Hire more people...
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Garfield1966
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I hope you don't fly for a living because you need to get your eyes checked. What I have said is that during the holidays when the sick list doubles for 2-3 weeks, 50% of those on the sick list are not sick. It is very simple. There is not known disease that affects people only during the holidays. Since there is no such disease, the only way the sick list can double from it's daily average is for people to be lying. I don’t know why you have such a problem with it. People do it in my department, they do it in yours and they do it in every other department. Do you think by not admitting it is not true?
Garfield1966
Veteran
Hire more people just to cover a 1/2 hour lunch break? That would be a colossal waste of money and time. Besides, that does not work either. We allocate 2 desks per base. One desk works the today operation, the other desk works the future operation. It is much easier to wait for a break in the call volume or work load, have your today or future watch your desk for a few min and run down to get a meal or go to the rest room. OSO's are PIA but we are usually to busy to notice. Yesterday I think I left my desk 2 times in 8 hours. Those days are very infrequent so it is not an issue for most of us. We do not even have relief people. Someone bombed in “sick†on Wed for the MIA future desk. The today person had to work both bases. They had a little help from the rest of the folks there but they still worked both bases. BTW, the MIA desk also works DCA. I have been in that situation and so have most of us. Goes with the territory
All this is a moot issue since when I hired on I knew what the routine was so if it were a problem for me I would have no reason to ####. If someone cannot hang with it, then they are more than welcome to seek a different job.
If someone can point out where I wrote that people should not call in sick when they are indeed sick, I will apologize but as far as I can recall I have never said that. If you are sick I do not want you at work with me or anyone else. I do not get sick very often. Last time I think was about 2 years ago when I had an intestinal virus. If someone is sick, STAY HOME!!!
All this is a moot issue since when I hired on I knew what the routine was so if it were a problem for me I would have no reason to ####. If someone cannot hang with it, then they are more than welcome to seek a different job.
If someone can point out where I wrote that people should not call in sick when they are indeed sick, I will apologize but as far as I can recall I have never said that. If you are sick I do not want you at work with me or anyone else. I do not get sick very often. Last time I think was about 2 years ago when I had an intestinal virus. If someone is sick, STAY HOME!!!
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Instead, let's remove seats, pay large sum of cash for "more room throughout coach" marketing commericals, then put the seats the back in , and create "we know why you fly" marketing commericals, and call this superior management strategy and skill. This would be far superior to waste of money on employees being happy and more productive.
Then increase the size of said marketing group, to campaign to bring in outside maintenace work that we cannot even get done at the price and time agreed to.
Then we can claim that everything possible has been done to return to a profitable and balanced finance sheet.
Oh, Christ! Hell has indeed frozen over - I agree with you.
Personally, I think Carty made the right call with MRTC, and short-man Arpey made the wrong call when he quickly killed it.
After all, if legacy overcapacity is a problem (and many think it is), then why add seats that tend to fly empty?
eolesen
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Because the incremental revenue from those seats brought in during 2Q05 and 3Q05 was the difference between an operating profit and an operating loss? That's fact, by the way, not just opinion.
People loved MRTC, but wouldn't think twice about flying on another carriers just to save $10. So, why leave money on the table for someone else? AA operated with record high load factors after having added the seats back. Can you imagine what it would be like for customers (or nonrevs for that matter) if AA were operating at a 5% HIGHER load factor than they did this summer?
Fact? Maybe. Yeah, I've heard the numbers: LRTC is responsible for $150 million of annual incremental revenue.
What's unknown are the numbers of higher-fare pax who didn't book AA but booked UA instead because they were assured of getting at least E+ if their upgrade didn't clear. Any ideas how much better AA's results would have been without that potential book-away?
If LRTC is such a great idea, then add yet another row and watch the profits grow exponentially! B)
Seriously, Former ModerAAtor, you're probably right. But IMO, 31-32 inch pitch is simply inhumane. Unless you have no legs. Then maybe it isn't so bad.
Some of my friends who tried AA when MRTC was introduced (and liked it) have now bailed for UA over the loss of MRTC. Maybe LRTC is the ticket to salvation, but I'd rather see AA attract more 1Ks from UA or PMs from DL than pack in 4 or 5 more cheap fares from people who could just as easily fly B6 or WN. But like I said, you're probably right.
It's not about charging everyone on board an extra $10 because of MRTC; it's about attracting a better mix of higher-yielding pax on each flight. If MRTC causes someone to abandon UA who then buys their ORD-LHR J class (and ORD-NRT J or F) tix on AA instead of UA, then maybe MRTC is a winner even if the great unwashed infrequent flyers get the benefit of MRTC for FREE.
