I just got done reading the rather venomous post from ual-crewdesk-man and the rather venomous responses from the pilot group to that post... thought I might offer a perspective from a different airline as I am a USAirways crew scheduler....its facinating to me that we deal with many of the same misunderstandings and jelousies over here...
Contract Knowledge.... neither myself nor any of my collegues, nor the rank and file US pilots negotiated it, but we sure do have to live with it and abide by it. It''s my job to know the scheduling portion, and I do. I do not begrudge pilots who are not 100% versed on every aspect of it, but I do understand the frustration of being challenged on every single aspect when all I am trying to do is cover a trip. I think it is important to note that it is probably not up to the UAL schedulers to interpret phrases like any availible pilot .... their supervisors and managers tell them how to interpret it.
Calling pilots at 0200.... we do it over here to. Hate it. Its the worst part of my job. I do it because I have to. If I do not, I will see a claim in my mailbox from a pilot( I am claiming trip 9999; if I had been called at 0200 when the trip opened, I could have gotten there for it, instead of 0700 when I was called.....) Get more than 3 of those in a year and I''m ''disciplined''. Wish there was a way to fix this. Its a safety issue.
Calling pilots on off days.... we do this to. Hate it also. 2nd worst part of my job. Do it because I have to, because if I don''t flights will cancel and I NEVER want that to happen on my shift...
Pilots'' attitude.... I too have gotten an earful of the ''go eat a donut, your job doesnt matter, I have more responsiblity than you can imagine'' stuff.... what a bunch of condescending crap. I certainly respect what a pilot does as a professional. Show me the same courtesy. At the same time, I will say that 95% of the pilots show me that respect. And after Sep 11th last year, the response from US pilots was phenomenal. During the resulting operational nightmare, I recieved hundreds of calls from our pilots, saying ''I''m in uniform, I''m at the airport....what do you need me to do?'' The general attitiude was ''the *******s aren''t gonna keep me down!'' Truely extraordianry, and something that will always stay with me.
Management.... I find it interesting that you all over here blame that whole merger mess for the current state of your company. We over here at US do to, specifically Wolf and Gangwal''s 18 months of inaction trying to get the merger approved while the rest of the industry passed us by. Coincidence that the two principles in that merger are now the two airlines struggling the most? I seriously doubt it. I also find it interesting that Wolf, Gangwal, Goodwin et all are no longer with their respective carriers. What a nice little mess they left behind....
Sep 11th.... I can remember every second of my shift that day, almost like it was in slow motion. Funny how the rest of the year seemed to go by in a blur. I thought there were very few worse places to be than an airline operation center that day, but as bad as it was in Pittsburgh, I can''t even imagine what it was like in Chicago. To all of you, my prayers and most postive thoughts go with you. You all have shown remarkable resilence over the past year... here''s hoping for a better 2003 for all of us.
Contract Knowledge.... neither myself nor any of my collegues, nor the rank and file US pilots negotiated it, but we sure do have to live with it and abide by it. It''s my job to know the scheduling portion, and I do. I do not begrudge pilots who are not 100% versed on every aspect of it, but I do understand the frustration of being challenged on every single aspect when all I am trying to do is cover a trip. I think it is important to note that it is probably not up to the UAL schedulers to interpret phrases like any availible pilot .... their supervisors and managers tell them how to interpret it.
Calling pilots at 0200.... we do it over here to. Hate it. Its the worst part of my job. I do it because I have to. If I do not, I will see a claim in my mailbox from a pilot( I am claiming trip 9999; if I had been called at 0200 when the trip opened, I could have gotten there for it, instead of 0700 when I was called.....) Get more than 3 of those in a year and I''m ''disciplined''. Wish there was a way to fix this. Its a safety issue.
Calling pilots on off days.... we do this to. Hate it also. 2nd worst part of my job. Do it because I have to, because if I don''t flights will cancel and I NEVER want that to happen on my shift...
Pilots'' attitude.... I too have gotten an earful of the ''go eat a donut, your job doesnt matter, I have more responsiblity than you can imagine'' stuff.... what a bunch of condescending crap. I certainly respect what a pilot does as a professional. Show me the same courtesy. At the same time, I will say that 95% of the pilots show me that respect. And after Sep 11th last year, the response from US pilots was phenomenal. During the resulting operational nightmare, I recieved hundreds of calls from our pilots, saying ''I''m in uniform, I''m at the airport....what do you need me to do?'' The general attitiude was ''the *******s aren''t gonna keep me down!'' Truely extraordianry, and something that will always stay with me.
Management.... I find it interesting that you all over here blame that whole merger mess for the current state of your company. We over here at US do to, specifically Wolf and Gangwal''s 18 months of inaction trying to get the merger approved while the rest of the industry passed us by. Coincidence that the two principles in that merger are now the two airlines struggling the most? I seriously doubt it. I also find it interesting that Wolf, Gangwal, Goodwin et all are no longer with their respective carriers. What a nice little mess they left behind....
Sep 11th.... I can remember every second of my shift that day, almost like it was in slow motion. Funny how the rest of the year seemed to go by in a blur. I thought there were very few worse places to be than an airline operation center that day, but as bad as it was in Pittsburgh, I can''t even imagine what it was like in Chicago. To all of you, my prayers and most postive thoughts go with you. You all have shown remarkable resilence over the past year... here''s hoping for a better 2003 for all of us.