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Freshwater will fly for tips

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lowecur

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 14, 2003
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2,317
Hard to believe this guy is on the MEC. Glad to see he flys 757's, which means he'll be looking for work soon.

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=+1]Amid wage-cut talks, a union official suggests tipping pilots [/size][/font]

Karen Ferrick-Roman, Times Staff

10/03/2004

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Besides all this heavy concession talk, US Airways pilots might want to hatch another scheme to get paid.

While waiting word on a tentative agreement between US Airways and the Air Line Pilots Association, Fred Freshwater floated this idea.

Put a nice little sign near the cockpit: Will work for tips.

"If the airline doesn't want to pay us, maybe the passengers will," said Freshwater, chairman of the Pittsburgh pilots union council. "Really, when you do the math, it could be very beneficial."

Freshwater, a captain, suggested a $20 tip per passenger for captains. As for the first officers, well, $10 would do.

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Freshwater flies Boeing 757s, which can seat 193. So, with a $20 tip from each passenger, that would be a tidy $3,860 for a 3½-hour flight to Las Vegas for him. The right-hand man or woman would get only $1,930.

Or, at a standard 15 percent, on an $89, one-way ticket to Vegas, Freshwater could get $13.35 per passenger as a tip - $2,576.55 total.

Hey, he said, it works for the cruise lines.

Except usually, in real life, the officers on the seas don't rake in the tips, said Cindy Martin, a travel agent with Tri Valley Travel in Beaver Falls.

Carnival Cruise Lines suggests tips for about everybody else on board who might make a bed, bring water or clear a buffet plate, Martin said: $3.60 per person, per day for stateroom services; $5.50 per person per day for the dining room team, 90 cents per person per day if you eat somewhere other than the main dining room.

Or you might want to take the mathematically easy way out and pay $10 per person per day. For the ever-popular weeklong cruise, that would amount to $140 total per couple.

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Line suggests a slightly different scale: $3.50 per person, per day for stateroom services; $3.50 per person, per day for the waiter; $5.75 per person, per day for in-cabin services; $2 per person, per day for the assistant waiter and don't forget 75 cents per person, per day for the head waiter.

The Holland America Line has had a no-tipping policy, Martin said, but is wavering.

And some cruise ships are trying to get tips pre-paid, included in the price of the cruise. If service is lacking - or superb - the guest can visit the purser and have the amount adjusted, even removed, Martin said. But so far, most local travelers are resistant to the pay-in-advance tipping system.

So, if service is counted in, regardless of a smooth flight, pilots might have a tougher time than they think about tips.

Travelers "have been groped and searched already to get on the plane," Martin said. "I don't know how they'd (pilots) do."

Karen Ferrick-Roman can be reached online at [email protected].



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Lowecur is an analyst, not a pilot, and does not understand the seniority concept. This Freshwater guy has spent many many years at USAir, and now might be furloughed due to the aircraft he is flying. That is ridiculous, and I bet he would rather take that company down and allow some management types to also get pink slips......



Bye Bye--General Lee
 
Trying to think if I ever got a tip as a pilot during my 26 year "career"..?


Don't think so...Plenty of hand shakes and smiles..And other expressions, but no, no tips.

When flying for Kuwait Airways, the local pilots would get a $10,000.00 tip occasionally if they flew the Emir in the VIP configuration of the 747-200.

Being not a local dude I never flew the VIP flights, and never got no tip...:(

Good luck to USAirways, but on the other hand, don't except the dead-heading commuter pilot to do any tipping...He is still making 1/5th of that 757 captain, even after the second or third pay-cut..
 
BoilerUP said:
Thats a nice, tactful thing to say :rolleyes:
From what I understand this guy is a 27 year vet and is the ringleader of the RC4 from Pennsylvania that would not allow the last contract offer from UAIR to go to the membership for a vote.

The way things stand now, I'm sure he's probably fully vested, and contractually his seniority would keep him flying until age 60, even with a 40% downsizing. He doesn't give a rats ass about the junior members(average age is 53 :) ), and probably has enough money put away to retire very nicely even if the airline goes 7. These are vindictive guys who want to take the airline down. Hopefully, some of the juniors file a Denial of Fair Representation law suit against this guy. He better hope the union carries an E&O policy to defend him, or he could lose everything he has.

I can see why UAIR wants to pick and choose their pilots. Most of these guys close to retirement could care less.
 
I respectfully disagree with everything you say, lowecur.

You are looking at things from a dollars and cents, stock market managment perspective, not the front-line employee perspective. They are two distinctly different POVs.

I'd say this guy is standing up for ALL junior pilots everywhere when refusing to allow his pilot group to bury the narrowbody/widebody compensation bar. The "junior" people still remaining at Airways have what, 15-18 years longevity at this point??? UAIR doesn't have the right to pick and choose their pilots (thank GOD), thats the beauty of seniority.

In 20 years I do not want to be a 12 year CA on your precious E195 flying for $100/hr or in an A321 for $125/hr. I didn't sign up for this profession with the desire to be rich, but I also didn't sign up for a job paying 50% of what it used to pay with 25% the original retirement & benefits. If you had been with the company that long, and been around long enough to see how mismanagement has completely fugged it up, wouldn't you announce to the world the concession stand was closed too?
 
First we would have to convince the flying public that a lot of pilots don't make di$k diddly. They all think we are friggin millionaires. If I had a nickel for everytime I had this conversation at my second job:
"Are you full-time?"
"No, part-time."
"Do you work anywhere else?"
"Yeah"
"Where?"
"an airline"
"oh, what do you do?"
"I'm a pilot"
"A pilot? No way!"
"Yes"
"What are you doing here?"
Long lecture about how we "don't make as much as you think" follows....followed by "Oh, really? I thought pilots made a lot of money"
 
BoilerUP & Lowecur Response said:
I respectfully disagree with everything you say, lowecur. What a shock!!!

You are looking at things from a dollars and cents /and you aren't?, stock market managment perspective, not the front-line employee perspective. They are two distinctly different POVs. Very true.

I'd say this guy is standing up for ALL junior pilots everywhere when refusing to allow his pilot group to bury the narrowbody/widebody compensation bar. It's too late, the law of supply and demand rules the day. In 10 years, the ball will be back in the pilots court, and a new cycle will begin. That's the beauty of adversarial relationships, somebody always get the last word. The "junior" people still remaining at Airways have what, 15-18 years longevity at this point??? UAIR doesn't have the right to pick and choose their pilots (thank GOD), thats the beauty of seniority. We'll see.

In 20 years I do not want to be a 12 year CA on your precious E195 flying for $100/hr or in an A321 for $125/hr. You won't. By that time the cycle will have turned again, B6 will be in Chapt 11, and a 190 pilot will be making $300 per hour with inflation. I didn't sign up for this profession with the desire to be rich, but I also didn't sign up for a job paying 50% of what it used to pay with 25% the original retirement & benefits. Maybe if you understood that an airline needs 10-15% profit margins to survive long term, you just might be making a descent wage and have job security. If you had been with the company that long, and been around long enough to see how mismanagement has completely fugged it up, wouldn't you announce to the world the concession stand was closed too? BOD's have done a very bad job hiring people to run their airlines. By the same token, most legacy MEC's have demanded contract's that were unsustainable in this cyclical business. Is there a happy medium? I doubt it. All you have to do is look at the revolving mgt door at all the legacy's, and no light at the end of the tunnel.
.....
 
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