No, that was upper level management. But I know you know that.

What's sad is the rooting out of our extremely talented and proven mid level managers - like Greg and Steve, etc.

Carl

ACL.........it's a SAP problem from what I understand (I've had a long talk with my manufacturing Corp VP brother in law about what SAP is).

Are you trying to tell us that Delta is going to trash the millions they spent on SAP and buy something new? That I'll believe when I see it:(

Here's the point: It wouldn't need updating if our state of the art systems had been adopted. But they weren't. They were discarded. That was a choice by DAL management and the integration team. Who was on the integration team? The very person that many here are describing as extremely talented.

You guys need to look past the desperate desire to defend things just because they were fDAL. This will NOT get better until the fDAL guys admit that integration was completed in a foolish and short sighted manner.

Carl

Iceman,

No argument here on protecting the integrity of the schedule. My issue is with micro-managing employees (Gate agents in this case) vice empowering them.

How about giving them a little training on customer service and then trusting them to make decisions.

Example: Flight from LAX to ATL - plenty of international connections on board - get the flight out on time.

Example: Last flight of the night from ATL- JAX - 10 connecting passengers due to arrive 5 minutes late - hold the flight.

The way the gate agents handle these situations today is exactly the same: D-0 at all costs - too bad for the late connecting passengers. This is what management wants them to do and this is what they do.

Great companies that provide superior customer service give their employees the tools and training they need to be successful. Then they empower them to make decisions. DAL has plenty of room for improvement in this area. But Hey, we do have our "Year of the customer." That is so wrong on so many levels - so what do we do all the other years - not give a hoot about the customers?

As far as management knowing where the problems are I humbly suggest they get out on the line and fly around in the jump-seat - unannounced, so they don't get the red carpet treatment.

Scoop

You are exactly right Ferd. There is too much "Delta pride" to admit that they've made such an investment error in SAP. In the meantime, our customers get to see some very poor performance and we occupy the number one spot in customer complaints.

fDAL guys: In business, pride is BS - performance is everything.

Carl

Had the exact same stuff at NWA Scoop. I knew we had management on board when I saw us dispatched with 2 alternates and 3 hours of holding fuel.

Then there were the marching bands ready to play at the gate.

Just loved those unannounced management passengers. :D

Carl

Scoop, dead on! Great post.

Ferd

Carl,

We are very lucky to have this guy. He was the director of Pilot resources & Scheduling- not solely scheduling. He is not a suit - he is retired Navy O-6 who served as a Squadron Commanding Officer and then promoted to Wing Commander.

He was hired in the summer of 2001 as a DAL pilot and was promptly furloughed. While furloughed he was given a job in the Chief Pilots Office and obviously impressed someone because he was then given the Director of Crew resources job. Last time I talked to him he was trying to get back out on the line. Luckily for us they keep promoting him.

I heard (but never confirmed) that it was him who gave a presentation to management convincing them not to furlough on this last cycle. As a recently furloughed DAL pilot he knows very well the significance of a furlough.

I for one am very happy to get this news. :)

Scoop

As soon as BW left as Head of Pilot Scheduling, it went down the tubes. I'm on reserve so I deal with scheduling often - It used to be that LC trips AND Short-calls were assigned by 10am. SC times were reasonable and reserve was generally palatable. Wait times were short, schedulers knew their stuff and everything was good.

It's a lot different now... last hold time was 51 minutes, just for them to pick up the phone.

Maybe it's just timing, but I can imagine having a Delta pilot in charge of Delta Pilot crew scheduling resulted in an excellent product. He knows what it's like to deal with scheduling - so he makes it run smooth for the crews.

As for the archaic technology, it's all about money Carl. If we had a bazillion dollars, I'm sure we could get a start-of-the-art scheduling system, but we don't. Give them time - we just finished an amazing merger with few problems. Look at USAir/America West. They STILL aren't integrated and that's costing them every day.

Graham said, "Most recently, Barry served as Director - Crew Resources & Scheduling from 2007" so I guess it's a combined position.