A Good Way to Save Money...and Improve Morale?

[ChockJockey]

That's crass - making up a quote for another poster - a complete lack of class.

BTW, you really should know more about the company you work for. Not just the employees get a bonus for #1 performance in the metrics, it is part of the formula for exec bonuses (and worth a whole lot more than $50 a month).

Jim

Noted.

 

[nycbusdriver]

They have constantly changed triggers for out time. Used to be main cabin door generated out. They rigged cargo doors into it, and and out had to have the cargo doors and main door. Then they went to all doors out, AND wheel movement. The in time is solely generated by a cargo door or main cabin door opening. Now, all doors have to be closed to get the out. They have it rigged for their bonuses now. Wheel movement removed. One caveat. If you push off the gate, and go to a remote area for a delay, the out time is generated. If after setting brake at delay spot, and no wheel movement within 30 minutes- it takes away the original out time. They rig the system to give them bonuses, and steal from the crews.

Write the ACARS up immediately and notify the dispatcher about the writeup. It's captain's discretion to return to the gate for any maintenance discrepancy that occurs after pushback but before takeoff, since the MEL does not apply once off the gate. Since management tells us that the ACARS is not programmed to work that way, I would suspect a spurious power interruption that might need to be investigated by mechanics before flight. Fly safe.

 

[Harry Callahan]

Noted.

Too bad there's no such airline completely managed and staffed by frequent fliers, it would be so smooth, so perfect.

Isom's got it all wrong. He thinks that when we schedule and advertise a flight to leave at 8:00 a.m. people want to leave at 8:00 a.m., when in reality, our custopax (new word) would rather leave 15 minutes late. Come on Robert, how are we supposed to improve our customer service numbers when we got all these flights leaving on time?

Actually on-time performance and customer complaints are equally incentivized (as well with MBR). We receive $50 for each category the DOT ranks us #1 in per month. I suppose this somewhat motivates the rank and file. What motivates front-line management is the vice their collective chonies are in...

You know what would motivate me, GIVE ME THE .. HELP I need & keep the $50 dollars

 

[cynic]

Art, I don't think that the problem is so much that the GA's are pressured to close the flight 10 minutes before departure as it is the too-short connection times which are legal but not practical......

If the rule is going to be door closure ten minutes prior, they have to increase the minimum legal connections. I usually shoot for an hour, but some people would rather blame others for their own lack of foresight. It's sad to hear people whine that "this always happens to me" when they booked a 25 minute connection with a terminal change.

 

[Pi brat]

It's sad to hear people whine that "this always happens to me" when they booked a 25 minute connection with a terminal change.

They booked? Have you ever heard of minimum connection times? Have you ever seen a connection built by a US reservation agent? Geeze, now in addition to it all being east pilots fault, it's now the customers fault!

 

[Pi brat]

Write the ACARS up immediately and notify the dispatcher about the writeup. It's captain's discretion to return to the gate for any maintenance discrepancy that occurs after pushback but before takeoff, since the MEL does not apply once off the gate. Since management tells us that the ACARS is not programmed to work that way, I would suspect a spurious power interruption that might need to be investigated by mechanics before flight. Fly safe.

Yep. We don't write the book, we just have to follow it.

 

[PullUp]

Hey folks - if you are connecting through PHL, do yourself a favor and allow 2 hrs for domestic connections and 3 hours for international.
It sounds like a lot of time, but it is not.
Cheers.

 

[tadjr]

If the rule is going to be door closure ten minutes prior, they have to increase the minimum legal connections. I usually shoot for an hour, but some people would rather blame others for their own lack of foresight. It's sad to hear people whine that "this always happens to me" when they booked a 25 minute connection with a terminal change.

I asked this question to Corporate back in Dec '09.

Hello,

I have a question regarding minimum connecting times and our current flight schedule. Since US now wants the doors closed 10 minutes before departure time and we are constantly reminded by the hubs that they do not hold and do close the door early, why haven't we expanded our minimum connecting times in the hubs as well? Our old 30 minute connection minimum ( 25 in PHX, 50 International and all other various minimums) have been cut down by 10 minutes because of our policy, yet there are still some flight connections scheduled for the old minimum times. This means that we are actually giving our customers 10 minutes less to make a minimum connection than we say is required. When is the company going to update (expand) the minimum connecting times so the customers have the time they need to make a connection with our new policy on door closures?

