DAL 88 Driver

Okay... now you guys are starting to worry me just a little. Don't get the wrong idea from my earlier posts. That 250 to 10 miles coming down the glideslope rule of thumb on the 88 is a minimum distance to start configuring. It works perfect right at 10 miles (assuming you don't have a tailwind). But if you wait until closer in than 10 miles, you will violate the stabilized approach criteria and, as you know, that is a mandatory go-around which will blow several months of your fuel savings efforts.

I realize you guys are talking about other airplanes and slightly different profiles, etc. But I just wanted to make double sure nobody got the wrong idea from what I posted earlier.

Sitting around on reserve being my avatar... (with a clear conscience now)

johnso29

No, no, no. We are reminiscing on old commuter days. I fly the 320, and we meet the stabilized approach criteria quite well as a fleet. They usually always restrict us to 180 KIAS by LOC intercept anyway so it's no prob to meet them.

Scoop

I personally wish we could switch to a system more like JetBlu, where we don't oversell as much, but I have to agree with T. The Delta miles are close to being worthless - a lot of people never cash them in and to top it off about half the people volunteer and act like they just won the lottery.

But it sure does make it a lot harder to non-rev.

Scoop

DAL 88 Driver

No problem... I realized you were talking about old commuter days, etc. I wasn't worried about you.. just wanted to make sure no one else got the wrong idea. You know, just doing a little "CYA"!

Interesting point you brought up about the speed restrictions we often see from ATC. Maybe the 320 mostly flies to large hub type airports. But on the 88 and the -9, we often fly to smaller airports where ATC doesn't hold your hand during the approach. The ability to do what I was talking about earlier presents itself quite often flying the 88 and the -9. In 12 years of flying out of ATL, I usually even got the opportunity to do it going in there a couple of times a year during those rare times when there was no one ahead of us on the approach and they didn't give us any speed restrictions. I've seen lots of guys slow down and configure early in those situations because they just assume that's what the controllers want. A little SA goes a long way. But the point I'm trying to make is that we should take advantage of the opportunity to save fuel whenever the situation presents itself and it makes sense to do so. To me, that's just part of being a professional aviator.

Nosmo King

Don't make me find that building in Paris that has MILF on the outside ..

Check Essential

I'm not so sure. I think the people who volunteer mostly know what they are doing. More of them than you think will use those Delta dollars. Plus it often costs us a hotel room and a meal voucher, etc. Sometimes the offer is a round trip ticket AND Delta dollars. Its gotta be expensive.
Then there's the flights where they don't get enough volunteers. Those cost real cash, not Delta dollars.
Still -- the company continues to do it on a regular basis so they must have calculated that they will make more money by overbooking. It just seems like a short-sighted strategy to intentionally make your customers angry. Guess I'm not management material.

acl65pilot

Check, statistically only about 25% of those "Delta Dollars" are used. So, yes, it is a smart program for Delta to employ.

Also by keep the loads near 85% it allows DAL to eek almost every dollar possible out of their jets. I have noticed that on many routes they dump tickets are few hrs prior to departure. The problem is that there is a decent sector of our customers that are starting to realize this.

There appears to be some strength in pricing. That comes from a mix of demand and tight capacity constraint. Generally this can be accomplished with relatively flat variable costs. When the price of these goes up the need for more seats to spread these costs out goes up. When variable costs rise in close relation to the inflationary rate, it allows constrained capacity. Ugly but true.

newKnow

ts,

Sometimes people need to be told that they are acting like an ass, this is one of them.

Re-read my post in a way that views the poster (me) as being friendly and helpful in a nice way. Read the posts I was responding to. Read the subsequent posts. Go back to bed and wake up on the other, nicer side of the bed. Thanks.

New K (No time for fighting with people who want to fight over stupid ummm, crap.)

By the way, I was told and have experienced that Delta is a captains airline, in a GOOD way. That's what I meant.

acl65pilot

It is a "Captain's" airline, in a good way.

johnso29

No I understand what you're saying. We get those unassisted approaches on the 320 too. They've been sending us ATL-SAV, ATL-CHS, DTW-MSN, etc where you're sometimes not even given a crossing restriction. This requires SA so you don't have to ask for delay vectors for the descent.