OK, ATL guys, nobody has answered my question. What the hell is up with catering in ATL? Went through there once a day for the last three days. It sux. We were delayed on one occasion by 45 minutes and just booked anyway because our FA's were running out of duty day. Took off with only ice and water for a 2 hour flight. Wuz up?

Well, the highlights from the CVG base visit are sounding great! More airplanes, more hiring, and no flight kits. Life is good. :D

I will miss the flight kit. Getting rid of them is one way to get rid of all of the bag stickers! :eek:

ACL, don't mean to disagree all the time, it just comes down to the fact that I do. While customer service is huge, Delta has been a colossal failure in what matters most, getting people from point A to B and on time.

The equipment integration, to a point, has been a huge plus. The rebranding in cabin and out is stylish and clean, go go, in-flight entertainment and the onboard menus rival what most airports have available, aside from full service sit down.

I wish I had five bucks for every time it has taken 25 minutes past scheduled departure to start a taxi out (I notice this frequently when commuting and it doesn't matter what metal). This could likely be the result of CSA learning the older Delta software or perhaps it's really that much slower. What used to be a few clicks is now pages of commands for a CSA. Customers expect pilots to get them from point A to B safely and on time. To an extent, that is the pilots task at hand. If Delta cant push the numbers to the crews, keep the bags straight, keep a crew in one airframe most of the day and provide reliable metal (not 42 year old DC-9s that are broke every time you swap one out) then they can hire for all the customer service they want. But the reality is unless the systems supports customer service and efficiency, one can hire all the $12 an hour help they want. What is happening here is upper management is seeing the systemic failure and pulling their hair out in the process. I attribute 90% of the customers anger to the system and not the flight crews. The pilots can only pick up the pace so much, flight attendants can only do so much with a customer who has been dealt multiple cancellations, gate swaps, equipment maintenance hold times, etc.

Hopefully the best practices approach makes it's debut now that six months has elapsed since SOC, not holding my breath.

Hey you can still haul it around. I'll use mine to carry a laptop & food. :p

+1 The RJs need to match the scale of what they are doing. Running a CRJ or for heavens sake an E145 on a two plus hour leg is not in keep with the scope of customer service.

Getting a jet out on time is part of customer service. That means a lot of things. Initiatives like speeding up, or slowing down to hit the gate as it is open, keeping it cool, updating via PA or gate house presence, doing a post flight check of the fluids like we are required to do to identify issues so they can be promptly fixed, etc all tie in to the customer service that you see as a failure. When a ball is dropped here and there it adds up to what you term a failure. Make sure that we do everything we can, and HOPE that the other depts get in line with it.

See those yellow vests in ATL? Yep new hires on the ramp. That costs money. They are adding staff to get these birds off the gate.

I do not see us disagreeing, but identifying that we as pilots can only do so much. Agreed.

My primary complaint is with setting up an aircraft and then loosing it on the next turn with a :40 hub turn. Then the inbound aircraft is late and the inbound aircraft has 4 MELs. So each pilot is digging through a 10-day history of the bird (required on NWA metal) to the tune of 20 to 60 pages of entries and then having to research every MEL and make safe they are applied. Of course all of this is in the 10th to 15th hour of your duty day. Seriously, what is up with this continuous turn over in equipment?

Like I said, pilots can only do so much. The problems I am seeing really have nothing to do with flight crews, its the support system (deltamatic, awabs, etc).

Not sure I would slow an aircraft back below LRC based upon gate availability. When planes are in the air they are burning time and fuel, the clock stops with the WOW and one engine at idle on the deck is always more efficient than two at max endurance in flight. Can't validate the concept as I have never used Atilla.

You know, I don't see Big Bird on Seaseme Street much anymore. So I'm done with him. He is dead to me. I will take a new character who I think I see in the mirror every morning and who I know the guy giving my recurrent saw sitting across from him:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YX6ukhfK44...llyMonster.jpg

he he, I bet stickers still show up. :D You know it will.

show off

Newk would tell you you're wrong and never to say it again. Just saying.