You are aware that pilots are involved in the pairings right? Many days were spent TRYING to create better pairings. November was horrible. You can thank DL and the random "junk" that needs to be flown.

We need more pilots (DTW CA's for certain).

That's the best that could be created without 3200+ DH's for an extra 5 minutes of block per duty productivity. It will be ugly until Jan-Feb. I'm all for "burn the house down" but sometimes when life gives you lemons, you need to buy vodka.

 

They don't get paid enough to stay there passed closing time or work weekends, are you kidding me? Ya'll are looking to hang the wrong people. The trolls working the manual procedures aren't to blame, its the kings and queens giving orders from the top floor. Top down transparancy and accountability is critical in any business. The reason they don't work passed closing times or weekends is the same reason I don't fly extensions and JA's, pay me! You're looking to hang the wrong people. The front line soldiers only take orders from the generals. I want the generals put on the front line to take the fire for a change, open their eyes to whats really going on.

 

Off topics but...

Who is building these horrible trips? Talk about circadian rhythm nightmare. What is with the constant flipping of AM to PM shows? One day its 1600 show, the next its 0500. I wish we could make AM schedules and PM schedules.

Example of my last 4 day - 16 hours block by the way.
Day 1 - 0800 show - 2100 finish
Day 2 - 1630 Show - 2100 finish
Day 3 - 0630 show - 1100 finish
Day 4- 0500 show - 1700 finish

Swap my sleep schedules around, then load me up for a 7 hour block 12 hour duty day on day four. I'm sure its all Delta's fault, but I wouldn't be a pilot if I didn't have something to ***** about.

RANT OVER

 

I wasn't complaining about the trips. I was just saying what I saw. I'm hoping for the longer layovers instead of the airport appreciation sits. Then I can make a whooooole bunch of special lemonade with my lemons. I'm not for "burn house down" one bit, maybe just a few burn marks here and there. My bed is in this house for at least the next few years and I have mouths to feed and a roof over our heads to pay for.

 

If pilots aren't angry it's the "calm before the storm". The solver is working on productivity and legality. Guys don't complain about 18 days off, but 11-15 gets loud. There wasn't much to work with this month.

Until marketing can get DL to get us more "pure" flying (hub turns) this will remain. For november we operate YYZ-BOS at 6am, then a night flight BOS-YYZ. What do you do with the crew? DH? 32 hour layover? That was a 3 day discussion in itself. FWIW, the "line" of flying (just the A/C) sat ALL day. Thanks DL.

 

Thats a no brainer, 32 Hour layover, end of discussion. YYZ or BOS both GREAT places to have a 32 hour layover...Iron Mountain on the other hand..isn't...

 

I'm with ya on the long layover vs. the extended airport appreciation.

Unfortunately, I doubt we'll see too many of those with the new contract and having long overnights like that costing Min Day pay, not too mention it would require an extra crew to do that. Here's to hoping though, 'cause those long sits blow.

 

Haha... BOS was the "nice" one. I offered to fly that trip myself. Problem is that MANY "nowhere" stations pop up. End result is even worse trips for the pilot group. We did float "fun trips" with 32 hour overnights in cool cities. Company didn't disagree, just couldn't make trips out of them,

 

But it's okay to have us working weekends/holidays/day offs when the job needs to get done? Look, I'm one of those guys that if I know something needs to get done, I just roll up my sleeves and do it. The only thing I've seen outta MEM or MSP or wherever they're doing this by hand is a weekly memo hidden in some out of the way place on the company website that says "Sorry. Computers still messed up. It's coming sometime in the near future." Rinse and repeat a week later. To me, that just seems like there's not a great sense of urgency on their part. If I were to put that kind of effort forth on each flight, I'd never be out on time and get called on the carpet every time I was a minute late. Wonder if I can pull the "Well, the ACARS kinda goofed, and that's why we were late" excuse and it'll fly.....for two weeks.


Who exactly ARE the front line soldiers and who are the generals in this case? I'm not even sure (passed the guy signing the "It's not out yet" memos) who is doing this. I agree there needs to be top down transparency and some kind of accountability. However, in 5+ years at Pinnacle, I've never seen it. I'd love to. It would be a refreshing change from management hiding in a bulletproof ivory tower.

 

The latest from 10/15 easily found in Flight Ops>Vacancy>Awards explains that your mysterious general is VP of Manpower Planning, Pat Ryan. He is taking full responsibility for the issues at hand. They want to make sure it's done right this time; otherwise, I'll have to listen to you folks whine and complain about how they made a bunch of errors for the next month and a half. Sheesh, loosen up.