United Pilots Get Personal

Why not just cut to the chase already and hang a bucket on the cockpit door with a sign that reads "tips."
 
I was on a US Air flight where the guy up front mentioned how many miles we were traveling, how much fuel would be burned (in pounds and gallons), and some other cool stuff. It was interesting. I think all too often some pilots forget there are people in the back, and while some pax may be put off by annoucements, the majority of people want to hear them, IMO.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Am I the only person who dislikes when the Captain comes over the PA and goes, "Blah blah blah thanks for flying with us today, as we head to Albuquerque, I'm Captain Mike Rogers with First Officer Steve Googlesmith"?

I don't need to know your full name, it sounds too top-gunish to me. Captain Rogers will be fine, unless you want me calling you Mike...
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Many non-aviation people enjoy those announcements, kind of a nice touch...
 
You can never please everyone. I remember a Seinfeld act that he does that included the pilots on airlines...How they come and say "Im gonna take a left...then were gonna go right..." ...and Seinfeld thinks "Ok....Sure sounds find, just do it". Or something along those lines. So you have those who really dont care, lets just go.

Then go to Airliners.net....and read one of the trip reports. These guys get upset if you say the temp is 57 and when you land its 59.

I would try to fall somewhere in the middle to accomadate most people.
 
On our flight back from Paris in February on Delta, the FO came around near the end of the flight and handed out cookies that "he made" to all the kids on board I don't know if he made them or not but my daughter let me have a bite and they were great! That was a great flight. I was very happy with Delta's international service. Its those MD flight crews that suck...


:) Just kidding
 
I was on a flight a few weeks ago (SouthWest) and the crew was much needed comic relief since we were delayed 30 min. The CA came on the PA it went something like this "Afternoon everyone Im Captain Bill along with my First Officer Erik. Welcome aboard, make yourselves at home and be sure to keep those seat belts fastened because we all know they will save you life if we happen to slam into the side of a mountain at 400 mile per hour, only kidding. It will be a smooth flight all the way to Burbank, sorry for the delay, they are changing the flat as we speak (another joke)." You could hear some people gasp when he said this then everyone began to laugh. We were number 12 in line for take off. The Captain then came walking down the isle personally appologizing for the seat belt joke to everyone. No one was upset and started clapping and cheering when he went back to the flight deck. This dude was funny, I bet he would be a blast to fly with. I have noticed that the times I do fly South West the pilots have a gret sense of humor.
 
Hey wait a minute. Im a Delta Sky Team member and I never got a card. :) They did however hold a full 767-400 for me delaying it 15 minutes out of the gate in ATL once. :)
 
I've found that just being completely forthright with the passengers, but yet not being monotone and dull usually pleases the great majority. Sure, some want more, others want no PAs at all, so falling in between usually works out well. I think the only thing that is missing from all PAs across the board is total honesty.

I also don't apologize for things outside our control. If we are diverting for weather, or if there is a huge delay for takeoff, I don't apologize. There is nothing we can do, so I just say "We plan to have a 30 to 40 minute delay from leaving the gate until we are airborne" without the "sorry."

Jumpseating home one time on a major airline, the crew came on the PA and said to the passengers, "We might experience a few bumps ahead since we're deviating around some rain showers, so we recommend you stay in your seats since the seatbelt sign is on." Well, we got hammered at one point deviating, with some pretty rough bumps. The guy next to me goes, "Glad they recommended we sit down" with a grin. So from now on, I've learned to say, "Ladies and gentlemen, the seat belt sign is back on and we require you all to stay in your seats with your seat belt fastened until we clear some storms we are deviating around." Makes it pretty clear.
 
FlyChicaga said:
I also don't apologize for things outside our control.
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That's the single most important thing I learned about PAs.

The more you apologize, the less sincere you sound when you actually are responsible.

If your airline actually wants you to continuously lie and apologize to people, chances are you probably don't want to work there long term.
 
Doug Taylor said:
That's the single most important thing I learned about PAs.

The more you apologize, the less sincere you sound when you actually are responsible.

