To All The " Pinies" Of The World

[Gone4Now]

To All the well intentioned " Pinies" of the world... no matter what your situation, no matter whom you are employed by, and no matter what threats of oursourcing, cutbacks etc...you hear rumors of in your particular personal life or occupation......the bottom line is YOU ARE NOT ONE OF US...You are NOT a USAIRWAYS employee. I cant for the life of me understand why someone outside the company..let alone the industry...has so little of a life that they feel the need to post here to ...."motivate us to reflect on the situation" .....We LIVE the situation.
We do not need outsiders to tell us how to think or act in regards to our dealings with our employer....USairways and all its WOs......any more than we need foreigners to tell us how to vote in the next presidential election. Side liner bleeding hearts are not needed or beneficial to our interests. Get a life of your own...if you have all this free time to post here on a situation in which you are not even involved, redirect your efforts and dontate all this time to some charity. Your time would be much better spent and someone may actually benefit from it.

 

[Todd B]

Everyone is welcome to participate in these forums.

 

[KCFlyer]

Side liner bleeding hearts are not needed or beneficial to our interests.

Most of those "side liner bleeding hearts" are your customers, and last time I checked, they were both needed and beneficial to your interests. I hope for your sake that they don't follow your advice and "go elsewhere".

 

[ClueByFour]

You know, this year has been an off year for me flying wise, and I've spent about 60k miles or so and 26 segments on a U plane, so it makes some difference to me what ends up coming of U's future.

I don't necessarily agree with Bob all the time (in fact, I think that he's being far too generous towards the current management at the current time), but he's also got a vested interest in what happens to U--I believe he is flying U at least weekly.

It's fair to say that there are folks who post here who as passengers spend more time on U airplanes that some employees--even before the new reserve debacle.

It's also a good idea to note that many of U's VFFs fly U because of the treatment they get, and the fact that they believe U has the best people in the business (on the frontlines, anyway).

 

[BoeingBoy]

Thanks for your thoughtful comments Clue.

Jim

 

[Bear96]

Gone4Now,

I have to respectfully disagree with your post.

Certainly PineyBob has a "right" to post here as much as anyone else, as Todd B pointed out. If a U employee would like to start her own message board and screen out non-U employees, she is welcome to do so. I understand it is upsetting to hear others who have less at stake to opine about what is essentially your future, but frankly if you can't handle it and are that sensitive, internet message boards probably are not a healthy place for you to hang out in general.

But even more importantly, since you singled out PineyBob, I must say he has a very interesting perspective that is well worth listening to. Even though I do not always agree with what he has to say, I must admit I have developed a great deal of respect for the old lug. If management has made a bad call, PineyBob will call them on it. If people drumbeat the union rhetoric to death against all common business sense, he will call them on that as well.

Though he is not an airline employee, this may be a GOOD thing. He has experiences and a point of view that make him able to see things differently and in a more detached manner, and frankly has made more sense than either the management drones or union clones who post here. Both sides could gain a lot by listening to him.

Plus he is never rude or disrespectful, and his interest in U as a passenger goes deeper than "Waaah I didn't get my upgrade" or "Waaah my airplane steak was overcooked last night."

I too have wondered why non-airline people find our industry so fascinating. I have used the analogy in the past that I shop at the same supermarket once per week, yet that doesn't make me an expert on the grocery industry, nor do I expect my loyalty to be rewarded with freebies all the time. But lets face it, this an interesting business, especially now. And PineyBob comes across less as a CEO wannabe as some frequent flyers do, and more as a confounded outsider with good business acumen wondering simply where has the common sense gone in the airline biz-- from both the mangement and union side of the equation.

PineyBob, post on!

 

[AOG-N-IT]

I appreciate all those whom fly us...and thanks up front, just in case it's not said often enough?

However...I have detected a select few non-U employee posters shift their position of being in support of the employee's and their unions positions and even that of the position of our management so frequently...that I hardly give their expressed opinion any credence anymore.

I'm very much of the opinion that these people are more interested is debating any and all subjects as opposed to coming squarely down in support of one side or the other....muchless offer an equitable resolve that all parties can live with. It's easy to offer up draconian solutions or support of such measures , when all you have to do is book on another carrier when worse becomes the worst.

The facts are....Our costs are too high

The fact is....Labor is not the root cause of fact number one...We do not build the routes or create schedules that breed idle flight crews and passenger/ramp agents. We are also not the ones hamstringing purchases of spare parts that leave some mechanics twiddling their thumbs while awaitng said parts. I recall no labor rubber-stampng on purchases of Aircraft from foreign soil that further delays support of them....not to mention a still mixed fleet that adds to bottom line costs.


