel was on. Not okay, even on a Sunday morning.

So when a flight attendant asked me "what's around the hotel in RIC?" I had to start the "well, if you go this way, there's this, but don't go that way, or that way, or that way..."

As opposed to the short hotel which is a one word "good."

And RIC isn't bad, relatively speaking.

I flew with a Captain who was livid about some of our hotels and he was explaining what he had been told about the selection process and so forth and he just said "I don't think they care about 88 overnights. " I kind of hope he's not right, but sometimes I think he was right.

Anecdotal.... Just as my examples of what we "coulda.. shoulda.. woulda" done better are anecdotal. Doesn't change the fact that a lot of our crews are spending the night in hotels I wouldn't put my family in and then are expected to go work a 13 hour day when they wake up.

But is SWA paying more for the same hotels to get the specials?

And I'm not really concerned about the specials, I'm concerned with the rumor their hotels are picked by the pilots, ours are not.

You may disagree, but it's more that just looking at a chart. Don't be like management just crunching numbers.

I've talked with several family members who work in the hospitality field. All I hear from them are horror stories about airline crews. Some of the shenanigans crews get up to range from hilarious to downright scary. One, who is a GM said it's just not worth the headache and hassle for what they make.

These are the more upscale hotels, the ones we want to stay at. Motel 6 and Novotel will never say no, but do you really want to stay there?