SikPilot

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...fic&id=5034846

http://cbs2.com/national/topstories_...046063757.html

RockBottom

and I figured only AMR could pull off a stunt like this. This is insane.

FliFast

Are the pilots paid on block time or segment ???

apdriver69

Welcome to the real world jb. Things are only going to get worse over there!!! Also they are coming up with some real strong routes. hpn-fll and jfk-ack???? ****!! It ain't going to be long before BIG DAVE bails on that place!!!

Luscombe Pete

Ah, the elephant in the living room that no one seems to talk about.

bluechip

I've been retired for nearly seven years and my question becomes... "What has happened to the Captain's authority."

I'm going on very limited information but with Jet Blue, the American ramp incident, and probably several others ... why didn't the Captain take charge and say "No more." Find an open gate and taxi in. Period.

Sure ... you might have to do a "rug dance" for some desk pilot, but you can get fired or worse if something goes bad on your flight.

Without trying to provoke another debate ... I retired TWA from a year before the "merger." TWA pilots were always granted (or IMHO given by the FARS) a lot of authority, and here is my story.

6:30 PM: I am on a MD-80 flight TPA-LGA. Weather is crappy in New York and everyone is cancelling. We are ready to push when ramp calls and says USAir has cancelled and is sending us 40 passengers, "They should be there in about 30 minutes." The USAir people had been waiting since 4:30 PM for their flight.

Now I realize that these 40 people expect the evening meal that they have been expecting for a couple of hours. Ramp tells me that the catering has gone home! Are you kidding me ... you can't get 40 meals at 6:30 PM in TPA?!

So I go down to the ramp office, order five large pizzas, agree to pay the bill, and about the time the passengers were seated the pizzas arrived.

I had no problem getting reimbursed by the company, I got a nice letter from a passenger in my file, and we probably picked up 40 future customers from USAir that night. I was called "Captain Pizza" for a couple of weeks after that.

The only complaint came from a booked passenger who wanted the pizza instead of the rubber chicken.

So my advice is - do what it takes to keep your passengers happy. It doesn't cost much, it will make them happy, and it will make you happy.

ABK MAN

My hat's off to you sir. I like your thinkin' outside of the box as well as going the extra mile. You could have just let em' on, shut the door and flown up to NYC, yet, what you did was pretty cool, I never even flew TWA, but thanks . . . do unto others, as you would have them . . .

We were loading one day, had an issue with a container, we had to trands-load the can into other cans, allready on the A/C. Low and behold, I saw the Capt. helping us trans-load the can, once again, VERY COOL.

NGINEWHOISWHAT

Bluechip, I hope you are enjoying the retirement. I admire you for what you did. There is a need for MORE Captains like you that understand what true customer service is about. I would agree that US Air lost 40 customers that day.

As far as Captain's authority, I think that AA Captain finally taxied to an open gate. He was told not to taxi in, but when the blue juice hit the floor he said "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge this" and taxied to the next open gate. Enjoy the retirement and EXCELLENT post.

Tom

TheGeneralMcC

awesome story!

I saw on CSPAN the other day an interest group trying to pass legislation for passengers stranded on airliners waiting. I can't find the link to their website yet but I'll post it.