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-   -   Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta? (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/delta/36912-any-latest-greatest-about-delta.html)

shiznit 03-22-2010 07:35 AM


Originally Posted by hockeypilot44 (Post 782078)
That's right. Super wasn't hired by Delta. He was hired by Northwest who hired on qualifications rather than who he knew. I can't wait to see how you guys treat the Compass pilots that flow up without a degree. When Super started at Northwest, he more than exceeded the competitive minimum requirements at Delta.

Pretty bold statement with no facts to back it up.
That is a bush league thing to say and insulting to your co-workers.
I think you owe a mea culpa.


Originally Posted by hockeypilot44 (Post 782078)
The only negative experience I had was when a Delta first officer asked me where all my flight attendants were. I proceeded to tell him that a DC-9-30 only had 2 flights attendants since it only had 100 seats. He said we looked like a DCI crew. I did not take it well and drilled him on scope.

That is pretty funny and sad at the same time.....Some guys really have no clue.

I'm with you on this though: "Not one more seat, not one more pound, not one more plane."

KC10 FATboy 03-22-2010 07:39 AM


Originally Posted by CVG767A (Post 782110)
I've flown with my fair share of relatively new hires at DAL, and they've all had very solid resumes, so I'd say that Delta hired based on qualifications, too. Only one guy that I've flown with mentioned knowing somebody.

Granted, I was hired a long time ago (1987), but back then, it was Northwest that liked an application to include letters of recommendation. (My LOR came from your most recent MEC guy, Jim V--).

I'm a recent new hire at Delta. My class was rather large as there were roughly 60 new hires and a few furlough recallers. Of the new hires, about 40% of the class were military. Of the military, I think we were 50/50 on the number of fighter / heavy backgrounds. Looking at the non-military folks (60%), most were from a regional carrier and were Captains for several years. Everyone was very experienced. In fact, as a military guy, I was very impressed with the backgrounds of the civilian pilots.

However experienced you were or your background, the deciding factor in being called to an interview was that all of us knew someone here at the company. I believe knowing someone is what pushed our package from the qualified pool to the invite for an interview stack.

acl65pilot 03-22-2010 07:45 AM


Originally Posted by hockeypilot44 (Post 782078)
That's right. Super wasn't hired by Delta. He was hired by Northwest who hired on qualifications rather than who he knew. I can't wait to see how you guys treat the Compass pilots that flow up without a degree. When Super started at Northwest, he more than exceeded the competitive minimum requirements at Delta. We are learning really quick that the Northwest contract was pretty equal to the Delta contract overall. Those hourly rates are deceiving.

Buddy; seriously? Super is a stand up guy and qualified. No one is stating otherwise. I know the guy and know he makes a great Delta pilot! he even wears his hat! :D
Lets put this one to rest. DAL probably hires differently but who cares we all of seniority numbers that are attached to the Delta mainline list. Any new hires will be hired the way Delta wants to do it. If that means standing on your head and shooting water up your nose, we will have 12000+ applicants willing to do it. What I was hired with does not matter, it got me though the door and the rest is history.


On another note, I have had mostly positive experiences interacting with Delta crews. The only negative experience I had was when a Delta first officer asked me where all my flight attendants were. I proceeded to tell him that a DC-9-30 only had 2 flights attendants since it only had 100 seats. He said we looked like a DCI crew. I did not take it well and drilled him on scope.
Good, some of us need to get drilled on scope. We at Delta like smaller jets with Delta pilots flying em. Just give him time. Heck I had ppl make the same comment about the 88. It is all relative.

acl65pilot 03-22-2010 07:47 AM


Originally Posted by KC10 FATboy (Post 782117)
I'm a recent new hire at Delta. My class was rather large as there were roughly 60 new hires and a few furlough recallers. Of the new hires, about 40% of the class were military. Of the military, I think we were 50/50 on the number of fighter / heavy backgrounds. Looking at the non-military folks (60%), most were from a regional carrier and were Captains for several years. Everyone was very experienced. In fact, as a military guy, I was very impressed with the backgrounds of the civilian pilots.

However experienced you were or your background, the deciding factor in being called to an interview was that all of us knew someone here at the company. I believe knowing someone is what pushed our package from the qualified pool to the invite for an interview stack.

There is nothing wrong with networking and making those contacts work for you. That is what the world outside of aviation is all about.

Contacts are a way to open a door, the rest is up to you.

Superpilot92 03-22-2010 08:54 AM

That was the thing with NWA, it wasnt about your connections so much as it was if you met their requirements. It was explained to me by a number of people how they filtered their applicants and supposedly it was some sort of point based system. You got X amount of points for different things. If you got a score of 29 your app went into the 29 pile. If you got a 28 then you went into that pile. If you had a recommendation then you went to the top of the 28 pile but not in front of the 29's. So recommendations helped but didnt pull you to the top of everyone.

Now this is how it was explained to me so i dont know how accurate it is but the point is, NWA had a picture of whom they were looking for. The people that got called all met specific requirements to get selected. I didnt know a single person at NWA and honestly didnt think i'd get called because of that but thats not how their system worked. None the less, I'm happy to be here! ;)

Superpilot92 03-22-2010 09:06 AM


Originally Posted by tsquare (Post 781999)
That was at the bottom of the post of yours that I quoted.

I'm unconfused now ;) You were talking about my Signature lol

For some reason in my profile set up the box that allows you to see "Signatures" was unchecked and thus i didnt even know that i had a signature that was shown.

It has been corrected now ;)

Bucking Bar 03-22-2010 09:22 AM


Originally Posted by hockeypilot44 (Post 782078)
That's right. Super wasn't hired by Delta. He was hired by Northwest who hired on qualifications rather than who he knew. I can't wait to see how you guys treat the Compass pilots that flow up without a degree. When Super started at Northwest, he more than exceeded the competitive minimum requirements at Delta.

