Delta's New 717

ATN_Pilot said:
Yep. It's part of the bigger overall problem of pilots viewing themselves as white collar executives, instead of realizing the reality that they are blue collar members of organized labor, no different than an HVAC technician or a plumber. Just because you make six figures and don't get your hands dirty at work doesn't make you a white collar workers. The failure to realize that is one of our biggest problems as a profession.
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THIS.

I don't understand why pilots think they aren't labor, although yesterday's Saturday night clusterfrak certainly had both of us doing a lot of managing, motivating, coordinating, and leading. And a fair amount of begging, cajoling, and pestering.

ATN_Pilot said:
I much preferred dealing with the Lorenzo stooges. They were always pretty honest about being a-holes. They'd even do the whole song-and-dance of yelling and screaming and telling you just how worthless you were and how easy it was to replace you. It was all out in the open, and I much preferred it that way. Much easier to deal with a-holes who are obviously a-holes and have no problem showing it. What I absolutely despise is the good-ole-boy, pat-you-on-the-back, we're all buddies, fakery. Both because its just so smarmy and obviously fake, but also because far too many rank-and-file pilots fall for that crap.
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Were I to be a C*O of some sort, I'd want to be like this one - making money but focused on greater societal change as well:


Just like Anderson thought that you can preserve the environment while making money - and did, I don't think that the relationship between labor and business needs to be adversarial. Co-determinism can work, and a truly successful enterprise—especially one that is a service business—depends on keeping its people happy, letting them be heard, and truly making them a part of the team.

"We're going to make heaps of money, do it in a responsible manner, pay you a good chunk of that heap and crush the competition. Are you in, or not?"
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
Apparently our guys have been doing bounces in a AirTran painted 717 under the supervision of a AirTran 717 guy. He jumpseated with us yesterday to PIT. Super nice guy!

A bunch of the 717 trips dropped into ATL 320 time as well. We're back to summer flying levels in october! Keep the green slips flowing, and the 717 guys can keep the beards growing.

I keep hearing the FAA is blaming the holdup on sequestration. I haven't heard that excuse in a few months...
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First SWA stalled on a scheduled timeline for getting aircraft out of service at AirTran. Now FAA is stalling on signing off on adding to our OpsSpec. Company was going to originally do IOEs using the first aircraft, but since the FAA isn't in a hurry, they're using one of the aircraft AirTran just took out of service as well as the borrowed AirTran check pilot. As of now the aircraft is tentatively scheduled to start revenue flight on the 26th. EWR out and backs only.
 
Oh, before the big pay cuts I heard many of my coworkers that thought they were in a "special class" go on and on about "Big Labor".
 
Cptnchia said:
They also claim to be the lowest cost carrier around but the reality says different. Their ad campaigns have fooled an entire nation.
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For example I was looking at airfare for from ATL to Vegas next month. SWA was $100+ higher than Delta and other carriers.
 
Cptnchia said:
They also claim to be the lowest cost carrier around but the reality says different. Their ad campaigns have fooled an entire nation.
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I think it's more like they've been able to ride a reputation they legitimately built in the 1990s but is long since gone.
 
H46Bubba said:
First SWA stalled on a scheduled timeline for getting aircraft out of service at AirTran. Now FAA is stalling on signing off on adding to our OpsSpec. Company was going to originally do IOEs using the first aircraft, but since the FAA isn't in a hurry, they're using one of the aircraft AirTran just took out of service as well as the borrowed AirTran check pilot. As of now the aircraft is tentatively scheduled to start revenue flight on the 26th. EWR out and backs only.
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Out of where? DTW or ATL?
 
Cptnchia said:
They also claim to be the lowest cost carrier around but the reality says different. Their ad campaigns have fooled an entire nation.
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They've also been smart enough to keep their tickets off of the services like Expedia. Combine that with the marketing campaigns, and people are fooled without seeing the prices compared to the competition in one location. Smart business in that aspect. If only the rest of their operation wasn't a complete cluster.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
They've also been smart enough to keep their tickets off of the services like Expedia. Combine that with the marketing campaigns, and people are fooled without seeing the prices compared to the competition in one location. Smart business in that aspect. If only the rest of their operation wasn't a complete cluster.
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190px-Kool_Aid_Man.jpeg
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
While I think it's a bit childish the way he's behaving in regard to taking his toys and going home, what he states is correct in regard to WN and their close protection of their ticket marketing.
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Oh, no, I completely agree.

Someone at American once said "[SWA] runs on Herb Kelleher's bull..." I think it's a pretty accurate statement.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
They've also been smart enough to keep their tickets off of the services like Expedia. Combine that with the marketing campaigns, and people are fooled without seeing the prices compared to the competition in one location. Smart business in that aspect. If only the rest of their operation wasn't a complete cluster.
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It certainly helped keep their fares higher as people presumed it's the lowest price and started there, as opposed to hitting Kayak and seeing the "commodity" of airlines.

"Oh, it's $7 trillion from LAX to Dallas? Welp, that's gotta be the cheapest cuz you know 'Merikin's gonna be higher."
 
EWR turns on Delta? Only to/from ATL.

The old saying has been true for decades: When you die south of Cincinatti, no matter whether you're going to Heaven or Hell, you will fly Delta and you will change planes in Atlanta.

Similar line about flushing a toilet south of Cincy.
 
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