The trick is to keep prices low and have 100% load factor. It is better to give seats away to get more loyal customers for the future. It is easier to give money back when things go wrong than to advertise to try to fill seats.

We owe it to our investors to keep the load factor as full as possible! WIth oil and the economy our pay is very fair. I feel if we can keep our pay and C.A.S.M as low as possible our options will reward us in the next couple of years very well - even for the ones that are under water.

 

I have worked for more than one startup. Some of you are wondering if Al is going to stick it up yours. Look at the history. Pilots always get ****** until they stand up and unite. Its not a perfect system. In a perfect system you would get what you deserve.

I am obviously jaded from my experiences in the industry. But I have learned "Don't believe it until you see it in your check or on the ramp".

Good Luck

 

Wow.... you must be a very senior capt. or you just picked up some good "Smoke" down on Rockaway Bvld.

 

I don't think my seniority should play into this.
We all OWN a part of this company with options and C.S.P.P. ! That is a fact. We are not goingn to make our money on salary....just look at the legacy boys to see what happens. Everyone, ncluding myself, needs to budget and live within their means. In the end if we can hold out and survive this turmoil we will be rewarded.

 

2 Blue,
I agree with most of what you say, we need to budget and live within our means and plan for our own retirements, but some of this fall on the sholders of the company and management. JB should budget in some cost of living raises for the crewmembers. They constantly say we are what make the "JetBlue Experience". So they need to "maintain" this aspect of the company just like we budget for increased mx cost on our airplanes, not just pep talks. No pep talk ever made an engine run longer or skip scheduled MX!

The pay scale was set in Fall 2001 and there has been no cost of living raises since then (even when the margin was in the 15-20% range). Right now, WE are bearing a major burden of the cost of maintaining a profit margin by not getting a pay raise. I am not asking for some outragous amount like you have seen in the past at the other majors (even SWA), but just a simple cost of living raise to help compensate for inflation. The paycheck only goes so far, and profit sharing (if any) doesn't pay the day to day bills. We get lots of promises and talk, but all we see is lots of talk and broken promises. Hey, just raise the price of a ticket a couple of bucks and give everyone in the entire company the raises they deserve. Every major out there has already proven that lowering cost to maintain load factors doesn't work . It doesn't help to make a profit, but it does help keep/drive labor down to the lowest price they or the judge can give them.

I do support JB and I like to think I give 110% when I work (just like most of our pilots do), but I can only give 110% for so long. 110% requires motivaiton. But I can only stay motivated so long. Declining morale due to broken promises and no cost of living raises, crew services, constant IROPS, will make this decline to the point most of our pilots will only due what is requied. That 10% will go away and never be recovered. Keeping morale and attitude up is easier than restoring it after it has been lost (trend we are on right now). Doing "just enough" or "just the minimum" or "only what I have to do" will become the norm and we will become just like the big guys.

Are we there yet, no. But we are on the road to it, and the throttle is TOGA! We need quick action to fix things and $$$ in our paycheck to show for it (just cost of living raise, nothing big). That is the only way to change this train. Promises that never occur or take forever to implement won't hack it any more.


Just my opinion....

FNG

 

2 Blue, I respectfully disagree. Anyone can lower prices and get a near 100% load factor. There is no trick to that. And investors (stockholders and creditors) are only one of the company stakeholders. Any company has to consider investors, customers, management and employees, all of whom depend on the company. Operating at near 100%, with slim reserves and few spares is not fair to any of the above, especially during IROPS. It is a strain on all involved, and eventually will result in lower load factors without fare increases, unhappy employees, and disappointed investors. The key is BALANCE! I think Al's e-mail recognizes that fact, but the question is what will we do to change things? Our goal should be to operate around 80-85% and make a fair profit. We had our best profit margins when we operated at that level. Southwest does it (yes, thanks to hedging) with well below 80% load factors. Giving away seats gets you customers, but not good, loyal, long term customers, just cheap ones or very poor ones that could not othewise afford to fly. Loyal customers are built with good service, dependability, and a good flying experience at a reasonable price. We are not currently meeting the standard for dependability because we are overstretched, in my view. Consequently, when a plane diverts to Raleigh enroute to MCO, customers in Dulles end up departing 8 hours late to Long Beach! Why? No spares, so the Dulles plane is taken off the schedule and sent to rescue the folks in Raleigh. Meanwhile, pilots and crews work an extra 8 hours, and get paid for one. That happened about a month ago, without IROPs. End result, no one is happy and it costs the company a bunch of money.