Going to have to disagree with you there. A couple of points:
  • Delta had(s) the most objective hiring process I've ever seen with procedures and safeguards that would make it impossible for someone unqualified to run the gauntlet. Most of my class had over 5,500 hours, 121 PIC and a Master's. NWA and Compass also had objective hiring processes and I've not heard of an unqualified Compass pilot. My understanding is that NWA managed that program knowing fully well that those Compass pilots would be NWA pilots sooner rather than later.
  • It impressed me that "knowing someone" wasn't the secret handshake. In fact there were complaints about the lack of "silver bullets" and "black balls." The process used was so objective that deficiencies were obvious and could be specifically identified. Unlike the Fortune 50 Company I once worked for where a qualified candidate was passed over because my boss didn't like the applicant's worn flight bag. He thought a pilot should have a shiny (new) bag.
  • The Delta new hires were significantly older than the 2007 NWA new hires. Their education and experience statistics reflect the fact the f-DAL guys were on average older and more experienced. (IMHO it would be better to be young than have a fat logbook when we both have the same job, so that's a win for the younger guys)
  • Delta had pilots who failed the Delta interview for objective deficiencies who were hired by NWA. (and I imagine there are some Delta pilots that NWA passed on)
  • It does not matter.

Originally Posted by hockeypilot44 (Post 782078)
We are learning really quick that the Northwest contract was pretty equal to the Delta contract overall. Those hourly rates are deceiving.

On another note, I have had mostly positive experiences interacting with Delta crews. The only negative experience I had was when a Delta first officer asked me where all my flight attendants were. I proceeded to tell him that a DC-9-30 only had 2 flights attendants since it only had 100 seats. He said we looked like a DCI crew. I did not take it well and drilled him on scope.

Agree with the rest of your post. Eventually you'll figure out the top part of your post is really mistaken. The Delta Captains I've been flying with have resumes that are impressive, a few are astonishing.

Just saying a 4 day with a former SR-71 driver makes for interesting stories in between sterile cockpit.

satchip 03-22-2010 10:05 AM


Originally Posted by acl65pilot (Post 782106)
IAH;
You are correct. Early last year our leaders were confident we would make a profit in 2009. Why? because with where fuel was and where our RASM was it would take a 20 point drop go to in to the red. Well....That happened as we were all living though one of the biggest meltdowns in history. Greed, a quick buck and a house bigger than you know you could ever afford caused this. That is not the point though.
We had to take capacity out of the system to stabilize our RASM. They were very proactive in that regard. Leading the industry by a quarter on some cuts. These cuts probably saved us from a lot more red ink at a minimum. Not furloughing made sense too. Why? When markets crater like they do, the uptick like we have seen generally will not equate to an ROI on the furloughs. CAL is just trying to keep those guys on the street long enough to break even on the furloughs. They need them now.

Going forward, I do agree that we will see added capacity in our system. 50 seat RJ's do not work. The 70 does not work so they are trying to add a premium cabin to them. The 76 seat works for now, but when a 100+ seat airframe is added the 76 seat jet will be dead as well. We know there will be a fight, so let expect it.

I know we will see some rationalizing of DCI as early as this winter. A lot will change as capacity returns and with it congestion. The old adage of a five pound bag with 10 pounds of stuff comes to mind. That is why the 100 seat jet will be very important going forward. More capacity on the same amount of flights.

You are right except about the bold part. Inept and corrupt government policies caused this, not the market or Capitalism. The only greed was the politicians greed in the number of votes they could buy.

As for the uptick in 2010, I'm not as confident as you. The fiasco of yesterday is going to have implications that reach far beyond "health care". Our economy is set to collapse if these taxes and spending actually take effect. Our industry will be especially hard hit as our revenue is totally dependent on discretionary dollars of the public and business. God I hope I'm wrong.

satchip 03-22-2010 10:17 AM


Originally Posted by Bucking Bar (Post 782162)
Going to have to disagree with you there. A couple of points:
  • The Delta new hires were significantly older than the 2007 NWA new hires. Their education and experience statistics reflect the fact the f-DAL guys were on average older and more experienced. (IMHO it would be better to be young than have a fat logbook when we both have the same job, so that's a win for the younger guys)
  • It does not matter.
Agree with the rest of your post. Eventually you'll figure out the top part of your post is really mistaken. The Delta Captains I've been flying with have resumes that are impressive, a few are astonishing.

Just saying a 4 day with a former SR-71 driver makes for interesting stories in between sterile cockpit.

I was told by a NWA pilot in my squadron (furlough bypass) that there was a formula based on age that favored the younger guys. They were assigned more points. He said they would have more time at the company and were more attractive. This was 07.

So Super was hired because of his qualifications, it was his boyish good looks!:D

acl65pilot 03-22-2010 10:35 AM


Originally Posted by satchip (Post 782184)
You are right except about the bold part. Inept and corrupt government policies caused this, not the market or Capitalism. The only greed was the politicians greed in the number of votes they could buy.

As for the uptick in 2010, I'm not as confident as you. The ***** of yesterday is going to have implications that reach far beyond "health care". Our economy is set to collapse if these taxes and spending actually take effect. Our industry will be especially hard hit as our revenue is totally dependent on discretionary dollars of the public and business. God I hope I'm wrong.

Satch;
I was referring to the housing crisis.

As for the rest, I will not let it spiral in to a political debate that is banned from the TOS. I will only state that the taxes et al will levied incrementally. (Just like a lobster in a pot. Never wise to throw one in to boiling water as they will jump out, just put em in a nice warm pot a water and add heat. The pain is hardly noticeable) :D


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