That's an understatement.

I think this was driven by the Port Authority, as in making all hotel vans pick up at Federal Circle. I know it sucks.

I've ridden the airtrain a good bit. On a good day it is a pain in the butt to get to federal circle and once you get there THEN your wait for the hotel van begins. If they are single tracking then you will have to wait a good bit longer and know the system well enough to switch trains at terminal 8 to get to federal circle.

Additionally, I've never seen crews in uniform have to ride the train to federal circle. The hilton picks up at the terminal for AA and I think jetBlue is there now also.

I'm not disagreeing, but how many times have you been picked up by a van at JFK only to have the driver say ' I have to go back around and pick up JetBlue'? JFK's a F'd up mess no matter how you cut it. put in a report if it is really bad though.

Sailingfun wrote " The average Delta pilot flew 52 block hours a month in 2012 at SW it was 64.5".

Something does not add up. This is not bashing the pay of our MEC guys, but their pay is based on the average line pilot flying 87 hours. This number comes from the company. Where does the 52 hours come from? With our reserves down to 15% in most categories i find it hard to believe their inclusion would lower the block hours to 52.

Correct, They are not granting any new requests for curb pickup and want everyone at Federal circle. I ride the train all the time. From terminal 4 its not a real issue. In fact by avoiding traffic during rush hour you might get to the hotel quicker. Its 5 to 6 minutes to the Federal circle stop. The problem is if you come into terminal 2. There is not a train stop in terminal 2 so now your talking walking to terminal 1 or bus to terminal 4 then the train. Starts to get long!

Sailingfun's data is only block hours.

It doesn't count credit time, vacation time, sick leave, training, or green slip pay, all of which are built into the 87 number.

If the typical guy has 5 hrs of credit a month, 120 hours of sick leave annually, 100 hours of vacation time annually, 10 hours of CQ annually and 80 hours of initial training every few years, that adds up to 25+ hours/month on average. Throw in a couple of green slips per year, and you're there.

Block hours are the measure of productivitiy. Credit hours plus block hours are the measure of compensation. Keep in mind that not all categories have reserves flying. Some categories reserves are lucky to keep landing currency. Most pilots pick up about 100 plus hours of credit a year in vacation and training alone. Then you have legs you under block, legs canceled and paid. Trips canceled and paid. Trips rerouted and paid, non flying reserves, deadhead legs, use of sick leave and pilots in training. Its very easy to get from 87 to 52 when you add all that up. Under the older better quality of life contracts the number was in the Thirties!
By the way, our productivity is the worst in the industry. That fact however in contract negotiations needs to be disputed and clarified when dealing with the NMB and others. Part of that is contractual. We are overall at or near the top in workrules. Another part however is poor planning by management. In 2005 management stated loudly and often that we had to be down to 3 aircraft types to reduce inefficiency or Delta could not survive. Fast forward to today after a merger with a airline with only 1 like aircraft type and a sudden whim to buy every bastard airframe available in the world and new aircraft orders split Boeing and Airbus and I am going to go out on a limb and say they have abandoned the fleet simplification concept.

I know I have read that some long 2 pilot domestic transcon turns are not possible under part 117 due to departure times, etc., but what if they were augmented? I appears a 3 man crew could fly up to 13 hours if they took off in the correct duty window. I know airlines do this for long Latin America turns, why not domestically?

What number was in the 30's? Block hours or credit hours?