"Don't Sacrifice Safety for a Cheap Ticket" - AZ Republic

[Dugie8]

Swen

You are right on. The price on the ticket has no bearing on the TT of the two pilots up front.

I'ma gonna keep beating this war drum. We as pilots are our own worse enemy. The constant bickering, degrading, "eliteness" does nothing but divide and push away those that need guidance and advice.

Planes are not falling out of the air because of low time (listen to that recording of the JFK ground controller lots of high time pilots there fracking up big time). The Comair crash was, IMO, a complacency thing, high timers do it too.

The next time negotiations are open at your airline watch carefully how the more senior people want pay to go. Do they open their wallets and improve first, second, third, etc year pay for FOs or do they push for higher pay on the Captain scale? Usually it is an across the board % increase, but 5% of 20 bucks is A LOT less than 5% of 130 bucks. Flawed math I know, but there is also a reason people don't like the flat tax idea either.

 

[Malko]

What makes you think Comair's accident was a question of experience?

If Mesa was losing a plane every month with a lower experienced crew upfront it wouldn't be a public outrage, the FAA would shut 'em down in no time at all.

Never said it was a question of experience. Complacency, maybe. Experience, no.

As to Mesa or anyone else, yes the FAA would shut them down before the public cared.

I was speaking to the general cost saving public's frame of mind. They don't care why just a matter of could they save any dough.

 

[derg]

I think they need to get the producers from that "to catch a predator" pedophile-busting show to go and corner some spiky-haired FO with sunglasses on his head as he's walking down the jetway.

...with the cellphone in their ear and the blinky-blink suitcase wheels.

Aye carumba!

 

[Ian_J]

I never knew what you guys were talking about with this "spikey hair sunglasses cellphone FO" thing till I hung out at EWR the other week for about two hours at the food court near where all the XJT gates are.

My goodness... at one point a flock of them gathered in the middle of the food court and it really reminded me of a HS lunch gathering.

A CA was sitting by himself at a nearby table scowling at them with little apparent effect.

 

[Malko]

I never knew what you guys were talking about with this "spikey hair sunglasses cellphone FO" thing till I hung out at EWR the other week for about two hours at the food court near where all the XJT gates are.

My goodness... at one point a flock of them gathered in the middle of the food court and it really reminded me of a HS lunch gathering.

A CA was sitting by himself at a nearby table scowling at them with little apparent effect.

I'll be at EWR in two weeks. I could take photos. As luck would or would not have it, I am riding anERJ from MSP-EWR. Both ways.....:insane:

 

[zmiller4]

...with the cellphone in their ear and the blinky-blink suitcase wheels.

Got to respect the blinging wheels. Skywest, apparently because they appreciate us, gave us these luggage tags that have what are essentially blue strobes that light up when you move. It's the most godawful annoying thing in the world, and besides, I hear the rampers abuse the crap out of any luggage that has them because they blind the poor guys offloading them.

 

[E_Dawg]

Safety is taken for granted in this industry. I doubt the thought even crosses the passengers' minds when they buy a ticket.

 

[wheelsup]

Safety is taken for granted in this industry. I doubt the thought even crosses the passengers' minds when they buy a ticket.

I had a boss that would only purchase a ticket on Air Wisconsin's BAe-146's when flying to Aspen. Mesa flew their but in Dash 8's. He refused to fly on them. He paid extra for the peace of mind.

 

[meritflyer]

I had a boss that would only purchase a ticket on Air Wisconsin's BAe-146's when flying to Aspen. Mesa flew their but in Dash 8's. He refused to fly on them. He paid extra for the peace of mind.

I have family members who REFUSE to fly on turboprops. Not all that uncommon.

 

[Toria]

some spiky-haired FO with sunglasses on his head

Is that you???

 

[Hootie]

They could jump out at him, shine lights in his face and be like, "were your intentions here really to fly that RJ with only 350hrs?"

