That's why you block out 5-10 minutes early and arrive on time. Thus making 5+ minutes every leg. Multiply that by a 22 leg 4 day and that gives you an extra 1:50+ per trip, times 4 trips per month equals an extra 7:20, times 12 months per year equals an extra 88+ hours at whatever your pay rate is. Now I don’t know about you but that’s almost an extra 5K per year at my CA rate.

And you never screwed a passenger because you’re on time or the company seeing they got their on time departure bonus. The way I see it, you’re getting what’s rightfully yours. If you’re late then do all you can for you PAX.

 

We are never late. We just leave early and make sure we get there on time. We were super early all this weekend and not one "thank you" or even a smile when we took a 1:05 block flight and made it :35 minutes.

 

I don't think most pax actually know the real arrival times unless they have tight connections so that could account for the lack of thank yous

 

Been browsing this thread for a few days.

it seems the value of the prop might be making it to somewhat mainstream media

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080323/turbo...naissance.html

 

If you are blocking out 5-10 minutes early on every flight you must certainly BE the cause of some tight misconnects....... if you are full every flight.. ( NOT ) that would be one thing but otherwise I think 10 minutes early is a bit much.

 

blocking out 5-10 minutes and geting in on time, pays the bills at my house. i am not being greedy. just realistic.

 

You must be confused. We do not leave 10 early if we are waiting on paxs. If there is a gate hold for pax's we wait. It is not like we just decide lets go and leave as more paxs are trying to get on.

Paxs are happy to see us pull off 10 early rather than just sitting on the hot non-APU having plane wondering what is going on.

JetJock pointed out the huge financial benefit of leaving 5-10 early out of the gate.

 

Herc, it's easy. Just ask the gate agent if everyone is accounted for and if they say yes the close it up and block out. If you're waiting on a tight misconnect then they’ll tell you. There are many things that a pilot has to remember but two of the most important ones are, don't screw the PAX and make as much money as you can. We aren't salary and we don't get paid what we're worth so make your own raise. 5 minutes early isn’t going to kill anyone but it sure does add up when it comes to your paycheck.

 

In theory thats a great plan.......... more power to ya...

You are right ...dont screw the pax....it doesnt take but one overly anxious gate agent to strand a bunch of pax....... as happened with a DAL agent the other night in ATL. She was very vocal that this was her last flight to work for the night.... told us she had a full boat... then recanted about 10 prior and said they were all accounted for ..... while we are finishing the paper work the NINE passengers where were "running" appeared in the concourse window...givinging us the "whats up look"..... so we TOLD the gate agent....her response ......."they should have run faster".......called ops ... they said to tell the agent to call them.... bottom line is if we had just taken the gate agent at their word.... well you get the point. And yes, I know this is NOT the norm.......but it is an example of what can happen.

personally Im for the 5 minutes or less crowd. Its just my opinion but 10 is a bit much. I commute and did years ago when I was in this business, and if the AA 727's out of JFK to RDU and routinely left 10 minutes early I would have missed my morning commute home dozens of times. Hell most of our block times are sooo generous its difficult to over block anyway.

FWIW.... its a damn good plan.

 

Our block times in ATL (CR9) are way over blocked and it's nearly impossible to make anything extra. But on the EMB, with only 30 seats and dealing with small out stations with no jetways; 5-10 minutes is cake to make.

Back when I was on the EMB as an FO I averaged an extra 7 hours of pay per month from over blocking. It's easy on the prop but not anywhere near as easy on the jet, it’s just two different worlds.

My main problem with some CA’s is that they don’t fully understand how the brake/door relationship works and what it can cost you. Sometimes when flying into an out station you have a very short taxi from the RWY to the gate but you still need to cool the engines. Usually you set the brake well before the time limitation for shutting down the engines. Then after waiting the minute or two plus the time it takes the prop to stop turning, 3 or 4 minutes can go by. Now if you tell the FA to open the door before you reset the brake the ACARS or AFIS will use the original brake set time as your block in which causes you to lose those 3 – 4 minutes of pay. This is aggravating seeing that the money is rightfully yours but your CA's voluntarily giving YOUR money back to the company. 3-4 minutes per leg per trip per month per year is an incredible amount of money.

I’ve respectfully chuckled at quite a few of my CA’s when they’ve complained about how they get paid. I then ask them how much more they would like to get paid. Afterwards I would educate them that if they just used the brake properly they would make more than the rate they just told me they wanted. You’d think they’d know this seeing that they understand the systems but they just don’t understand the relationships.

Bottom line, we all want more but there are some ways we can get more without screwing the passengers or the company. Yes the extra money we make costs the company more but with the fuel savings and on time bonuses we create and they receive, it more than makes up for your measly 5 extra minutes of pay per leg. Just consider it your “Self-Made Profit Sharing Plan.