Same holds true for customer comments about pilots. jetBlue and VA have higher customer service scores across workgroups that are paid less than "legacy" carriers. I guess it's not always about pay.:(

You're always there to shoot down anything which relates to a Delta pilot wanting higher pay, typically managing expectations. At least you're consistent.

The difference between us and the others might just have to do with the way the two groups have been treated over the last decade....personally I would like to have been kissed first!!

I would submit that it is not about the aggregate hourly rate or overall compensation, but the expectation of said employee group given the nature of their employer's business model.

In English, the Jet Blue's and Virgin America's and their employee groups have the expectation from the outset for lower wages etc. We have on the other hand do not. It in the end is about one's perspective. Jet Blue and the like keep getting better whereas we have a long way to go to where we were. That makes for some unhappy campers.

How much should passengers know of their pilots anyways that's not already written in the FOM? I think lots of pa's when late, few otherwise, none during sleeping time and standing in the depot to say good bye should be it. Although I like interacting them with delays up in the gate house but that's not everyones forte and thus dangerous to demand it. However, gate agents and FA's should, must, be good at it and the former should, fwiw, be able to understand and speak English. Not always the case.

Exactly. What Slow and others like him don't seem to understand (or maybe don't want to understand because it doesn't shine a very favorable light on DALPA?) is that it's not just about the raw dollars. Yes, the money is important. But being treated with respect is more important. Cutting someone's pay by 42%, significantly reducing benefits, and significantly hurting career progression by massive outsourcing of jobs (and all of that without stating any expectation of recovery) is not just devastating financially, it shows an extreme lack of respect on both a personal and professional level.

While the Delta pilots took the most extreme cuts and were treated with the most disrespect, the rest of the employees were treated with a lack of respect too. It's this sort of thing that is usually the underlying cause of #1 rankings in customer complaints, etc. Again, hard to quantify but definitely more of a factor than today's bean-counting MBA's are willing to admit.

DAL88, didn't you know that is what "Feel Good" memos are for! :D

I keed I keed.

Well said Maytag man, well said.

Wha huh??? You view ATL as a problem airport? I can think of not one airport on the planet that is more efficient in terms of both aircraft and passenger movement than ATL. It's an engineer's delight. Architecturally, it is as boring as Nancy Pelosi's personality. Saying that JFK is substandard is like saying ted Kennedy was known to have a drink now and then....

Sorry, couldn't resist the political metaphors.. too easy:D

Okay, which category is the most under staffed? Would you be best able to tell which it is by the staffing reports or the GS/IA's for the category in a given month?

If it is the later, than I submit to you the most understaffed categories by the ratio of pilots in the category (for June) vs the number of IA's and GS's (for May):

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...id/temp-42.jpg

I didn't have the PBS line counts for May, so I used June.

I think the best laid out airport in all of airport... land, is IAH. That call clearance at a spot is ignorant, but until they added that far far north runway you never had to cross an active on the way to the ramp.

As to terminals, my favorite to date is Ottawa, its like one big super hangar when you walk in there and its all new. As to say ATL's terminal is circa 1976, seems about right, to me the ceiling is very low and windows, why do you want windows? You'll just be looking outside? Kind of like those tiny windows they put in old houses that are like 6" tall but 5' wide. I hate those windows with a passion.