Not saying you but I have flown with regional captains who shouldn't be flying passengers let alone be flowed up to mainline. Pinnacle was hiring wet commercial guys with no interview and now you want those same guys to flow to Delta with no interview? How are the DeltaBravos in this industry ever supposed to get weeded out?

 

What makes it fair for you guys to get it, when no one has taken the highly mocked, yet tricky Delta screening? Delta puts alot of weight on those, and it actually does weed out quite a few people. Why should 9E get a flow and other airlines get theirs cancelled? 9E was dumb enough to run the company into the ground and majority of the SR flow guys turned down the flow, and now want it back because 9E is a dead end street. Those are the only people who would most likely flow before it is cancelled again. XJT has the testing, as well as CP, why shouldnt they be able to get it/ get it back? What makes 9E better? IMHO all DCI ALPA carriers or nothing at this point.

 

Noted, but if they shouldn't be flying passengers even at regional, they should be weeded out well before their chance to flow to mainline, or even upgrade at their respective regional.

 

I never said 9E only. Whatever regional you work at should have a flowthrough to their major partner. Every airline has bad apples, including DAL. If you're good enough to be hired at a regional, you should have the option to flow when your number comes up (meeting certain criteria). Unless that regional is GoJetssss.

 

Ok, I can agree with that. And the ending

 

[QUOTE]I've always wondered this same thing... I'm good enough to fly Delta's customers, but not for Delta?[/QUOTE

Because when things are going well Delta wants the passengers to think its Delta pilots who are flying the RJs. But when a crash happens "oh that wasnt Delta it was airline X flying as Delta connection".
Frankly I think we should just go back to code sharing. Take all this Delta connection or us airways express off the planes and paint them in each airlines colors.

 

Flows restrict the airline from receiving the best candidates at a current point in time. Generally the best candidates for mainline are not going to stick around long enough to wait for the flow, what's left over is undesirables.

 

I think your question is reasonable, but as a 20+ year Delta pilot, perhaps difficult to answer without offending someone. I'll try, and apologize in advance, if someone takes offense.

Personally, I could care less whether someone applying for a job at Delta is an ALPA member or not. I'll even go a step further. Our current contract was negotiated in a hurry and there were a number of items that seemed to be thrown to the wayside. Many Delta pilots (and I'm in that group) were annoyed that DALPA spent any time negotiating for a percentage of new hires from ALPA represented carriers. I want the best people... period.

Years ago I interviewed at American and I remember during the interview a retired American pilot said "We're not hiring pilots, we're hiring Captains". I would say Delta has the same philosophy.

It's not all about stick and rudder skills, though that does (and should) factor in. Delta views its pilots as part of the brand. They want their pilots to "lead by example". They want them to follow the rules, but when it comes to customer service, they want people who take the initiative to do the right thing for the customer. That may mean going onto the ramp and getting a stroller or pushing a wheelchair, or any number of other things which are never spelled out. You must seize the moment and step up.

One of the things Delta has over the years done a really good job at is recruiting and hiring pilots. The vast, vast majority (well over 99%) are genuinely great people to fly with. They are very competent aviators, but they are great people as well. That's saying a lot, and to me it says their system works as it is.

 

Compass pilots do have that Dbagness about them that would help them fit in at Delta.

The interview must weed out pilots and leave as*h*les.

The sad thing is we all laugh at them wHen they're not looking. Make sure you wear that hat. Ha!

 

One of the main reasons we were able to get the guaranteed interview program was that we still had Delta's hiring testing. If we would not have had that, we would not have been able to get the guaranteed interviews. We still have to go through the new hire testing at Delta for the interview also. But there are flow eligible pilots at CP that do not have four year degrees and they will still be able to flow to mainline.