Originally Posted by Jesse (Post 949395)

Scenario:

Given - No JS available.

Pilot has a 1000 sign in out of ATL. Puts himself down for a non-rev seat on a DL mainline flight that departs at 0730 and arrives at 0830 in ATL. The night before the flight shows open seats, but when boarding starts it shows oversold and he isn't able to get on the flight.

So he goes to his back up flight which is scheduled for a 0930 departure and 1030 arrival into ATL. This flight showed plenty of seats available the night prior. He talks to the gate agent and the gate agent confirms there should be plenty of seats remaining (for this example let's say 20) and the pilot should be able to get one of those.

According to the policy the pilot supposed to call crew scheduling now and get PS.

The memo says this should be a rare occasion ("Rare is defined as a few times during a pilot’s career."), but the mandate to call if you miss the primary flight (even if the back up flight has plenty of seats available) appears that it may not be as rare as one would think. I've had to commute on my back up flight on one than more occasion.

Additionally, I don't see any mention of a requirement that there actually be open seats 24 hours prior to the flight. If that requirement doesn't exist can you safely assume that it could be used against you when speaking to someone with company? e.g. "Well, what did you expect, you saw there weren't any seats available on your primary flight the night before. You should have come in the night before." <--what I normally do if I don't see seats on my primary flight, BTW.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the new policy; I like the fact that I have assurance I can get PS on the back up flight if it's required. That's much better than sweating it out and wondering if you're going to make it or not. But it seems the sweat factor now is going to be "Do I call and get PS or do I take a chance and see if I get a seat since there appear to be plenty available--I don't want to get on the bad boy list as I called for PS in situation like this about 18 months ago."

Originally Posted by Boomer (Post 949423)

FOX news for me... follow the underboob.

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 949431)

In the situation you describe the pilot would have to go the night before. I have commuted almost my entire career and would never go the same day if the backup flight arrived half an hour after report. That would not be legit under any of the commuter policies we have had.

Originally Posted by nwaf16dude (Post 949376)

All it does is make him look either ignorant of, or unconcerned about the great numbers of pilots that have been forced to make the difficult decision to either pack up and move, bid down to lower paying equipment, or start commuting.

It's a good policy, but the message was delivered poorly.

Originally Posted by newKnow (Post 949269)

I'm sure when she's off air, Rachael watches Fox too, so she understands. :)

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar (Post 949321)

The tone of the memo was inappropriate and illustrates that manager has no idea what effect the merger has had on former Delta pilots who are getting displaced from Delta bases. My guess is that this manager's commute has not changed.

Anyone offended by the above comment, feel free to swap former Delta for former Northwest.

Originally Posted by TOGA LK (Post 949436)

Agree, he's management material, not leadership.

Originally Posted by nwaf16dude (Post 949376)

"For many, commuting is a personal lifestyle choice, but the anxiety level can still be significant. "

I'm going to have to ask JG why he felt like he had to include this sentence. Read the paragraph without it. It makes perfect sense and changes the entire tenor of the message. That sentence contributes nothing to the message. All it does is make him look either ignorant of, or unconcerned about the great numbers of pilots that have been forced to make the difficult decision to either pack up and move, bid down to lower paying equipment, or start commuting.

It's a good policy, but the message was delivered poorly.

Originally Posted by satchip (Post 949344)

On behalf of all true Alabama fans everywhere...

http://media.dorks.com/content/pic/d...oo_ashamed.jpg

Originally Posted by FmrFreightDog (Post 949364)

As a fNWA guy, my opinion is that abusing it is using the policy as an excuse to commute irresponsibly knowing that someone will bail you out if you try to get to work on a bad weather day and only leave yourself one backup or try to commute into Atlanta the day before the SEC championship without a jumpseat booked... or whatever. I didn't see much of that at Northwest and I lived in a city full of commuters where the jumpseats were all pretty much taken about 5 minutes after the booking window opened. Most guys commute as responsibly as ever... policy or no policy.

However... there's always the 2%....

I also thought the preamble was a little condescending, but this is a huge change in policy for about 60% of the entire post-merger pilot group. I think a caution to use the policy sparingly lest it be taken away isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, it was very poorly worded.