LRTC is all about running into the street to pick up nickels instead of focusing on where the dollars are located.
Now wait a minute, we payed someone good money(probally Oneflyer) to study MRTC in advance and the decision was people would pay more for more room. Now AA claims people just aren't willing to pay more for the product, maybe AA has no clue what kind of product they wish to offer. You can't expect the Walmart crowd to lay out the cash for MRTC, after all they love their cheap crap from China. At the same time don't expect the Nordstroms crowd to flock to the cAAttle cars we now operate. Does anyone at HQ actually know what type of airline we wish to operate?
Personally I would mimic the European carriers such as Aer Lingus who have seating and leg room based on fares. If they don't want to pay more than $50 for a ticket, they get a complimentary AA shoe horn to help squeeze their asses into the seats. Those who are willing to pay more get more room.
eolesen
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I have to disagree. When you look at industry RASM fields in Aviation Daily, AA still continues to run well ahead of UA, so it appears that the loss of MRTC hasn't materially affected the yield mix.
Here's a question for you Garfield:
How do I switch out my avbl day for one later in the month? I have already hisent with no reply and I am unsure what my next step should be. Is it crew schedule who does this?
I have a doctors appointment that took me three months to get and can't cancel. I held availability because my supervisor mistakenly told the planner I wasn't going to be purser in November and purser is all that I bid. Now I have my quals back but no schedule.
I do not want to have to call in sick but it may come down to it because I can't miss the appointment. Doctors just don't seem to care that I can't make scheduled appointments more than 3 weeks in advance.
How do I switch out my avbl day for one later in the month? I have already hisent with no reply and I am unsure what my next step should be. Is it crew schedule who does this?
I have a doctors appointment that took me three months to get and can't cancel. I held availability because my supervisor mistakenly told the planner I wasn't going to be purser in November and purser is all that I bid. Now I have my quals back but no schedule.
I do not want to have to call in sick but it may come down to it because I can't miss the appointment. Doctors just don't seem to care that I can't make scheduled appointments more than 3 weeks in advance.
Skymess,
Don't send a message, call them directly. Last time I held AVBL they changed two of them for me. Your other option is to fly your ass off the first 16 days and max out. I have been able to max out in 13 days. Just fly make-up on your days off.
Don't send a message, call them directly. Last time I held AVBL they changed two of them for me. Your other option is to fly your ass off the first 16 days and max out. I have been able to max out in 13 days. Just fly make-up on your days off.
Thanks for the advice. The problem is the avbl day is in the first few days of the month. I am using that PO that doesn't count against you they gave us a few years ago for not calling in sick for the test period.
Garfield1966
Veteran
Hi send is required. We are not allowed to move them with out a hi-send. If someone does, they are doing so against Crew skd policy. No hi-send no AVBL day move. Your problem will be the fact that you are requesting it off on the first few days of the month. Most (crew skd) tend not to move AVBL days off beginning/ end of month or off weekends as a blanket policy. I don't agree with that. I try and look at the skd. If you have just one AVBL day and want to move it to a block of there AVBL days that is something I would do regardless of when the 1 AVBL is. If you have 4 AVBL days 1-4 of Nov and want to move the 1st or 2nd to the 8th as a stand alone day, I wont do that because scheduling wise, it makes no sense unless your base has a butt load of turns in open time every day prior to 12n so that I know there is a good chance or having you work on that AVBL day instead of cutting you loose.
Again, depending on what base you are at, MIA for instance, calling would not be a good idea because you are more than likely just going to piss the scheduler off and not get what you want for the mere fact that MIA/IMA are getting hammered and what ever unfortunate SOB is working those bases is probably no interested in anything that will not fill their trips in open time.
Not to sound cold (but I know some will interpret it that way) but we do not care why anyone wants a day off. We are not allowed to care because of the contract. We are told / required to treat everyone equally. I cannot count the number of times I have heard "... but you did it for someone else". I have made exceptions over the several years I have been in crew skd and a few of them have come back to bite me in the ass and I am very tired of it. SO I do not make exceptions anymore and I am not alone. HINT: if someone does a "favor" for you, shut the hell up about it and don't tell anyone.
Sky, it sounds like you will have to call in for a PO to get the day off if you get plotted for something.
TWAnr
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That statement epitomizes everything about labor management relations at AA.
Wretched Wrench
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It is actually a guiding principle of labor management relations at AA. AA still ascribes to the Attila the Hun school of managaement.
In maintenance, it is "I've got a schedule to worry about, and don't wanna hear about your personal stuff." This is, of course, valid, but it is an exceedingly short-sighted view.
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