No More Hats at ExpressJet

[Stearmandriver]

Rez,

Good feedback to my feedback. Where we disagree is that I don't think a symbol like the hat matters. I don't think image is everything; I think reality is. What matters is not looking like professionals, but acting like them. Fly safe, put customer service at the top of your priorities, and do your job the way the folks who write your paycheck want it done. Personally, I'm glad Xjet made the hat optional, cause I never liked it. However, when it was required, I always wore it. They pay me after all (albeit not nearly enough).

Otherwise, good post and I agree with everything else.

 

[COEX-FO]

This thread is interesting. As I work for the 'hat optional' airline, no one has mentioned how the PASSENGERS dressed in the days of the white hat Pan Am crew era!

Passsengers used to wear suits and ties, ladies in dresses. Pilots in full uniform with hats! First class was always a suit, perhaps a sport coat and tie in the back.

Have any of you passed by a SWA gate lately just before boarding? Check out the pax. I'm mean some of them truly stretch the limits of socially acceptable dress. Even on the high ticket price airlines, the first class passengers these days seem to find jeans as the norm.

So, perhaps the hat is the 'proper' attire for airline crews, but as compared to the old days, we still stand out even with the summer uniform of shirt, tie and dress black pants.

Just another way of looking at how things have evolved in the dress arena for airline travel.

 

[Nick5600]

Geez If we must keep the cap, and 19th century uniform lets change some other things back as well. I say we get rid of girlie pilots, and all flight attendents must be attractive women who have a RN. LETS get freaking real here. It doesn't really matter, I fly some of that top 2% salary bracket around, and they could give a SH^T what I wear. They just want to get their safley and quickly. I think in airline industry you guys have a bit more important stuff to worry about... Like your paycheck. I would put money on the fact that the same ones that HAVE to have the NAZI cap are also the same ones that think women have no place in cockpit. Well look around you times are changing, and while you cling on to your so called professional looks, your airline is going tits up. Then again when you get that pink slip it will be easy to walk down the Street and get a job as a doorman at the hotel where the logical modern pilots overnights.

my .02cents on the issue.

 

[ERJ2FLY]

Exjet management said "no way" when Gordon (in an effort to completely disassociate XJet from CAL) wanted them wearing WHITE hats. Yes, WHITE hats.

If you want to verify, call Jimmy N. He'll tell you the story.

 

[BluDevAv8r]

How can you guys have such a long thread about the fuking cover? Unless your signature is at the bottom of your paycheck, wear the uniform your company prescribes....

I agree 100%.

And whats with some of the airlines I see issuing military leather to the pilots???

Many airlines allow the leather jacket. SWA, AA, XJT, and Comair are a few. It is far more functional than the blazer. We've gotten many compliments from passengers on the jacket...and I like wearing it because I don't have to carry a second jacket for the layover, etc...plus it is really warm. But I do believe the blazer looks better. Go figure. I go with function over form.

You're driving a bus not an F-XX or B-XX....

Do you wear your G-1 when you're in that T-45?

-Neal

 

[414Flyer]

And whats with some of the airlines I see issuing military leather to the pilots??? You're driving a bus not an F-XX or B-XX....

However they must be going into combat, based on the numbers of tail gunners working in the cabin.

 

[flyup]

Pay me to wear the hat. I make 1200 a month...

 

[BluDevAv8r]

I've also seen a particual pilot while I was waiting for a flight with said leather jacket with college patches, pitts patch, EAA patch, and other crap sewn on it. How gay..... Pete Mitchell is the only "military pilot" (for those of you that get that joke) I've seen ever put more than a leather name tag and leather squadron patch on it.

Those of us who wear the jacket for work cannot put any patches on it, etc and I agree that anyone that has one of those jackets with the patches deserves the "tool award." Heck, I chuckle when I see guys off duty for my company (not on a layover) who are wearing our jacket. Mine gets worn only while being paid per diem.

My female friends think Pete did look good playing volleyball though. They probably wouldn't have thought so if he was playing in that leather jacket with his F-14 patches.

-Neal

 

[Britpilot]

And whats with some of the airlines I see issuing military leather to the pilots??? You're driving a bus not an F-XX or B-XX....

Wow, you have to be in the military to wear a leather jacket?
What a tool.

 

[atrdriver]

There are plenty of other issues more pertinent to the long-term viability of this career than a hat. If everyone got as emotional about cabotage, job security, securing pensions, maintaining pay scales and benefits, and outsourcing as they do about hats, we'd be much better off.

Maybe this is one of the reasons that the industry IS in the toilet. We show the passengers a Wal-Mart product, and they expect a Wal-Mart price. If I went to a lawyer who wore sweats into court I wouldn't expect the same product that I would get with one who dressed the part...