Thanks.

Reply:
Hope all is well in XXX. Allow me to clarify -- Our close door policy is still 5 minutes; however, we “close” the flight 10 minutes prior to boarding to allow time for the processing of any stand-by customers.

Happy Holidays,

Unfortunately, the Managers and some Regionals didnt get this "NEW POLICY" memo from Tempe and continue to push for a 10 min door close. If you have everyone, go for it and get the plane out, however if you have connections coming into the hubs and you know they're on the ground, the 5 min policy should be adhered to as per Tempe's response. If your manager tells you otherwise, you are welcome to contact me and I'll put you in contact with the person in Tempe who responded so they can make sure your Manager/Regional knows our policy.

I have also asked why we don't have more minimum connecting times and was told Marketing didn't want it longer because then we would lose connections to other carriers with shorter times. This is all well and good until we misconnect someone and can't get them there (especially Transatlantic from PHL or CLT) for days. Then everyone would love an extra hour or two connection time built in. If the airline offers to sell you a connection you aren't comfortable with, then don't buy the ticket and ask for something else. Problem is many people do not have a clue how long it's going to take to get from end of B to end of E in CLT or A West to F in PHL. Also, the minimum connecting times are built for "fit" customers who have no problem walking (or running) to get to the other connection. If you have children in tow, need a wheelchair or extra assistance, DO NOT book the minimum connecting time. The minimum is the minimum if nothing goes wrong, not the best connecting time for everyone out there.

The minimum connecting times DO need to be lengthened IMO even 5- 10 minutes in most cases domestic (especially Mainline to Express and v v when in E or F) and an extra 30 mins International (on a good day!)

 

[Pi brat]

I asked this question to Corporate back in Dec '09.

Hello,

I have a question regarding minimum connecting times and our current flight schedule. Since US now wants the doors closed 10 minutes before departure time and we are constantly reminded by the hubs that they do not hold and do close the door early, why haven't we expanded our minimum connecting times in the hubs as well? Our old 30 minute connection minimum ( 25 in PHX, 50 International and all other various minimums) have been cut down by 10 minutes because of our policy, yet there are still some flight connections scheduled for the old minimum times. This means that we are actually giving our customers 10 minutes less to make a minimum connection than we say is required. When is the company going to update (expand) the minimum connecting times so the customers have the time they need to make a connection with our new policy on door closures?

Thanks.

Reply:
Hope all is well in XXX. Allow me to clarify -- Our close door policy is still 5 minutes; however, we “close” the flight 10 minutes prior to boarding to allow time for the processing of any stand-by customers.

Happy Holidays,

Unfortunately, the Managers and some Regionals didnt get this "NEW POLICY" memo from Tempe and continue to push for a 10 min door close. If you have everyone, go for it and get the plane out, however if you have connections coming into the hubs and you know they're on the ground, the 5 min policy should be adhered to as per Tempe's response. If your manager tells you otherwise, you are welcome to contact me and I'll put you in contact with the person in Tempe who responded so they can make sure your Manager/Regional knows our policy.

I have also asked why we don't have more minimum connecting times and was told Marketing didn't want it longer because then we would lose connections to other carriers with shorter times. This is all well and good until we misconnect someone and can't get them there (especially Transatlantic from PHL or CLT) for days. Then everyone would love an extra hour or two connection time built in. If the airline offers to sell you a connection you aren't comfortable with, then don't buy the ticket and ask for something else. Problem is many people do not have a clue how long it's going to take to get from end of B to end of E in CLT or A West to F in PHL. Also, the minimum connecting times are built for "fit" customers who have no problem walking (or running) to get to the other connection. If you have children in tow, need a wheelchair or extra assistance, DO NOT book the minimum connecting time. The minimum is the minimum if nothing goes wrong, not the best connecting time for everyone out there.

The minimum connecting times DO need to be lengthened IMO even 5- 10 minutes in most cases domestic (especially Mainline to Express and v v when in E or F) and an extra 30 mins International (on a good day!)

