What Prickly Heat Does

[KCFlyer]

Just another passenger here heat, but in another thread, you seem to indicate that $60K is an awful lot of money to pay a flight attendant. What''s your response when a flight attendant says that $138,000 is overpaid for someone in the medical field, and if they only paid you and others in your field less, then perhaps the cost of medical care might be more affordable for all? Just curious.

 

[pricklyheat]

Well it seems that a paying passenger has found his way to your site and has inflamed a few people. Well folks I am sorry, but you work for the most mismanaged, customer abusive, employee unfriendly industry in existence. I am going spend some of my free time pointing out from a customers point of few the things we see that enrage us.

What do I do? I am in the medical field. I travel all over. Period. Lots of hours. Lots of hotels. Lots of time away from the family. Unpaid. Last year my W2 was $138,000. There you have it for those in the rafters screaming for it. By you questioning my income, I see that there may be a huge amount of tension between each one of your work groups about who makes what. Is that true?

Well my topic for this weekend is DFW plane changes and the automated check in machine I used to print my boarding pass.

I am fairly young, in shape and can move when I need to, but I prefer not to do 100 yard dashes in a suit thank you. I arrived on the hotel shuttle, went upstairs and printed out my boarding pass. It said A14, so I went through the security check (20 min) then arrived at my gate to see Miami on the screen. Hmmmm, I was going to St. Louis I thought. I questioned the gate agent, she said there had been a gate change. I asked why and she said there was a mechanical on the other plane. Ok, I said what is my new gate? She said c12 or something, anyway it required me to take a train to a different terminal. Well, I did the sprint to the train, by the way I had allowed more than 1 hour for this flight, leaving two elderly ladies in my dust in the same situation as I. Arriving at the train I found it out of order, but no signs on indicating as such. While the rest of the public stood around with blank expressions, I darted back up the escalator and hustled the mile or so distance.

All along the way I heard at least 10 more gate change announcements.

Thank You.

 

[N905AW]

PricklyHeat:

I completely understand where you''re coming from, but actually working on the front lines in the airline industry really makes one realize how precise everything really is and how the slightest occurence (such as a plane on mechanical) can have a large ripple effect. When we had a plane on mechanical that had to remain on the gate at a large bank, it usually caused 3 or 4 gate changes. Granted, I worked at a much smaller hub that DFW, so I can''t imagine what it must be like there. As for the train being out of order, I believe the maintenance of airport transportation falls in the hands of the airport itself. I don''t know if it''s different at DFW, since I''ve never transferred there before. But when one takes into account how many hundreds of thousands of people fly daily, it''s truly quite amazing that incidents such as the one you recounted don''t happen more often.

 

[desertfox]

Prickly.....
In your other thread you asked for examples of what a 135lb cabin crew member can do for you in an aluminum tube....you were provided with examples, yet you failed to acknowlege the obvious relevance to you.

If you fly as much as you say you do...it''s hard for anyone to believe that your bad experiences are not in the minority of total time traveled, or that AA has the market cornered on gate changes, equipment failures, or other trials and tribulations of flying. Look at the DOT report each month.

 

[skyangelnflight]

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On 6/7/2003 11:05:51 AM pricklyheat wrote:

What do I do? I am in the medical field. I travel all over. Period. Lots of hours. Lots of hotels. Lots of time away from the family. Unpaid. Last year my W2 was $138,000.
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I sure like your unpaid a whole lot better than my unpaid, esp. since the rest of our itinerary sounds the same!

 

[pricklyheat]

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On 6/7/2003 233 PM desertfox wrote:

Prickly.....
Look at the DOT report each month.

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Ok, first of all I will never accept the fact a flight attendant is going to change my fate should gravity take hold. Second of all, the DOT and the FAA are there to not police the industry, but to promote it. Politics, big money (the airlines) prove this. Why do you think that these overpaid waitresses and waiters are not certified and hold a license like the pilots and mechanics. Because big business (the airlines) that they promote will not allow it.

Step back and look at the big picture. You are all fighting a big monster right now. Bush and his cronies are going to rough up the industry in ways you can only imagine. I am not saying this to be mean, but it has been a long time coming and Sept 11 was all they needed.

"In the name of security and economic recovery," will be their slogan. I have chosen this board because there does seem to be some knowledgeable individuals here, and the airline industry is truly remarkable. Imagine the class project if you will back in your college days...If you were King for a Day what would you Do? says the prof.

