The pilot group, except the old guard managers/training department members, loved JC when he first showed up. He cleaned out a corrupt crew scheduling team and generally moved us into the modern world in training, etc. His "sin" was that he was the first non-seniority list guy to come in and exert any real authority over the pilot group. Until then, we'd had a couple of guys (one ex Fed and one freight dog guy) hold upper lever management positions for brief periods of time, but they both were effectively just part of the existing management team - the good ol boy club.

JC came in and removed all of the old guard from both management and training. That created a LOT of enemies. Those enemies are still Spirit pilots, while JC went on to Atlas about six years ago. JC get's a bad rap around here; the real culprits to our misery were: 1. Indigo Partners becoming the controlling member of the ownership team (JC at once lost authority to do anything good that cost a penny) and 2. The world wide financial crisis that almost killed Spirit airlines.

I challenge all of you who hate JC, etc to compare your current position to one of say a Independence Air pilot. or maybe a Midway, or Midwest, or USA3000, or AccessAir, or a TransMeridian, or Vanguard, or ChampionAir, ProAir, or Pace Airlines, or any one of the airlines that failed to survive 2008. Your anger is misplaced. Our foe was not middle management, it was and is a down economy and ownerships draconian measures to keep us going.

 

You are right. BBB and JC kept the ship afloat when oil was at $147 and all the other small carriers were going bust. Painful, but we're still here.

www.voteSPA77.org

 

Well the bad list includes after firing the "Old Guard" instructors giving slots to two of the 109 status Reps which was a little hard to take. Then he changed the block-out time from door close to wheel roll and took the 4 days off in August of 2008. JC as an honorable man? Please save that honk for somebody who wasn't here during his rein. Ask anybody who was around for it and they won't wax so longingly for his return. Oh also forgot the fuel savings plan which caused 3 fuel emergency's the first week. Any doubts ask his old buddy's at North West they mostly hated the guy. Oh let us not forget the closure of the DTW domicile while in bargaining to remove the council 018 rep's who where not given council bypass by the MEC at the time to just close down the domicile, which they never did...

Oh he was a friggin peach!!!!!!

 

So hopefully do you think we will get profit sharing or stock options in the next contract???

 

Anyone else ever been "deiced" in IAH. It's quite humorous and not quite legit. I will give you a hint. It involves two guys, one wearing a giant cowboy hat, a stair truck, and a couple of large rough pushbrooms from Home Depot. We couldn't find the holdover time for that in the books. Needless to say the plane didn't leave the gate.

 

I'd like a 6% direct contribution to 401k on top of our 9% match.

 

I think it was 2 days after he and Ben said DTW was safe that he sent the WARN act notices to the NMB at 5:15 on a Friday night. There's good and bad with every management team and I think his strength was pitting us against one another.

 

I hope you're joking. The new standard is a 16% contribution of wages. None of this match crap or capping at $17500. I don't want to put in 9% just to get their nine. Not to mention, if you bring up wages to where they are supposed to be you will be pushing the $52,000ish irs max if you are putting in your own 9% just to get theirs.

Eta: I would love to see profit sharing but not at the expense of any guaranteed compensation or work rules.

 

Like I said, no fan of Carlson but let's get the facts straight.

1. Pre Carlson no union sympathizers could get near the training dept. Now it's the norm. Everyone seems to be happy.
2. Wheel roll was always the way the contract was written ( actually moving under own power for flight). Nothing to do with doors closing. I miss it too but Carlson changed nothing.
3. I didn't appreciate the fuel squeeze but I just asked for more. If you're afraid to ask you shouldn't be PIC.
4. WARN act was given for worst case scenario. Flying moved South. DTW pilots populated the FLL base and voted in their candidate. That's the business.

It's ancient history. Why are we bringing it up?

 

Frontiers new livery...should be easy conversion after they buy us and staple us to bottom

Frontier Unveiles New Livery and Brand Identity | Airchive