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.

 

Certainly we have some bad schedulers. We also have some very good ones. Some have a bias and some don't. If you are ever in training and have some spare time go over to scheduling and ask to be shown around. If it's a bad weather day you might find it a eye opening experience. Listen to how some pilots treat the schedulers. The road runs both ways.

 

Holiday Pay, just like the other employees get, would solve all of Scheduling's coverage problems. There would be zero open time left to cover after the first PBS run, and there'd be guys lined up 5 deep to white slip anything that did come open over the holiday.

Every other employee group piggy backs on us when we get raises, I've never understood why that's only a one-way street, but it is.

 

Ok, then how about let's start with this. Double pay for trips that TOUCH a holiday, 150% for anything over 78 hours EVERY month. IMO the top 3 in Flight Ops Management are way out of touch and should have been gone a long time ago. They have been in their positions way longer than those that preceded them, except maybe Harry and Snake. Snake was a keeper, Harry should have never gotten the job in the first place.