America's newest frequent flyer

[WMUSIGPI]

I got this story second-hand:

A female Jetstream FO boarded the pax, shut the door, did a quick "welcome aboard" and went up and took her station. About a week later she got a call from the CP about a passenger complaint.

One of the pax had written a nasty-gram to the company fussing that the stewardess didn't even give him a drink. She just shut the door then went up front and talked to the pilot for the whole flight.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?

However, I do agree with PsubS. Not for public consumption.

The CP should have been given a week off without pay for wasting the FO's time to call her about this....

We had a FA here write up a crew for "violating sterile below 10K" When they were all called into the CP office to discuss the issue she was asked how she knew they were violating it. She proudly pointed to her watch and described how it had an altimeter feature in it and it never showed them climb above 10K feet. The CP immediately told the pilots sorry for the trouble and then had a nice long chat with that flight attendant (we only fly PRESSURISED airplanes)

 

[crj567]

Do any of you Einsteins realize that this guy is right about pilots bitching in front of the customers?


If you bitch (and, true, that is our God-given right as pilots, eh?), do so in private!

I admit that he's a bit righteous about writing the bosses about your crappy attitude, but the solution is simple. Don't air your dirty laundry in public...they're paying your salary, and they don't want to hear it.

It's not too much to ask of a professional.

-Well- Maybe the fact that the entire public is convinced that we all work 8 days a month and earn $300k begins to wear after a while. People have an outlandish impression of what our job entails-and they hate us for it.

-All jobs have their ups and downs, but I-for one-am really getting tired of people telling me how "rich" I am and how "little" I do for a living. Maybe this is part of the reason these guys bitch in public-to let people know we all have our own problems.

-Everyone else bitches about their jobs in public-why the hell can't we?

 

[whymeworry?]

Do any of you Einsteins realize that this guy is right about pilots bitching in front of the customers?


If you bitch (and, true, that is our God-given right as pilots, eh?), do so in private!

I admit that he's a bit righteous about writing the bosses about your crappy attitude, but the solution is simple. Don't air your dirty laundry in public...they're paying your salary, and they don't want to hear it.

It's not too much to ask of a professional.

Ahhhh... yeeeeeeeeeeeah. They don't pay our salary. If they did a simple $3 a ticket raise is all we need to get our contract back to where it was 10 yrs ago. Wanna' bet they're not willing to pay that amount?

 

[slackass]

Had a disembarking passanger tell me on the dash-8 that I need to lean out the engines a little more at altitude because it looked like they were running rich.

 

[Dude]

Good points on both sides here. It is unprofessional and tasteless to complain in the presence of the customer. If you have a complaint, it is likely an issue that the passenger can do nothing about so why bring it to their attention? There is plenty wrong with the industry, but it's not that guy's fault. If you want to affect change, put your complaint in the hands of those that can actually do something-not your passengers'.

The current generation of pilots confuses me. Here we stand demanding better treatment, better pay, better benefits, and yet we conduct ourselves with little pride and conviction. Pilots are wearing earbuds in the terminal; they don't wear hats anymore; their uniforms look terrible; and the fitness code has been thrown out the window. I see nothing about this profession, from the passenger's perspective, that would inspire any confidence, trust, or conviction to demand better for the pilots. Everyone's "give a damn" is busted. I understand it's a systemic problem started many years ago, but image is a hard thing to fix. Once the public has lost the trust of the pilots, it's gone. Getting it back will be a lot harder than it was to lose it.

When I ride the van to the hotel, there is usually a crewmember bitching about the something the entire ride right in front of passengers on the van. What an embarrassment. These people don't give a damn about your gripes. They want to get where they are going will as little collateral damage as possible. Between the TSA, customer no-service agents, baggage issues, delays, and flight crews being bitchy, it's a miracle people even fly for a $25 ticket. The only reason I travel by air while off is because it's free. If I had to pay, I'd drive.

 

[waveflyer]

One thing we have not done well with is PR. The poster above has it right- I had passengers who thought I was rich as a turboprop FO. Friends who literally did not believe me when I told them about first year pay- even at the majors-

we ought to realize that our ability to negotiate is very political. VERY. And losing this PR battle with the union busters hurts us

 

[Beaver79]

Do any of you Einsteins realize that this guy is right about pilots bitching in front of the customers?


If you bitch (and, true, that is our God-given right as pilots, eh?), do so in private!

I admit that he's a bit righteous about writing the bosses about your crappy attitude, but the solution is simple. Don't air your dirty laundry in public...they're paying your salary, and they don't want to hear it.

It's not too much to ask of a professional.

ABSOLUTELY agree with you! Professionalism is not necessarily wearing your hat and polishing your shoes. The image is part of it. We all have crappy days and things we want changed - days off, more $$, better trips etc. However, the constant whining - especially in public - is nauseating. I once read a book about "career advice". The author stipulates that you should embrace "the s u c k" of your job. All jobs have it. In the end, if you can't embrace the bad times, it might be time to move on to something else.

And for those pilots who are asked by the traveling public for an opinion about the industry - give them an honest breakdown of the industry. Leave the negativity out of it (whoa is me..), but explain the variables that affect things - fuel prices, insurance, cut throat competitiveness, commuting etc. It actually helps them understand and appreciate a little bit more what you go through on a day to day basis.

 

[waveflyer]

True- there is a "cry wolf" aspect of our b!tching. VP at American once said- "why pay pilots? it won't make them happy"

we should save our complaints for what really matters. And realize that every job out there does suck in some way. And no one flying coach, and most who fly 1st, are going to feel the least bit sorry for an airline pilot.

 

[jonjuan]

True- there is a "cry wolf" aspect of our b!tching. VP at American once said- "why pay pilots? it won't make them happy"

Pay has made Southwest pilots happy.

 

[Kalifornia]

Pay has made Southwest pilots happy.

Exactly! I don't think complaining in public is really that out of order. If I have surgery in the future, I'd rather hear the doctors complain out loud about their plight and choose a different facility if work conditions were poor, then go in with a blind faith hoping they are happy with their job. When you really think about the piss poor treatment especially at the low end of the spectrum in this profession, it's a miracle more major incidents don't happen.

Now with that said, I agree that pilots in turn must present those arguments in a professional manner of speech and image. Looking like a slob and/or talking like one ("dude, scheduling just jacked me, I'm spent" while wearing Sketchers and an i-pod is counterproductive to "Wow, I can't believe scheduling expects us to get adequate rest on 8 hours between the time we got in the gate and the time we need to show in the morning with a 20 minute van time each way and us needing some food after a 14 hour duty day") while wearing the traditional pilots uniform in public.