 

It's also refered to as "the cost of doing business".

 

Exactly right. Jetblue screws up a lot of the time. We are getting sloppy. Sloppy costs money. That is why we need to not take more money out at this time. Our debt is through the roof and is now junk status. What cost of living increase are you referencing exactly...numbers?

Of course this operation is on the backs of labor. That is the way it has been and will always be. It will never be on the backs of management. What do you expect? How much more is it going to cost to give that extra 10%? Just give 100% - that is all that is expected.

The "Jetblue Experience" is all about cheap fares and Live T.V. ...let's not kid ourselves that pilots can affect the experience one way or the other. We are here to fly the jets from A to B. Is paying you more money going to make you fly the plane better from A to B. I don't think so.

Broken promises? Please, what broken promises? This isn't highschool - no one promised anyone anything.

 

[QUOTE=OldBlue]Talks the talk, but in the end, its all about him. Disagree and get fired - just like Brian and Dusty.

QUOTE]

Either you way oversimplified the reason these two (plus another or so) are no longer in their positions, or you really believe what you wrote. If it is the latter, you lost all credibility with me. It's possible this may be indication of a bias on your part.

Respectfully,

JayDub

 

2 Blue,
I guess you don't pay attention to the details. Everytime we push to get out on time vs just taking our time, every time we help clean the aircraft, everytime we go get food for the FAs, everytime we bust our a$$es to get out on time or to arrive on time, that is the 10% plus some. If we were to follow the letter of the law (our contract), you can bet that we would look even worse. Not waiting for that late bag to get put onboard, not striving to save fuel and be on time, all of this is th JB experience. The pilots and FA make the JB experience. Yes we go from A to B, but it is all the little things we do that add up to the 90-110%. Plus, we are not the only ones that have a hand in the JB experience. (customer service, rampers, MX etc). All it takes is any one group to screw us all. If you JS any on other carriers, you can should have already seen the bad attitudes and "don't give a crap" status many other airlines are seeing. We are not there yet, but if things don't improve soon, it will start. Yes, it is on our backs, but that means mangement has to compensate us properly for our labors. Not treat us like mushrooms (keep us in the dark and feed us crap).

As for the cost of living so far. Since the Fall 2001 contract took efect, here is what inflation has done so far:

approx 2% for 4th qtr 2001
1.59% 2002
2.27 2003
2.68% 2004
approx 3.00% so far for 1 and 2nd qtr 2005


The total inflation rate from fall/2002 thru Jun/2005 is: 9.45%. That is how much buying power your pay has lost since the current pay scale went into effect.

Now for the broken promises. Al Spain, Dave Neeleman, Anne Rhodes all stated that JB would match pay raises by SWA. Myabe not exactly the same amount, but the numbers were SWA -2%. Well, they have had one and soon will have another yet we haven't had crap! Yes, their new contract was maybe a little excessive, but we should have still gotten annual raises to match inflation.

The second broken promise was by Dave Barger at the pilot pocket session right after the new contract came out. He said "Don't worry, we will take care of you". Well, losing 10% of my purchasing power due to inflation, sky rocketing health care cost, lower productivity, etc, etc, etc. Thus the broken promises. I try to listen to what the 3 Daves, but talk is nothing but talk unless they do something. And from were most of us sit, not much is happening.


Time to take off the blue tinted glasses and see things for what they really are.

Just my opinion.....

FNG