Airline Pilot Central Forums - From First to Worst

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TCASTESTOK (Post 2635537)

Wow really? Im just stating my opinion based on reading the book as to how great CAL turned out with Bethune at the helm and how UAL could try some tactics like it to get out on top. I mean that incentive plan was genius. Sure it cost the company money to implement but it got employees throughout the company to try their best to push on time and even increased moral.

Great? The place was a dumpster fire. They didn’t “rise” to first, everyone just crumbled around them in the post 9/11 world (where CAL already lay). He straight up raped his labor and and convinced them they were saving the world at the same time. Most understood that but the union leaders.... er, guys in charge were all feather bedding their own careers on the backs of their peers.

His legacy still lives. Everybody in Houston talks about the guy like he walks on water. By all accounts it sounds like he was really skilled at relating to people and making them feel like he was their friend.....thereby convincing them to accept less. Guy was clearly a master at it, because people still act like he was the best thing since sliced bread. On a related note.....does every LCAL pilot on the list have to retire before this “us versus them” stuff goes away?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCASTESTOK (Post 2635522)

When United and Continental merged, after a while the quality of the product from a customer point of view started to gradually then sharply decline. Not to mention the PR nightmares that UAL had regarding Dao and now a FDX deadhead lawsuit. Im surprised that the attrition rate in the PR department hasnt been sky high. Anyway do you think that UAL should read a take a few pages from the book by the former CEO of Continental, Gordon Bethune, From Worst to First?
https://www.amazon.com/Worst-First-C...n+bethune+book
It's a great book of how the CEO got the company from its almost 3rd Ch11 to ranked 1st in the industry. He let employees do whatever they needed to do their jobs, let them rewrite the whole ops manuals, and even gave them incentives ($65/every month of D:0) to get flights out on time. Why cant UAL take the airline back to its CAL days where pax got treated with dignity and got flights they wanted to where they wanted to go.
Here's a great commercial CAL did back in '09 before they got merged. This ad showed just how well CAL was at attracting and retaining customers. Also showed off their new fleet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw6RVa7GZA8
If only UAL was like this
https://i.gyazo.com/b934169e93ed1503...e60a177a54.jpg

Wow. Someone is living five years in the past

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCASTESTOK (Post 2635558)

He "screwed up" the employees? By empowering them and letting them do their jobs without much interference from management? Also the 65 buck D:0 incentive?

Empowerment is great, but it doesn’t pay the bills.

Quote:

Originally Posted by APC225 (Post 2635580)

Empowerment is great, but it doesn’t pay the bills.

But they worked with their creditors and such to get out of chapter 11 and actually into the black.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCASTESTOK (Post 2635584)

But they worked with their creditors and such to get out of chapter 11 and actually into the black.

They did a lot of good and created a lot of goodwill with the flying public. An MBA can appreciate that. But the employees gave a lot with no work rules, industry lagging pay, frozen pensions. A view of their "success" depends a lot on your perspective.

Quote:

Originally Posted by APC225 (Post 2635589)

Flew with captain that spent 7 years digging out of the hole his first two years of CAL pay put him in. Only airline hiring at the time so I can’t blame him for taking them job but damn.

He had zero love for GB.

So was pay the only thing that did Bethune in or is there more to the story?

How about an unaugmented EWR-LHR leg with a deadheading pilot in the back making 50% on the way to the Windsor Marriott before coming back three man with a rest seat in coach?

Quote:

Originally Posted by frascaflyer (Post 2635620)

How about an unaugmented EWR-LHR leg with a deadheading pilot in the back making 50% on the way to the Windsor Marriott before coming back three man with a rest seat in coach?

I blame Stivala much more for that than Bethune, he negotiated a contract he knew the narrow body pilots could accept and it was game over. I’m sure it was strictly coincidental that the 737 rest seat stayed in FC.