NJAowner, very sorry to hear about the poor service you received from those flight crews. I can assure you that the majority of our pilots would NEVER think to treat an owner that way. Actually, the more frustrated I become with negotiations, the better the service I try to provide to our owners. I'd much rather the owners see how hard the pilots work for them and how NJA management is messing with us, rather than the other way around.
Unfortunately, I believe you will be begin to see a greater decline in service from here on out. Due to recent events (that involved the dismissal of two of our pilots), the company has made it clear that the pilots will be dealt with SEVERELY for ANY infractions of the company's policies, FOM, or the regulations.
So what does this mean to our owners? Pilots will no longer get up in flight to check on their comfort (regs are very specific about when a required flight crewmember is allowed to leave his/her station, and pax comfort isn't one of them). If a flight crew member even thinks he may be getting tired, that's it. The flying is over for the day for that crew. The company has made it VERY CLEAR that they will not tolerate tired pilots in the cockpit. So more canceled flights for the owners. If a flight crew has to delay a flight to bring the Jepps up to date, so be it. Gotta be legal. Part 135 flight and someone in your party doesn't have a valid government issued photo ID? Hope it's not a long drive to the destination (pilots have already had issues with owners and the company on this one too. No one wants to mess with the FAA, TSA, and dept. of homeland security).
And numerous other rules and regs that pilots used to regularly, uh, "gloss over" to help out the client.
Please keep in mind, these are not UNION actions. We are now in survival mode, as the company has suddenly (yes, most likely due to our negotiations and union activities ie informational picketing) decided to take a very hard line with ANY infractions (or PERCEIVED infractions) by the pilots of any rules. One of the worst parts of the recent firing of two of our crewmembers, is that it was supposedly an owner who turned the crew in, and the company fired them without even checking the facts. I won't go into the possible litigation coming up because of that, as it's irrelevant to this post. I just wanted to give you fair warning that we, the pilots, have NO CHOICE anymore but to follow the rules stringently. I don't believe we have EVER fudged the rules on safety-related issues, but now we have to take the same attitude about rules which may hinder service.
Again, very sorry for your experiences. None of it should have happened regardless of the rules.