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...

 

[atrdriver]

I wonder how many still wear them after finding out what a pain in the butt they are to tote around, especially if you commute.

They aren't hard to tote around at all if they are on your head.

There are times that I would prefer not to wear a hat, like in the middle of the summertime, it is part of our uniform, and I am proud to wear that uniform, including the hat.

 

[rogerthat]

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...

So an airline pilot wearing slacks and a blazer with no hat is the equivalent of a lawyer wearing sweats? You might be able to use that hat of yours to hide the top of your head from the customers, but it's not going to hide your inadquacies.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

So an airline pilot wearing slacks and a blazer with no hat is the equivalent of a lawyer wearing sweats? You might be able to use that hat of yours to hide the top of your head from the customers, but it's not going to hide your inadquacies.

It is not about ego! Step away from the mirror.

It is about image and preception of the public. Put yourself in the shoes of the passenger that comes to the airport twice a year.

EVERYTHING at the airport is new, unfamiliar and interesting. When these type of people see pilots, what do the EXPECT to see?

Justification comes in all forms including "the only thing passengers care about is ticket price!"

When you only fly twice a year and you strap your tail in the seat, you no longer care about your wallet and you hope the two pilots upfront are the safest and most professional! The only way you have to judge this is by the pilots you saw in the terminal, even though they aren't your pilots!!

 

[Air Biscuit]

They aren't hard to tote around at all if they are on your head.

There are times that I would prefer not to wear a hat, like in the middle of the summertime, it is part of our uniform, and I am proud to wear that uniform, including the hat.

Are you proud of that paycheck too?

 

[aa30]

""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...""


You go to a doctor that wears basically pajamas to the operating room and the office...do you expect an inferior product from him/her?

Listen - all you "PROFESSIONAL PILOT" guys, nobody except you and your Riddle buddies care that you are an airline pilot. For pete's sake, all we are is grossly underpaid greyhound bus drivers, and i am an assistant bus driver at that.

i for one am glad we got rid of the hat...i was getting tired of carrying it around.

 

[Ben Franklin]

You go to a doctor that wears basically pajamas to the operating room and the office...do you expect an inferior product from him/her?

No, but when I see the Corvette/Ferrari/Mercedes that he/she drove to work in it makes me wonder why I don't start wearing pajamas to work.


Sincerely,

B. Franklin

 

[svcta]

Don't give up now

I have to side with the "hatties" here. Remember when Airtran was ValueJet? Their pilots wore denim shirts and khakis. We all called it a virtual airline and laughed and laughed. They even had a guy how would blow the harmonica on over the PA while he did anouncements. How cute. This really was the beginning of the end of the respectable airline pilot image. The general public has, for whatever reason, a general disgust for us and would love to see us treated as the bus drivers they think we are. Our last hope against the newspapers, TV, and company reps blaming us for everything that is wrong with the world is to continue to maintain as professional image as we can. If we don't look like we're proud of what we do and who we are then, in their eyes, we're not any better than a "sky-cabbie".
I may go for days without shaving, but when I show up to the airport I take pride in presenting myself like I've got my sh!t together. Wether it's a plane-load of people or a bunch of car parts I'm taking from Walla Walla to Kokomo. Whoever said it was right, people are paying more attention than you think they are. And I want to make them think of us the way that they used to. Even if the only reason they have to is how we present ourselves. Of course, I understand how this will be recieved, most of you seemed to have never learned to spell. Ha. Low blow, I know, but jeepers, people.

 

[AirBill]

Didn't "line pilots" used to wear hats and cold weather gear and scarves and goggles?

What, they're not required anymore?

 

[aa30]

How can you be so goddammn self rightous, all you do is throw the gear up and down (no I don't mean that seriously). But honestly, if you're SO under paid, why are you acceptinig substandard wages? Why don't you go find a job that pays you what you're worth? Professionalism is a funtion of attitude, not hours or the size of your paycheck. If it were my airline, I'd personally throw your ass to the curb with that attitude.

Your attitude may change if/when you decide to come to the civilian world. Every time I talk with my friends in the military, they can't believe how little we get paid. (Granted, pay increases with years of longevity, but initially it is super low.) And, admittedly, I may be incorrect in assuming that you should be grouped with my military friends...you may know more about "regional" airline pay than they. Currently, my fellow pilots and I are trying to get a contract that pays us closer to what we're worth. While that may not be a function of professionalism, neither is wearing a hat.

 

[007]

I don't understand how a hat, a hat, no I mean a hat, can be such an inflammatory topic.

Doesn't mean we all look like slobs. I still wear mine occassionally to cover my bald head. I think it's a great rule.

If you all wanna get into a semantic discussion about professionalism over our uniform, then I wanna know why we all still wear a "NAVAL" uniform.

A "NAVAL" uniform, which by the way was started by Pan Am for Spruce Goose pilots as I understand it, and everyone just kind of adopted, because it looked good. A company which is long gone.

Truth is we all were never creative enough to come up with something better.

And if there is no uniform and we start wearing PJ's and the car that you drive shows how professional you are then I must be a total slob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!