Originally Posted by swingaling

Unions protect the interests of workers who would otherwise get exploited, mistreated and underpaid by corporations.

Originally Posted by GNRMatt

This is downright offensive to every hard working American that has earned their vacation days (which is part of their compensation package for the work they do!). It's offensive to anyone who believes that their family, friends and personal lives are more important than a corporation's bottom line. I actually find your attitude to be the one destroying this country by making people's lives take a backseat to the profits of a corporate entity.

Originally Posted by Dallas49er

It's a simple mistake, with huge long term repercussions.


Or, another view. I would hazard a guess that many of us here, with 1-40+ years of sales experience, sales management experience, corporate experience, and being commission based (meaning no fat salary plus bonus) might have an idea of how to fill seats AND make the customer happy. Present management's bean counter attitude of ask the customer for more and give them less, in the clear light of day is a non-starter in any business school, even in California. Current AA management is out of touch with the client.


It's not war. It's frustration (at least for me) of dealing with a management suite that never had to sell anything in their life, but stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Some of the fixes are easy (ie. PDB or lose your job), and some fixes are not so easy (an attitude of the client/customer/passenger is REVENUE, who can walk away, not self loading cargo). I suspect many here can see this accelerating train wreck coming, based on experience in their own field. No, it's not war, it's that it just doesn't have to be. It's a waste/it's a shame/ it's a ....


And that is my point. Where is the client/customer/passenger flying 12/17-12/31 in the equation? No where to be seen?


Perverse glee? Perhaps for others. As for me, it's with a profound sense of sadness.

Originally Posted by QtownDave

But at some point it’s time to dry one’s eyes and get over it.

Originally Posted by SFO777

Agree. And many of us have gotten over it... by taking our business elsewhere.

Originally Posted by kb9522

I don't think I would be able to call myself hardworking if I refused to come in on one particular day to solve a major, time critical issue because it happens to fall on the same day some guy was born 2000 years ago.

Originally Posted by jay_dubya

You don't seem to get that this is not an all hands on deck situation. This is an airline screwup where they gave too many pilots off at once. What's your genius solution to determining which pilots should lose their earned time. Your disparaging tone about Christmas fits nicely with the rest of your comments.

Originally Posted by QtownDave

But the front is much better than it has been for a very long time. And that’s true I think at the others as well.

Originally Posted by kb9522

It doesn't matter if they made plans. When you have a job to do, you do it. Period. Everything else takes a back seat. If I have to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other excuse people make for taking time off, I do it and I do it without complaint.

The only thing making this crap possible? Unions. Unions have destroyed any sense of work ethic in this country.

Originally Posted by jay_dubya

You don't seem to get that this is not an all hands on deck situation. This is an airline screwup where they gave too many pilots off at once. What's your genius solution to determining which pilots should lose their earned time. Your disparaging tone about Christmas fits nicely with the rest of your comments.

Originally Posted by SFO777

Huh? Certainly not AA domestic which is now a garbage product since the Parker coup. And that's before the recent LAX debacle where they can't even cater real meals.
I only fly First and the only AA flight I will willingly fly is LAX-LHR. And I suspect that won't last long either as Parker will soon discover that they are serving $175 Champagne and $100 Chassagne-Montrachets and Cabs, and kill that off.

Originally Posted by treznor

As another person that's very anti-union, and has flights scheduled out of the affected airports during the time frame, the only thing making this crap possible isn't unions. The thing that made this possible in the first place is American's usage of the Trip Trade system, which I've read from multiple sources the union has asked them to replace multiple times and AA hasn't because it'd cost too much. So no, 'the only thing making this crap possible' isn't the unions. Personally, if I were the pilots and/or their union, considering their labor relations, I'd make this as painful for AA as possible and then at the last minute make sure that every flight goes out (or almost every flight anyway) so no customers are actually harmed. At some point AA needs to understand that they need to fix some of their operational problems so they don't keep having these problems.

Originally Posted by chicago747

Couple of the blogs posted the press release AA put out. If you take them at their word the situation is much less critical than some thought

[QUOTE[i]]Out of the 200,000 flights American will operate in December, only a few hundred are currently unassigned to pilots. That number of open flights continues to decrease thanks to our pilots who are stepping up to the plate and picking up trips to ensure customers are taken care of. It’s another example of why we are thankful to have such an incredible team. In addition, we have more reserve pilots on hand in December than normal months and they provide us with the ability to fly many of the trips that are currently uncovered. We have not canceled any scheduled flights in December and will continue to work to ensure both our pilots and our customers are cared for.

Originally Posted by LarryJ

150% may be plenty to encourage enough pilots to pick up the uncrewed trips. The problem is that since it is not provided for in the contract it is not enforceable. The company could pay some, but not others, and there would be no recourse. The union (APA) wants a letter of agreement to cover the remedy so that it will be enforceable if it isn't applied uniformly.

At my airline we have a provision for the company to designate premium pay for specific open trips. We can see in advance if the trip will pay 100%, 150%, or 200% of the normal rate and make our decisions accordingly. The contract defined the conditions and requirements on both sides so there are no surprises. The reports from our union's scheduling committee is that the company is quite happy with the results of this process when they decide to designate premium pay trips. AA and APA could sit down and come up with such an agreement in a few hours but, so far, the airline hasn't been willing to do so.