Thank You

 

[ArtTang]

Pricklyheat writes:


Ok, first of all I will never accept the fact a flight attendant is going to change my fate should gravity take hold. Second of all, the DOT and the FAA are there to not police the industry, but to promote it. Politics, big money (the airlines) prove this. Why do you think that these overpaid waitresses and waiters are not certified and hold a license like the pilots and mechanics. Because big business (the airlines) that they promote will not allow it. end


I reluctantly respond (it seems futile dueling with the unarmed, after all):

Without arguing with pricklyheat about his myopic assertion that a flight attendant is never going to change his fate should gravity take hold (forgetting the many aircraft evacuations that have been successfully executed by trained flight attendants after the law of gravity brought the aircraft back to the ground, as well as conveniently forgetting the myriad other resposibilities F/As have, such as operating defibrillaters, evacuating aircraft on the ground and in the water, dealing with out-of-control passengers who threaten the safety of others, ensuring passengers' comfort and overall security on the plane, and yes, serving a coke, etc...), I'd like to address pricklyheat's assertion that F/As are overpaid waiters and waitresses.
Pricklyheat asked in another thread how much F/As earn and I answered the question in a very candid reply. With the knowledge that a senior, full-time F/A on domestic at AA only makes $36,000 a year, why does pricklyheat continue to drone on about F/As' earnings? Just how much is 'overpaid' in his eyes? Does he believe F/As should make $19,000 (news flash: a huge percentage of them do make this; they're called junior F/As)? Furthermore, pricklyheat enjoys equating F/As with waiters and waitresses, so why does he think F/As are overpaid? After all, waiters & waitresses routinely make over $20,000 and $30,000. Seasoned, professional waiters in fine establishments make well above $30,000.
Given pricklyheat's incessant and irrational debasing of F/As, I think it's obvious he has a personal axe to grind with the workforce. Some 'overpaid waitress in the sky' must have broken his little heart by not finding the pillow he demanded on one his many horrible flying experiences so he has decided to hate us all Pity...
BTW, if F/As become certified (a bill gaining legs on the Hill as we speak), will pricklyheat retract his demeaning comments about F/As? Not likely, for he'll remain tragically scarred by the pillow that never was.
One more thing before I get back to the books: am I the only one out here who thinks pricklyheat is way overpaid ($138,000 a year) for the work he does? After all, he just sits around on various flights and spends his evenings in nice hotels throughout the nation. Any trained chimp can do that. It's because of sponges like him that our medical costs are so high.

 

[gogogadget]

In defense of our Flight Attendants, Your view is very myopic. In your arrogance, you only see what you want to see and that is a servant for your beck and call. While it is true that FA''s do provide a service, there are countless times when there expertise is very well commended. For example, the Hawiain(sp) airline that was ripped open like a tin can in flight, or the UAL 747 that had a chunk blown out of the side or the AA flight with the shoe bomber on board or the Quantas flight where the FA''s were critically cut subduing nutty pax like you.

Your argument that "should gravity take hold" is duly noted. That being the case pilots wont be of much help either. Nothing will so you cant use that as the basis for your whole argument. You have to ask yourself when was the last time gravity took over and anyone else did better given the situation. There are countless flights per day and many smaller emergencies that necessitate FA expertise than you could shake a stick at, but you simply give no credit. Medical, Security, Evacuation all come to mind on why FA''s are important and I am very proud to have them on board every time I fly.

There is an old saying,

"A superior pilot is one who uses his superior judgement to avoid a situation which might require the use of his superior skills."

That same thing applies to Flight Attendants, You may not see it every day but you sure are secure in the fact that it is available when you "NEED" it!

Not a FA but I did sleep at a holiday inn express last night!

 

[TWAnr]

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On 6/7/2003 11:05:51 AM pricklyheat wrote:

I am in the medical field. I travel all over. Period. Lots of hours. Lots of hotels. Lots of time away from the family. Unpaid.

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Reading between the lines, prickly must be in sales; possibly medical equipment or pharmaceuticals. He must be jealous of doctors and suffers from a major inferiority complex. Why else would he need to know how much other people earn and berate them, while at the same time boasting about his own income, which is substantially below that of the doctors to whom he caters? Besides, the doctors get to sleep at home most nights.Most telling about him are the first five letters of his chosen board name.

 

[Rational Thought]

Prickly,

To answer your post, I think you have to take a step back and look at the complexity of airline operations. This may have been a "screw up", but it also can be just a unfortunate coincidence that almost no one can plan for with certainity or without the understanding that a negative experience may occur.

