YET...:D

Talk to me after the playoffs!

(Hockey, Football and Basketball playoffs that is.)

At least the Red Sox won this year. But what's up with Danny Ainge getting rid of most of the Celtics?? :rolleyes:

Like others have stated I don"t think the robo calls look at a schedule.I know someone who was called with an IA when this pilot was out on a medical.

Can't blame Danny....he hired too good a coach. Everybody else knew they were supposed to tank this season to get a piece of the best draft in years. They suck and are still leading the division....actually fun to watch cause they don't give a crap...they're supposed to get smoked every night. The Bruins though...that's the team to watch.

Merry Christmas APC peeps. :)

He's not an alpa person anymore than you and I.

He's got friends that tell him data which is typically correct, but when he goes to interpret/extrapolate it, it's mostly wrong.

Data point from sailing most other years weve been a bit short but have been able to cover the flying without bunches of cancellations. Correct.

Extrapolation into this year (where we are verifiably considerably shorter than other years): It'll be fine and get covered. Wrong.

Another data point: People called in sick after assignment. Probably happened.

Extrapolation error: That must have caused the cancellations.

Wrong again. A couple very possibly were. There are always a couple of cases with people calling in sick after assignment, with a probable rise of "false" sick calls each holiday. I had to call in after assignment last January. Those calls were not anywhere near the totality of the cancellations this time, though.

The fact is that we were staffed wrong for a variety of reasons.

Merry Christmas, johnso! I'm winding down from a 10:12 drive back from DTW... jumping back in the fray tonight.

Bring it on, Fifi!

As usual, the hardest part is shaving the beard.

Somebody sent me that on FB, and it was scary dead on. Had the exact town I was born in (which is 10 miles from where I have lived my entire life), the town my dad went to college in and where my mom & dad grew up and all our relatives still do.

There was none. Some see black helicopters everywhere. One of the interesting things I have observed over the years is that the biggest blowhards are usually the first to violate the contract or screw over a fellow pilot as long as it benefits them.

I will also point out that I posted more then once on here that the company should have hired last winter as they announced they would when the contract was signed. They never planned more then 150 pilots however those bodies would have smoothed out the 717 training flow and perhaps saved money overall. The powers to be however felt a first quarter profit was more important for Delta's finances. They may be right based on improving ratings and interest rates. I have no real idea. Regardless they are running the best airline I have seen at Delta in 25 years so all is not lost.

I think a lot of the angst is probably due to all the sick call verification/accusation talk on here lately. I'm doubtful that every pilot who calls in sick is a target, just as every pilot who calls in sick is being entirely honest. I have no idea what the final lack of crew cancellation count will be, but I'm sure the lack of coverage will carry over into the next few days and into New Years.

I'm curious to see what the company says about it in a few days, and I really hope that communication doesn't come across as accusatory towards the pilot group in any way. Management, as good as they are right now, needs to be a little more fluid in their approach with the pilot group going into next contract.
Basically bank sick time, holiday pay, ability to green slip in advance on big holidays (or whenever scheduling will clearly run dry on reserves).....just a few ideas. If management plans on running an overally lean pilot staffing level then they will need to find other ways to get adequate coverage on certain holidays and/or summertime flying. Basically money talks, and sweetening the pot on busy days and de-incentivizing sick leave abuse are a better solution than not hiring while ignoring the problem.

Just a few of my own thoughts.

When I get called by scheduling to cover a trip, it's happened twice in the last month, the scheduler has alluded to the other pilot as not really being sick. So, my opinion is there is a bias, within scheduling, to assume sick calls are bogus. I think a bias like that is how bad metrics get generated and therefore why decisions on how to respond to/handle the problem are faulty from the start.