Good points tad. Here are a few more. If we block in and someone pops a cargo door, we're in, whether there is someone there to move the jetway or not. It seems that in CLT you will either a parking crew or jetway driver, but rarely both. Also, we just can't seem to get the wheelchairs right. So often the agents in the hubs are amazed to find out we have them. Why is that?

 

[Art at ISP]

Thanks for the info Tad. Apparently most people still don't see the difference between closing the flight and closing the door.
No issue with closing the flight to allow standbys at D-10 but I think you could close the door at D-5 and still be on time...don't you think?

 

[tadjr]

Also, we just can't seem to get the wheelchairs right. So often the agents in the hubs are amazed to find out we have them. Why is that?

We quit using the assist forms (they were a waste of paper anyway IMO) so now everything is done in the computer. They should be able to see what is scheduled if they pull up a list, however many times I have seen people decide they need a wheelchair once they get to where they are going (ie - verified they were not on the wchr manifest) and you have to get it for them, but they dont want to wait until the people who asked for one in advance get theirs so someone (the last off) have to wait.

I have suggested to IT that the WCHR assist (along with most of the other special requests) be printed on the boarding pass of the customer requesting the assistance. This would allow the agents and flight attendants to see what is being requested (wchr, language, maas cart, etc) without having to go find a list or pull it up. If its requested in the computer like it should be it will print on the boarding pass. This way if someone says they need assistance of some kind the employee can ask to see their boarding pass and know if its been requested in advance. If not, they can add it and ask the customer to kindly wait until those who have asked in advance for assistance have been helped.

Once again though, this is US IT and it will cost $ so I dont expect this to happen any time soon although it would make everyones jobs a lot easier AND help possibly cut down on customer COMPLAINTS because there would be an easier way to be sure the assist was noted and offered.

 

[SS255]

I have also asked why we don't have more minimum connecting times and was told Marketing didn't want it longer because then we would lose connections to other carriers with shorter times.

US would be better off building in more realistic connections, and charging $1 or $2 less than what the other carriers with shorter connecting times are charging. They'd sell more tickets for being the cheapest, it would save them far more than that in manpower to handle all of the mis-connects, and would result in better DOT complaint metrics.

I always have to bite my tongue so as not to appear self-righteous when I hear of friends and family booking connections which they will never (and usually don't) make.

 

[cynic]

They booked? Have you ever heard of minimum connection times? Have you ever seen a connection built by a US reservation agent? Geeze, now in addition to it all being east pilots fault, it's now the customers fault!

Who uses a reservations agent anymore, unless they're booking with miles? I'm saying the company shouldn't allow anyone to purchase a connection that tight. They are setting everyone up for failure. Feel free to spin it some other way though, the mental gymnastics required to feed your martyr syndrome are entertaining.

 

[Pi brat]

Who uses a reservations agent anymore, unless they're booking with miles? I'm saying the company shouldn't allow anyone to purchase a connection that tight. They are setting everyone up for failure. Feel free to spin it some other way though, the mental gymnastics required to feed your martyr syndrome are entertaining.

Who uses a res agent? Well, there is a whole building full of them down the road from me, so I'm guessing a few do. Although the way this operation is running we probably could need that many just for reroutes!

If you are saying the company shouldn't allow it, then fine, I agree. But when you said this "It's sad to hear people whine that "this always happens to me" when they booked a 25 minute connection with a terminal change. ", it sounded like you were blaming the customer for poor company policies.

 

[SS255]

Who uses a reservations agent anymore, unless they're booking with miles? I'm saying the company shouldn't allow anyone to purchase a connection that tight.

CP's.....although they know better than to book tight connections. My father only books through the CP agents.

People who need to book complicated itineraries, redeem the $99 companion passes from the US credit cards that the FA's sell hard, anybody with special needs, re-booking during travel waivers or other irregular ops.... And a lot of those people who clog the reservation lines are customers who are trying to get re-booked after missing their (tight) connections.

A good, experienced reservation agent will not even offer a tight connection as a booking option, but usairways.com is not nearly as smart as a good reservation agent.