ewrbasedpilot

Great analogy, except it's wrong. Go to an opera or the Cirque du Soliel, and see if they let you come to any performance because you had a "good excuse" why you couldn't come to your "scheduled one", and see what they tell you. You'll be standing outside the tent or theater crying. A company sets its schedules up based on a "known quantity". If you don't show up, that seat goes unfilled. And you wonder why the airlines aren't making any money? Passengers need to start showing a bit of respossiblity too. Apparently they think flying a $100,000,000 jet around is CHEAP. It's NOT.................

OldAg84

I like the attitude here- the "customers don't pay enough" "you get what you pay for", and then in other posts, "anybody know here I can get the best rate on a room?"

I've had good service on CAL, but I'm driving for my job as much as I can justify. Run your airlines anyway you see fit, it's your business- but I'll go where I'm most comfortable and don't feel like I'm getting stuck.

One reason- charging $50 to be put on a stand-by list for a pershible commodity. You know, I'll wait make some phone calls, and buy myself a nice dinner. Or if the options available, I'll be driving on my own schedule.

It's a service industry.

Eric Stratton

I thought it was wrong for pilots to leave. Why the change of heart?

wheresmyplane

Yes, that's the point - SERVICE INDUSTRY - only the service wasn't very good.

Silver2Gold

The reason passengers expect cheap tickets is because it was offered to them - not their fault, and you can't blame them for wanting the cheapest price they can get. Don't get me wrong, I frequently find myself wanting to say "get what you pay for" when I hear the whining all around me. However, someone mentioned that it's a Service Industry and I think they nailed it. The industry sets the price and not the passenger. Asking our passengers to be responsible and grow up a bit is, for the Don Quixote fans, tilting at windmills. They will pay as little as allowed and ask for as much as possible. That's what customers do. I say we reserve our frustration for people who are offering our product for so little.

cal73

The point grazed your ear I think. I work for CAL. The op had a bone to pick about CAL and the subsequent responses to his initial post were on the money. This thread then degenerated into some freudian analysis of the PAX and Pilot relationship. Alot of BS if you ask me. That point is moot so lets call it a day on this thread. Let the ones who want to ***** about it go on their way. Either way it doesn't matter. A paying pax had a sincere customer service complaint and CAL handled it poorly. I is Pilot. I hardly get to look the PAX in the eye let alone do my best to ensure excellent customer service. I do Point A-B as safely, and comfortably as possible. CAL is a big company with alot of Boneheads in positions that they have no business being in. Its too bad this incident happened but I can't really impact the situation. Is the OP looking for an apology from the pilots? I doubt it. Does the OP think that the pilots don't care? Perhaps. What can the pilots do about it? Does the OP think we need to take a paycut to rectify his situation? I certainly doubt. So lets close this bore of a thread and leave it where it started.

CAL Stinks..ewrbasedpilot, you can take that personally if you want but I reccomend just doing your job to the best of your abilities and keep in mind excellent customer service might just bring some of those PAX back.

Sincerely
FUPM

757Driver

Classic and yes I wear one.

SoCalGuy

I hear "Red" is all the rage now....one size fits all....count me in on that too.

ewrbasedpilot

Who said that? Change of heart? What are you talking about? I just find it interesting that so many "pilots" will do anything to get that "airline pilot" job (regardless of who they're flying for), then after they land the job, look like crap and do nothing but talk bad about it AND their companies. We must have the only industry where being a master at *****ing and moaning is a prerequisite it sit up front............

ewrbasedpilot

Sorry if I took your post wrong, but I get tired of hearing how everything is "the airlines" problem. Whether it's WX, ATC, etc., it's ALWAYS the airline's fault. I'm sorry the OP missed his flight, but if he has to pay a change fee and that's the worst thing that ever happened in his life, then he's lucky. I get tired of hearing how we have to compensate everyone for everything, yet they want to compensate us with paycuts since passengers don't want to pay anything for the tickets. It costs a LOT to run an airline, yet most passengers see only the SMALL part of it, and that's US. Ever notice how these same passengers have no problem paying $25 a day for long term parking, are gone for a week, and yet complain that their $110 fare from EWR to LAX was just way too much for what they got? Unfortunately, a few LCC's have put us in the position of having to give our product away (and even THEY are losing money). Sad that we don't mind paying celebrities, sports professionals, etc., outrageous salaries for a few minutes work, but THEY won't pay us a good salary for our dedication and hard work to get to where we are. Again, I'm sorry the OP had a problem and wish CAL had done better for him, but I don't think WE as pilots or even CAL for that matter, needs to subsidize him for missing his originally scheduled flight.