Don't forget the whole "Do you know who I am....I'm Chris Hansen! And we're filming a newspiece on spikey haired FO's...is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"

 

[Woob44]

Got to respect the blinging wheels. Skywest, apparently because they appreciate us, gave us these luggage tags that have what are essentially blue strobes that light up when you move. It's the most godawful annoying thing in the world, and besides, I hear the rampers abuse the crap out of any luggage that has them because they blind the poor guys offloading them.

Despite what everyone thinks we're not out there dropping a deuce on or running over bags that have those tags...the tags are ridiculous by the way.

I had a boss that would only purchase a ticket on Air Wisconsin's BAe-146's when flying to Aspen. Mesa flew their but in Dash 8's. He refused to fly on them. He paid extra for the peace of mind.

I would rather walk from Denver to Aspen than take Mesa's stinky, MEL ridden Dash 8s.

 

[zmiller4]

Despite what everyone thinks we're not out there dropping a deuce on or running over bags that have those tags...the tags are ridiculous by the way.

You should be! Those tags are annoying as anything.

Don't forget the whole "Do you know who I am....I'm Chris Hansen! And we're filming a newspiece on spikey haired FO's...is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"

"Yeah! I make 19.02 an hour, and props are for boats!"

Is that you???

Hey now....I don't have enough hair for it to be spiky. I may have (very rarely) put my sunglasses on my head for lack of a better place to put them, but that's frowned upon at my company so I keep it to a minimum.

 

[Cruise]

I have family members who REFUSE to fly on turboprops. Not all that uncommon.

Ignorance.......the only excuse for that line of thinking! :whatever:
[size=-3]But, I know people like that as well.[/size]

 

[meritflyer]

Ignorance.......the only excuse for that line of thinking! :whatever:
[SIZE=-3]But, I know people like that as well.[/SIZE]

TPs are noisy, slow, and generally smaller. I dont blame 'em one bit.

 

[wheelsup]

I have family members who REFUSE to fly on turboprops. Not all that uncommon.

It had nothing to do with it being a turboprop, the guy owns a charter outfit with 2 kingairs and 2 lears. He came up thru the ranks of professional aviation flying turboprops.

He just likes(d) the added protection of four jet engines and an experienced mountain crew up front.

 

[Cruise]

TPs are noisy, slow, and generally smaller. I dont blame 'em one bit.

Fine....to each his own. However, there is no safety reason why one would need to be on a jet vs. a TP......and that my friend, is the subject of the thread.

So again, I say :whatever:

And, w/ the new generation of TP's in production, your above reasons won't hold water either.

 

[tonyw]

As long as you have tools who complain that it's "outrageous" that people have to pay $600 for a transcon -- hell, man, when I had to pay $480 to fly from IAD to YVR, people called that insane -- nothing's going to happen.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Raise fares. You've got loads in the 90 percent range. On a freaking redeye from DEN to IAD on a Thursday night, there were no empty seats on a A320.

When you've got those kinds of loads, I say jack up the fares. Make it so you can make money with a 65-70 percent load factor and guess what?

Some people will be more than happy to pay a premium in order to get an empty seat next to them. Some people won't.

Screw the people who won't. They ain't gonna make you money. They're the Wal-Mart crowd. You don't want them. They only want to fly you when they're paying too little for you to make money.

Go for the Bloomies crowd. You can make money on them.

Too many businesses, airlines included, chase every customer. That's only half right.

You want to chase PROFITABLE customers.

Those customers who are not profitable are useless. Actually, they're worse than that. They suck up your resources and they divert your attention from the customers who you can make money on.

 

[meritflyer]

A successful business always sells itself on value not price.

 

[wheelsup]

A successful business always sells itself on value not price.

Not always - some businesses have a monopoly and as such they can pretty much charge what they want. The medical business is like that. I just saw a report tonight that was saying how the drug companies are actually PAYING generic drug manufacturers to stay out of the market.