Here are the things to consider:

- the avilability of an alternative aircraft
- the equipment type available and the capabilities of the available A gates and crew
- the competing needs for "extra" aircraft at the time (e.g. your flight may have been one of several needing a new plane) and the position of those aircraft
- the travel time required to move a plane from C to A and the impact that would have had on departure time and available resources for other flights (e.g. staff that would be involved in the move would be unavailable for work in C), let alone the possibility that no one was around to move it.
- the impact of selecting an alternative location (e.g. other connecting passengers may have been arriving in B or C and a C departure would have less onerous on them)
- the awareness of operations as to the status of the tram (which if I recall correctly is run by the airport, not the airline). The breakdown may not have filtered to them in time.
- the time between ticket issuance/gate assignment and the gate change

There are quite a few additional factors involved. It could have also been poor planning, but we should be a tad sympathetic with the challenges of airline ops. Airport Ops is ussually faced with a set of bad and less bad choices. You may have been the less bad choice.

 

[mga707]

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On 6/7/2003 11:05:51 AM pricklyheat wrote:

I arrived on the hotel shuttle, went upstairs and printed out my boarding pass. It said A14, so I went through the security check (20 min) then arrived at my gate to see Miami on the screen.
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Y''know, I hate to nit-pick (not true, actually I enjoy it
), but upon rereading Prickly''s original post something struck me: Mr./Ms. Heat claims to be a VFF, yet he/she didn''t bother to spend a few seconds checking a monitor to confirm a gate location before heading off to the location shown on the boarding pass!
I only fly a half-dozen times or less per year, yet I always do this simple and easy task! I even check the arrivals monitor to see the status of the inbound flight that will become my outbound. Just makes sense.
Would''ve saved the prickly one a lot of O. J. moves through the terminals (that''s sprinting, not knifing)!

 

[Wretched Wrench]

"Overpaid waitresses"
------------------------------------------------------------

Now, there''s a hand grenade!

Does this advance the discussion?

 

[flydcoop]

TWAnr and Art Tang,

Excellent posts...my sentiments exactly.

It''s interesting that you can take Prickly''s signature line and substitute "Healthcare Industry" for "Airline Industry"...


Coop

 

[pricklyheat]

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Y''know, I hate to nit-pick (not true, actually I enjoy it
), but upon rereading Prickly''s original post something struck me: Mr./Ms. Heat claims to be a VFF, yet he/she didn''t bother to spend a few seconds checking a monitor to confirm a gate location before heading off to the location shown on the boarding pass!
I only fly a half-dozen times or less per year, yet I always do this simple and easy task! I even check the arrivals monitor to see the status of the inbound flight that will become my outbound. Just makes sense.
Would''ve saved the prickly one a lot of O. J. moves through the terminals (that''s sprinting, not knifing)!

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I also fly enough to give you the exact layout of the land at DFW, and I can tell you that if the Parking Spot bus drops you off for your scheduled departure at a gate that your wonderful AA website has slated as the departure gate and it leads you right to a fancy new (robotic, designed to replace employees) computer who again spits out false info, that then leads you right to 35 minutes of TSA harassment. And all this is before you can see your first monitor. Nice try, but I do have enough sense to check a monitor. I guess all this technology is more wasted money by your airline. Is the answer just stick with monitors? To further top off this whole scenario, once I arrived at the gate and questioned the agent, she said it was due to mechanical. Ok, I understand, but do not lie to me. She said, Sir, Our gate change locations are beyond our control. The FAA decides them....BS... the FAA runs the active runways, the ramp and taxi ways outside of your terminal operations. I believe you have what some call after asking an MOD or a company gate tower.

Thank You.

PS. Yes the healthcare industry is a loose cannon on deck, but the public is fully aware of this. The airline industry is not far behind, and the public is beginning to become fully aware of this.

Thank You again.

 

[mga707]

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On 6/14/2003 1:56:41 PM pricklyheat wrote:


I also fly enough to give you the exact layout of the land at DFW, and I can tell you that if the Parking Spot bus drops you off for your scheduled departure at a gate that your wonderful AA website has slated as the departure gate and it leads you right to a fancy new (robotic, designed to replace employees) computer who again spits out false info, that then leads you right to 35 minutes of TSA harassment. And all this is before you can see your first monitor. Nice try, but I do have enough sense to check a monitor.
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Another lie. DFW has plenty of monitors outside of the sterile area, right by the ticket counters. All you gotta do is look up.