SWAPA Comments about 717

[PCL_128]

Commuter I am. Got on the Hyatt place van in LAS on the 25th. 3 Airtran F/A's on board. Said my how's it going, where are you off to today? Crickets.... Then is a slightly louder voice "where are you off to today?" Nothing not a word.......Then in a much louder voice (the van driver put his hand in the air like no problem no problem kind of way) I said WHERE ARE YOU OFF TO TODAY" and I got the "talk to the hand" wave from one of them. I said SWA management made this call if you pull this ******************** with me when I am the Captain on your flight you are off the jet-count on it.
Silence.......
Go Gators.

I don't believe your story. But even if it is true, then it sounds like you were acting like just as much a dick as they were.

 

[trip]

Commuter I am. Got on the Hyatt place van in LAS on the 25th. 3 Airtran F/A's on board. Said my how's it going, where are you off to today? Crickets.... Then is a slightly louder voice "where are you off to today?" Nothing not a word.......Then in a much louder voice (the van driver put his hand in the air like no problem no problem kind of way) I said WHERE ARE YOU OFF TO TODAY" and I got the "talk to the hand" wave from one of them. I said SWA management made this call if you pull this ******************** with me when I am the Captain on your flight you are off the jet-count on it.
Silence.......
Go Gators.

More likely you creeped them out, then scared the hel out of em with your Captain rant BS.

 

[tankerhead]

Shoot, they do that to us sometimes. Walk onto the plane, say how ya doin, three sets of rolled eyes later, I just stow my bag and start preflighting. F them.

 

[SWA717]

Shoot, they do that to us sometimes. Walk onto the plane, say how ya doin, three sets of rolled eyes later, I just stow my bag and start preflighting. F them.

My thoughts exactly. Hopefully they packed their lunch for the day, because this Capt isn't getting them s$%t.

 

[Lear70]

Shoot, they do that to us sometimes. Walk onto the plane, say how ya doin, three sets of rolled eyes later, I just stow my bag and start preflighting. F them.

True that.

We call it "Atlantitude". You'll understand in a few years.

Until then, not saying your story is untrue, but I wouldn't make a call on the pilots or mechanics based on a few of our flight attendants.

If you have any doubt as to how our pilots are dealing with it, Southwest Management has added a "handling grief" module to our recurrent training and has asked ALPA to activate our CIRP team (Critical Incident Response), paid them for trip pulls to put them in crew rooms to help handle the stress, give them someone to vent to before they go flying with everything pent up, etc.

 

[texman]

Man Lear is it that bad or just a few hot heads?

 

[PCL_128]

Man Lear is it that bad or just a few hot heads?

It's not just a few hotheads.

 

[Lear70]

Man Lear is it that bad or just a few hot heads?

I don't know, I've been on vacation all last week and all this week, so I'm not in the crew room to gauge what the general undertone is, but judging by our message board, I'm seeing people who have never posted before or only posted once or twice in the last couple years or so coming out and venting their anger and frustration.

I think the hardest thing is going into this merger thinking things were going to get better than when they were under our previous management and, so far, most line pilots are only seeing negatives and having a hard time looking at the positives, especially when you get hit hard a 2nd time plus I'm getting a lot of phone calls and text messages about people worried about getting furloughed.

If you're EXPECTING that kind of thing, you can prepare for it mentally and be OK. When it's not what you were expecting, you have to adjust to it as it happens and still come to work, and for some that's harder than others. Everyone deals with grief in a different way and losing your Captain's seat (and a lot of pay that would have come with it in the left seat at SWA) or losing your quality of life (for our senior 200+ F/O's who bid the 717 out of seniority when they COULD have held the 737, foregoing the pay to keep their bidding power on the 717) is definitely not a "happy moment".

I'm glad SWA has activated our CIRP team. I've been urging people to stay professional, come to work, do their job, and standby for what ALPA can do in conjunction with SWA management to address the problems, but it's one thing to do so over the message board or text message and another to be face to face with someone you can vent to, get it temporarily out of your system, and go out and work with a little less pent-up frustration.

 

[texman]

I think our VP of flight ops needs to come visit along with GK

 

[texman]

The one thing I have learned since I have been with SWA is to look and lisent to GK's hints. Like him stomping his feet when he says we are looking to buy some one. This goes along with the 717 is not a good airplane spill. All I can say is, the company has to make business decisions and we are along for the ride.

Know one will get laid off. This is one thing you guys should see. The company takes pride in no furloughs.

Trust if they did not do it in 08 they won't do it now.

 

[Flyer1015]

Know one will get laid off.

So who is the one unlucky cat that you know will get laid off?

 

[PropPiedmont]

Maybe he meant that he "Gnu one that got laid off."

 

[humveedriver]

Man Lear is it that bad or just a few hot heads?

Generally speaking, I think the pilots are disgusted with the outcome of being bought by the airline that for years has been a role model of financial and worker relations success. Alot of expectations are not going to be met. It at least appears to us that the lions share of sacrifice is on our side of the partion (seniority, 717 and eventually the flying). Some are trying to see what the upside is going to be and not finding it. And going to work somewhere else isn't as easy alot people make it sound. Comparing our situation to the Morris guys, those guys were able to take advantage of the rapid growth SWA enjoyed and got back to the left seat in about 5 years. Many of our guys will be permanent FO's, all because SWA couldn't raise it's ticket prices without getting rid of us first. I know it just business. But there is a human element too and we were hoping the "one luv" theme was more than just a catch phrase of the hour.

 

[texman]

I understand and can see the frustration on the other side of the fence.

 

[texman]

So who is the one unlucky cat that you know will get laid off?

?????? Do you know?????