And "forget" to sign in on Messenger so your exact status cannot be determined. I resorted to walking around the building with a file folder looking confused and disheveled so I appeared grossly engaged in something more pressing.

 

I've been at the regionals for over 3 years, and have been flying full time (for a paycheck) for 7 years.

Some people are unhappy no matter what. That said, I haven't been either lucky or unlucky in this career. I know a lot of people that got on with a major or decent LCC by the time they had as much time in as myself, but then again there have been people with multiple furloughs by now too. I work for a pretty decent place, but really do hope I move on to something else in the next year or two... JetBlue, Frontier, VA, or similar are on my list.

 

Imagine your boss send you of town on a business trip. You get to your destination and there is no hotel booked for you. Your company will not answer calls. You have no corporate credit card. You have to book a hotel at last minute for yourself and your colleagues...and pay for the cab. Very early in the morning, you pay for another cab and go to your meeting to find out it's been moved to 4 hours later. You have to sit around at the local McD's until meeting time. The meeting is delayed.

You are only on salary, so you get paid nothing extra for this wasted time. Then you have to send multiple emails, just to get paid correctly and get your earnings and refund.

This is a business day at XJT.

 

I'm not trying to defend what XJT did today (I heard a rumor), but at many companies, you have to spend a significant amount of time organizing your own hotel rooms, transportation, etc. Sometimes you aren't given a company credit card, have to pay out of pocket and are reimbursed accordingly. Sometimes you end up paying out of pocket if you accidentally go over budget for the trip and sometimes the meetings are cancelled without your prior knowledge. Even worse, if you're a salesmen, you could have wasted 2 days of your life on a customer that wasn't even interested in the first place.

Imagine spending time at home on your days off answering emails and organizing travel. You have to scour the internet for flights that maximize your time while meeting the budget. Even worse, sometimes you start your day traveling at 4am and when you get back to your city, you have to come into the office because you're salary and have things to attend to.

 

Then that is a crap company to work for.

I used to work outside of aviation; we had a travel department. Sometimes, I got my own ticket and got reimbursed. I was ALWAYS paid correctly. If something was cancelled for some reason, I went back to the hotel, I did not sit around for hours and hours. I did work very long hours on projects at times, but when a project was finished, I went home on time. I did not pay for bi-annual medical exams, crashpads, and my food on company travel was paid for as well. I also was paid in 1998 what I make now as a 9 yr. captain.

 

That's what some military members have to do. Obviously I picked the worst of the situations, but it happens none-the-less. Again, I don't condone what they did/do. I just said it happens at MANY companies, especially those that aren't large enough to support a travel department.

 

But the point is, WE ARE IN THE TRAVEL BUSINESS! It actually is so bad it's comical. It might not matter if Willy Loman gets to Topeka at 6:30 or 8:30 for his 10:00 am meeting with Acme vacuum parts, but it does matter in the 121 world. Especially under the rest requirements of 117 regs (thank God for those). Hello mgmt! Is this thing on? Am I the only one who gets this?

 

It also matters to a 121 passenger when the flight diverts to Houston in lieu of Dallas, heads out, sits, returns, and cancels. Especially when it's nearly midnight, many other flights have diverted as well, and 90% of the staff has gone home for the night. No seats from IAH to DFW for two days, no hotels within 50 miles, and 3 rental cars left for hundreds of people (insert John Candy and Steve Martin here). If the pax are treated this way I can only imagine the staff... Fortunately I got one of the three cars

 

Of course it matters to passengers, but i was making the point that rest rules and duty time regs make it even more important to schedule your crews wisely..and to make sure they get prompt rest.

I swear, as regional airlines meltdown, we will be back to taking Greyhound. how long is the bus ride from IAH to DFW? 4 hrs?

 

Hint: Do not walk around like Wally from Dilbert (rolled-up newspaper in one hand, bagel and coffee cup in the other)