If your airline actually wants you to continuously lie and apologize to people, chances are you probably don't want to work there long term.
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Agree with that %100.
I remember last year coming back from SEA on Alaska the MD 80 that was supposed to take us got struck with lightning on the way to Tacoma, the flight was delayed for 4 hours since they were checking the plane to make sure it is OK.
The Captain never apologized for the delay and one of my coworkers asked me why and I said because the delay was not their fault.
The pilots on the other side kept us well informed on how they were getting clearance to fly at higher altitude and faster so we would get there faster.
For United pilots I think it is a nice touch as long as yoi choose the right moments and not try to annoy the passengers especially the frequent fliers who fly a lot.
 
That's the delicate balance.

People heading away on vacation that don't fly often want to know everything about the flight because they're almost treating it like the "Disney Jungle Cruise". But people that fly often want to hear anticipated arrival time, light weather, and maybe a gate if it's a hub city.

A LOT of people, in my opinion, go a little deep into weather: "Barometric pressure of 29.78, temperature 91, dewpoint 52, winds are 330 at 14 knots, 2000 feet overcast with about 15 miles visibility".

The altimeter and dewpoint are obviously highly extraneous, but either it's either cloudy or sunny. Does any non-pilot honestly care about the winds?
 
Doug Taylor said:
That's the single most important thing I learned about PAs.

The more you apologize, the less sincere you sound when you actually are responsible.

If your airline actually wants you to continuously lie and apologize to people, chances are you probably don't want to work there long term.
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The Thanks for you patience just makes things worse, like you said. "Thanks for Your patience that we arent getting".
 
90% of the time at least 80% of my pax cannot understand my PAs ... mainly because they speak another language.

I keep it short and simple. Usually something along the lines of "Welcome to our cruise altitude of X,XXX, please remain seated with your seatbelts securley fastened. How's the temperature back there, everyone comfortable? Currently we're showing XX:XX out from the XXX/XXX/XXX"

During the winter I'll throw in a "its cold outside put on your jacket."

Other than that it's fast, short and to the point.
 
I was stuck in the back of a 767 once that had a delay departing for ATL. Each time the captain said, "Aww, folks, ahh thanks for your patience" people would chuckle.

"But we AREN'T patient!"
 
wheelsup said:
the majority of people want to hear them, IMO.
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I personally think most people don't give a rat's ass about it.

If you want to do something, I'd say do what one guy did on a short hop on a 744 from SAN to DEN. He said, we're flying at such and such altitude, we'll be in Denver at such and such time, if you want to hear more, tune to channel nine and I'll tell you.

For those who did tune in, he gave a whole bunch of details about the flight, the airplane, and so on.

And he spared those who didn't want to listen.

Oh, and Doug, I did care about the winds during on trip to SAN. I had a golf tourney to play in, man! Gotta know the way the wind's blowing...oh, who am I kidding, the wind could be blowing any way it wants and with my golf game, it wouldn't matter.
 
tonyw said:
I personally think most people don't give a rat's ass about it.

If you want to do something, I'd say do what one guy did on a short hop on a 744 from SAN to DEN. He said, we're flying at such and such altitude, we'll be in Denver at such and such time, if you want to hear more, tune to channel nine and I'll tell you.
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Tell ya what, I'll tell the pax to tune to channel nine as soon as there IS a channel nine ;).

That being said, I can't stand the guys who annouce every five minutes where we're going. I just want to sit back and close my eyes (when I'm in the back, of course :)). However, making the basic annoucement (consisting of what you just said) is good customer service, IMO.

The less interaction pilots have, the more and more people will liken (is that a word?) flying around in an airplane to being on a bus, etc (yes, I know it's probably already there). I appauld UAL's attempt to bring back some touchy-feely stuff.
 
It probably depends on the aircraft too.

If you're on a 90 minute MD-88 flight with no in-flight entertainment, I might give a little more detail about the route of flight. But if you're on an MD-90 and they're showing a movie, it's very basic route (JVL-LBF-FSD-whateva) quick weather and arrival time.

Most people have reading, many have laptops and lots are going to watch the movie so you're actually keeping them from something with a long PA.
 
From my experience traveling I agree that most of you travelers, business folks, just want to know arrival time, maybe if its raining, and possible gate. The gate thing so they can plan their escape to their connection. The experienced traveler knows how to make the shortcuts work. The one every blue moon vacationer is can be a pain in the butt. Like Doug said they want to know all the details especially the insignificant ones.
 
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