So you will understand why they are making customer service a major focus in their hiring practices then.

Other things from CVG meeting I forgot:

Decision on JFK facility plan imminent. Probably announced by the end of the month. Should take total of 3 years to complete. Renovate T2, demolish T3, expand/renovate T4. Supposedly architect renderings already complete.

Still fighting for LGA slot swap. RA wants to “Get the deal done” but probably won’t hear anything for 90 days or so. Someone asked about the court case, but no one seemed to know much about it.

We’re not seeing a double dip in bookings. Advanced bookings still strong.

Currently 600-700 pilots over sixty still flying. As previously mentioned, they are assuming roughly 10% of the over 60 guys will retire (per year,) prior to reaching 65. In three years, we will have 1700 pilots over 60.

That's going away, though. They announced that a month or so ago. Not that the "meal" was that great. I've gotten fresher burgers out of a snack machine and the little turkey sandwiches (we called them footballs) were usually frozen.

Flight Attendant explained it to me and said it is no big deal. Instead of having one serve drinks and the next cart do snacks now each cart does it all independently. It requires more bending over and more coordination since the lead cart tends to run out of stuff first. In the 767 a pair runs down the outer rows and one comes along and does the middle.

The more outgoing / independent FA's seem to have no problems. The more introverted (don't really like chatting it up with the pax) FA's seem to hate this since it puts them on the front line with passengers more than they would prefer.

(I don't know if this exactly right, but that is how it was 'splained to me)

11 total I believe. But only 7 I think are flying right now.

WHOA, thats a lot of retirements.

So intrigued by the slot swap. I bet there is a lot of pressure from other airlines to fight this out so as to not set a precedent with the FAA/DOJ/Jackass LaHood and so forth. The problem is if we want to tango, does LCC? Probably not, right?

As to the JFK terminal rennovations, they need to get those artist renderings out and post them in every stinking corner of terminal 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, and 4.

Let customers and employees see that we're not ignoring JFK, change is coming. Hopefully it'll keep them open to us long term as our JFK experience sadly sours many on our brand.

Ad lib;
I take it you watched this on one of your transcon DH? :D

Well some of you guys might be happy about this some maybe not, so what's your take?

Taxi into the gate in JFK the other day and waited 5 mins for 2 of 3 marshallers while SE taxi to the gate as the APU comes online (because of the reliability of getting power/air quickly at JFK). Pulled into the gate finally and had electrics plugged in by the ground crew and air shortly thereafter. Tested the ground air by turning off the packs to see if it was cool. It was and shut off the APU. As we were doing this, someone was knocking on the cockpit door. A little impatient knocking as we got up after checklist was done to more knocking on the door. Looked out the peephole and it was someone in a reflective vest (ground guy looked like). As soon as we opened the door he's like "we need you to shut down the APU." I was surprised, and told him it is shut down. "No, it's still running he said." I turned and pointed to the switch and said it may have been running for its cool down one minute, but it is now off. The EGT also confirmed it. Now, I was surprised by this because the people were not even out of FC before this guy was talking with us about shutting the APU down and knocking even sooner--he had to get on before anyone else could get off. "We're trying to save fuel." he said. I bit my tongue about the 5 minutes of waiting for the ground crew while this guy is trying to bust by grapes about us doing exactly as we are supposed to, because apparently he is uninformed about the APU cool down period prior to it shutting down completely. Don't get me wrong, I am glad they are interested in saving fuel, but for goodness sake, why not attack the the real problem--like an ENGINE and APU running while stopped short of a gate waiting for them to bee bop out of the trailer with their wands.
Kinda makes me mad, but maybe I'm wrong...wouldn't be the first time. Just seems like foxes guarding the hen house when a representative of the real problem as I see it comes up...nevermind.
Cheers...Philly

So anotherwords you can have one FA start at the front and one at the back and serve people quicker? But they've got to work harder? Is that what the new policy is?

The JFK blue prints are in the JFK CPO. Go take a look. I was told by the 30th, but we know how DAL is with dates. :eek: