DCI carrier and jumpseating

kellwolf said:
True for Delta employees. Not so true for us "contract carriers."

Delta employees have acces to things like fly confirmed for less, unlimited international travel, etc. Us plebes get bumped by retirees, parents (on occasion), have a limit to the number of legs we can fly international and lost fly confirmed for less when NWA went away.

Delta employee's $50 goes a LOT further than ours'.

I even got charged TWICE last year because of the several month delay in changing our hire dates. That's not Delta's fault, but the could have easily just said "We know it's the same year." My hire date on my ID per old PCL rules was in May, my actual hire date was in March. I paid one fee in April and again in May. I don't even go anywhere except to and from work.

Honestly, the whole "if you get a seat in the back, you're non-reving" does seem like a shake down to me. Are American, United or other non Delta/DCI guys "non-reving?"

I hardly ever take Delta anyway. If I DO manage to get on, it's at the last second, it's a headache, and the flights are normally oversold to infinity with 10 HKs and 15 non-revs on the list ahead of me. I'd rather just jumpseat on jetBlue or American.
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Not to sound harsh, but you don't work for Delta (I'm assuming judging by your post). So it makes sense that actual Delta employees and spouses get better benefits than employees at the regional level...who are employed by an entirely separate company.

Everything you mentioned happens with every other mainline pass travel program. Delta is AFIK the only pass travel program where you can fly first class (business elite or domestic) for no additional charge. Every other major carrier (United, and US Airways - can't speak for AA) charges you an arm and a leg if you want to sit in international first class (domestic or international). Just one example.
 
ClearedToThe said:
Not to sound harsh, but you don't work for Delta (I'm assuming judging by your post). So it makes sense that actual Delta employees and spouses get better benefits than employees at the regional level...who are employed by an entirely separate company.

Everything you mentioned happens with every other mainline pass travel program. Delta is AFIK the only pass travel program where you can fly first class (business elite or domestic) for no additional charge. Every other major carrier (United, and US Airways - can't speak for AA) charges you an arm and a leg if you want to sit in international first class (domestic or international). Just one example.
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You're right, I don't work for Delta. So, why not charge us $30 instead of $50? I stand by what I said: Delta employee's $50 gets more than ours. The CAL non-rev benefits I had weren't all that great. Northwest was TONS better than Delta's, though. No annual fee, but you DID have to pay per leg on first class it wasn't an arm and a leg. If I recall, it was less than $10 on most flights. Still have to pay the taxes with anyone you non-rev on. No big deal, there, IMHO. With Delta, in all the years I've had the non-rev benefits, I've gotten first class TWICE. With so many people ahead of me in priority, I'm lucky to get a middle seat in coach these days. Nothing more soul crushing than biting your nails waiting to see if you get the last seat, and seeing someone hired last year's parents traveling without them get bumped ahead of you on the non-rev list. Employees I can see. But, even as contract employees, as active employees we should go ahead of retirees and parents. Don't even get me started on how our parental benefits were gutted after Delta took over. Buddy passes? What are those? We don't even get them.

We also had fly confirmed for less as part of the deal. As soon as Delta acquired NWA, our benefits decreased exponentially AND we had to pay for the honor. You say that Delta benefits are great and we should just pay the $50. I say we don't have Delta benefits, so why should we be chipping in the same amount? I agree that Delta employees should have better benefits than contract employees. However, Delta likes to pretend they are the same and equal. They aren't.

For the record, best non-rev benefits I've ever had: Southwest. Second best: jumpseating on jetBlue.
 
ClearedToThe said:
Not to sound harsh, but you don't work for Delta (I'm assuming judging by your post). So it makes sense that actual Delta employees and spouses get better benefits than employees at the regional level...who are employed by an entirely separate company.

Everything you mentioned happens with every other mainline pass travel program. Delta is AFIK the only pass travel program where you can fly first class (business elite or domestic) for no additional charge. Every other major carrier (United, and US Airways - can't speak for AA) charges you an arm and a leg if you want to sit in international first class (domestic or international). Just one example.
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$400 for two folks to non rev, round trip, to Europe and back.

Didn't used to be like that, but it's what we're strapped with now.
 
kellwolf said:
You're right, I don't work for Delta. So, why not charge us $30 instead of $50? I stand by what I said: Delta employee's $50 gets more than ours. The CAL non-rev benefits I had weren't all that great. Northwest was TONS better than Delta's, though. No annual fee, but you DID have to pay per leg on first class it wasn't an arm and a leg. If I recall, it was less than $10 on most flights. Still have to pay the taxes with anyone you non-rev on. No big deal, there, IMHO. With Delta, in all the years I've had the non-rev benefits, I've gotten first class TWICE. With so many people ahead of me in priority, I'm lucky to get a middle seat in coach these days. Nothing more soul crushing than biting your nails waiting to see if you get the last seat, and seeing someone hired last year's parents traveling without them get bumped ahead of you on the non-rev list. Employees I can see. But, even as contract employees, as active employees we should go ahead of retirees and parents. Don't even get me started on how our parental benefits were gutted after Delta took over. Buddy passes? What are those? We don't even get them.

We also had fly confirmed for less as part of the deal. As soon as Delta acquired NWA, our benefits decreased exponentially AND we had to pay for the honor. You say that Delta benefits are great and we should just pay the $50. (1) I say we don't have Delta benefits, so (2) why should we be chipping in the same amount? I agree that Delta employees should have better benefits than contract employees. However, Delta likes to pretend they are the same and equal. They aren't.

For the record, best non-rev benefits I've ever had: Southwest. Second best: jumpseating on jetBlue.
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(1) You're right - you don't have delta benefits. You have Pinnacle benefits. Hence, why your benefits are not the same as a delta employee. I still say paying the flat $50 is better than paying a per leg segment along with no additional cost to sit in FC as many other carries do. Have you gone to overseas on your delta benefits? I've been on over a dozen legs trans atlantic as a non-rev and have always gotten business elite. The seats are our there if you look.

(2) The amount? Because that is the amount they are charging it is independent of what Delta people pay. Let me flip the scenario. Delta pays $50 and Pinnacle pays $30/yr for travel bennies. Do you know how well that would fly with Delta employees? About as well as a GIA first officer on his first leg if the captain croaked on rotation. As a sub-contracted employee, you are lucky to be getting ANY benefits from a company you do not work for.
 
The one thing I have never understood is when regional pilots get mad that mainline employees bump them on their own regional metal. I have absolutely no problem with this as long as its a CPA. Mainline should get the seat over the regional at all times.
 
I have a problem with being bumped off my own company, and thankfully at SKW we still have some semblance of priority on our equipment.
 
L-16B said:
The one thing I have never understood is when regional pilots get mad that mainline employees bump them on their own regional metal. I have absolutely no problem with this as long as its a CPA. Mainline should get the seat over the regional at all times.
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Is that flame bait? Contract employees still serve the same operation. It ought to count for something.
 
ClearedToThe said:
As a sub-contracted employee, you are lucky to be getting ANY benefits from a company you do not work for.
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So all the people in the back of the planes he flies aren't Delta customers?

We don't like the game but it's about the only one in town so we play it. As long as we're serving the same group of customers and flying a significant chunk of the route network, I don't think it's unreasonable to give a contract airline employee the benefit to travel on said network. "Us versus Them" serves no one. Neither group would want to lose access to the others' flights.
 
Van_Hoolio said:
So all the people in the back of the planes he flies aren't Delta customers?

We don't like the game but it's about the only one in town so we play it. As long as we're serving the same group of customers and flying a significant chunk of the route network, I don't think it's unreasonable to give a contract airline employee the benefit to travel on said network. "Us versus Them" serves no one. Neither group would want to lose access to the others' flights.
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Mostly irrelevant since his company gets paid the same if the planes leaves full or 100% empty. My whole point was that if you want delta benefits work for delta (I don't work for delta so i have no dog in this fight), otherwise be happy with the privileges (not a right) that are extended to you by a company you do not work for.
 
Ok, I have a vacation coming up. Round trip for me and a companion in business. $596.80

2 years ago I would have paid nothing. Addionally CAL has stolen our vacation passes which were part of our compensation package when we started. I believe we accrued 12 per year, they were EARNED yet now we can't use them.

This is par for the course in how they approach every business decision. Sure defend mainline management for this but then moan about every other baffling move they make that runs against treating your frontline people and customers right.
 
Van_Hoolio said:
Is that flame bait? Contract employees still serve the same operation. It ought to count for something.
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Not at all, I'm in class and have been talking benefits with friends and we argued over this. If a company buys every seat on your plane, I feel like they are free to do what they wish with the seats they bought. The delta benefits suck, but they aren't any worse than we had at Colgan five years ago at continental before we got bumped up to an SA4
 
I don't think some of you have been bumped off a flight because the ramp guys baby mama has a higher priority than you. Otherwise, you would be singing a different tune.
 
z987k said:
Is that what it cost you as a pilot?
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Yup, for me and my wife. I'm pretty sure it was in that range, and it was for economy.

We used to have a pass that negated all these fees, but they were taken away when CAL and UAL merged.
 
L-16B said:
Not at all, I'm in class and have been talking benefits with friends and we argued over this. If a company buys every seat on your plane, I feel like they are free to do what they wish with the seats they bought. The delta benefits suck, but they aren't any worse than we had at Colgan five years ago at continental before we got bumped up to an SA4
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That's great and all.

But what are the consequences of this type of priority when you get bumped off your own company's aircraft when you're trying to get to work, and flight's cancel because the company didn't staff enough reserves?
 
jtrain609 said:
That's great and all.

But what are the consequences of this type of priority when you get bumped off your own company's aircraft when you're trying to get to work, and flight's cancel because the company didn't staff enough reserves?
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It gives the mainline carrier one more reason to cancel your contract with them to shed additional 50 seaters :p
 
jtrain609 said:
That's great and all.

But what are the consequences of this type of priority when you get bumped off your own company's aircraft when you're trying to get to work, and flight's cancel because the company didn't staff enough reserves?
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Is that just because you're a United carrier? Is Delta or US air different? Does it vary by regional? That seems expensive as hell IMO... and negates half to reason to work for them(in my situation/opinion.)
 
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