Management has been given every tool imagineable to right the position of U....labor gave 1.1 Billion dollars to try to offset years of short sighted leadership...this is a sum that cannot be dimissed as a token amount. That is tangible support...and it speaks volumes about the eagerness of the employees to keep U flying , both today and in the future.

Creditors have contributed yet another Billion in relief...and it's not enough

The ATSB provided yet another Billion dollars in backed loans...yet its not enough.

20,000 U Employees are on the street...and thousands more have had their status reduced from respectable salary levels with mainline...to questionable levels of Mainline/Express wages...lest we not forget the number of cities that have been reduced from passenger friendly mainline jets...to that of the narrow tubes at the lower priced contract carriers. ...and still this isn't enough.

One as to ask...why is all the above not enough? The answer is a pure lack of long-range vision and planning

The achieved cost savings is being erroded by legal battles in support of highly suspect practices such as outsourcing , and paying leases on planes that cannot be flown at all.

The achieved savings is also being diluted by poor assumptions in the recent past that LCC's like WN would not target a direct hub like PHL....boy what a miss-que that was...and will be.

By and large both labor and management have some proactive changes to make..but the methods in which this management is seeking such changes is both costly and counter-productive to say the very least.

The fiber by which all relationships in any human endeavor is built has been all but destroyed within the last 18 months...and that is shadowed by the same lack-luster invisionments that has plagued this company for at least the last 15 years....and that bonding fiber is a trueism called trust.

You can now return to your revolving opinions of what is required to make it work...and who's version of Right or Wrong you chose to accept and support today?

 

[flyin2low]

Go Piney "la cockroach" Bob

I like to see his opinions here, as well as the rest (Clue, akaTraveler, KC etc...)

 

[N628AU]

Maybe Gone4Now needs to look at that last paystub and see the line where it says (or at least did), "Brought to you by the customers who make US Airways their carrier of choice."

 

[Light Years]

Judging by thier screen name they probably haven't had a paycheck from US Airways in quite some time, unless I'm confused. :huh:

 

[usramperTPA]

Hey pineybob,

Thanks for flying us, and thanks for your input on these boards. Although I don't always agree with you, I do read and try to understand where you are coming from. Thanks again for being "our" customer!

 

[elmerfishpaw]

Yeah, I'm along with what everyone says, Piney has every right in the world to post here, and I think all opinions are good to have. However, if Piney's job has a message board similar to this (public board) USAirways Employees should be allowed to post there too....I still am dumfounded how people can find aviation interesting. It's just another job. I used to see weirdos with binoculars watching planes land etc. Just like the nuts who watch trains run by....

 

[KCFlyer]

I still am dumfounded how people can find aviation interesting. It's just another job. I used to see weirdos with binoculars watching planes land etc. Just like the nuts who watch trains run by....

Perhaps some of us wierdos are dumbfounded every time we look at a "small" jetliner like a 737 or an A320, something that weighs about as much as a house, as it lifts gracefully into the air. Some of us are dumbfounded because a 3 day car ride is reduced to a 5 hour flight. It has nothing to do with the job...most of us are still in awe of flight.

There is something "romantic" about aviation that is lacking in every other job out there. Be honest now...would you get a "thrill" heading into a cubicle to write some java code on a state of the art Dell (while your job is being considered for "offshoring")? Or do you get even a teeny tiny bit of a thrill when you catch a whiff of Jet-A?

Some of the "Piney's" take an odd sense of pride in being a part of your life by being customers of your employer. They could fly someone else, but there is SOMETHING that keeps them coming back to U. Sometimes they're off base with their suggestion - here's some news for you...sometimes the employees who are all knowing because the are in the industry...are just as off base as us weirdos who watch planes. And often times managment is the most off base of all. Sometimes the view from the outside is what is needed to turn things around.

 

[elmerfishpaw]

I have no idea how you connected my calling aviation "just another job" as being critical of "Piney". All I said was I thought he should be welcome here,and that if we were customers of his work or place of business we'd be allowed our criticisms also. The Karma I tried to show was good.
I still stand by my thing about aviation nutcases. I wasn't saying people who enjoy aviation are nutcases just people who are obsessed beyond normal and actually collect things like airline silverware and sit for hours by the runway with binoculars. I just think that behavior is a little "touched".

 

[ITRADE]

Pretty amazing for a newbie with a post count of 9 to tell a long time poster to essentially kiss off...