I have had friends ask why the pilots are always the first off the jet.

has anyone spent any time on cranky flyer?

I have also heard several times why they let us board first and take up overhead space with our 2 bags..

Im not sure what the right answer is..but I do know our pilots are not customer service orientated...I understand our job is to fly the plane..but we are the leaders. Fedex or UPS would have been a better option for most..

Why do we board first and take up overhead space? Because we are at work versus embarking on leisure travel. Boarding first ensures space for our bags when we connect to a flying segment. How much time will retrieving our bags in baggage claim take? I don't fault the passengers because they don't realize the demands of our job.

How do you feel about us occupying a first class seat? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

You don't know the right answer but are more than willing to demonize our pilot group. Just curious if you're honestly willing to answer the following. If you are a United pilot, how long have you been here?

Asked and answered and the response ain't too surprising. The name only applies if you selfishly keep someone from getting home or getting to their layover. Its called compromising and I do it all the time. Try it, you might brighten a fellow aviators day !! ;)

I commute from ATL and ride Delta almost exclusively. My experience has been the complete opposite of what you said. In fact, I can’t recall EVER seeing an empty flight deck on a Delta airplane when I exited. Their customer service is truly WAY above us and AA. The biggest difference is when things go wrong. With us, no one wants to take responsibility, everyone wants to pass it off to the next guy. At Delta, when something happens, everyone springs into action. All work groups want to know “how they can help” to get it rectified and get the plane out ASAP. Having done a great deal of traveling on all 3 legacies, I can tell you without hesitation that the customer experience on Delta is truly a cut above everyone else. I made my bed here at United and truly want to see us succeed, but as of right now, the culture at Delta is much more customer service oriented without a doubt. There’s a reason one of their top Diamond Medallion cities is ORD. Think about that. One of the busiest airports in the county and hubs for their 2 main competitors, and they fly mainline jets hourly 7 days a week to ATL, while United and AA fly 5 or 6 RJs a day. Delta must be doing something right.

UALT38----You're dating yourself, my friend!:D;)

(Do you let the hot moms sit in your lap?)

https://united.brightidea.com/ct/get...6-0A720A822D3C

I wonder how many people are going to stand in the door wearing a purple jacket. My guess is that when people don’t take pride in their professional appearance, they don’t feel inclined to go above and beyond or to be in the public eye.

I also agree with the previous post about strong customer service being culturally driven. I have also have traveled on Delta and American all over the world. Given a choice I’d spend my money at Delta every time. In my experience United is slightly better than American, but we fall way short of Delta. This place has a burn it down mentality more so than Delta. I can’t begin to count the times that I’ve heard pilots bragging about refusing to extend their CCO, refusing to take a plane over something like the apu being deferred, or poking fun at those that do more than the bare minimum. These guys are in the minority at United, but I would bet that we have a much higher percentage of those guys than Delta. I’m not saying that we need to drink the company Kool-Aid or complete the mission regardless, but many more of us could stand to go that extra mile and give our customers a reason to be loyal to us. If we don’t we can always sit back and complain about how Delta is kicking our butts. We like to complain that the company won’t put SNB planes on our certificate like Delta did and that our management doesn’t want to compete. Perhaps we should also be complaining that we don’t want to act like Delta employees and improve our image.

I invite kids up to the flight deck preflight and encourage their parents to take pictures.

I write thank you notes on my business card to F pax when the flight's long enough.

I sometimes greet pax on deplaning, but there's NFW I'm doing it a lot.

As a former 1K passenger (thanks to the furloughs), I didn't give a rat's fart about anyone greeting me when I deplaned. The once/twice a year flyers like that stuff, but they have near zero brand loyalty.

If you guys REALLY want to have a positive PR impact, start writing thank you notes on your business cards.

Just fly a plane that boards/deplanes from the 2L door and then the pilots will never be missed.

LOL! filler