FlyingHigh20

Not sure what your point is - flying SDC, standby or not - DL charges all FO and non-medallion pax who miss their flights $50 to rebook the same day. For intl itineraries, it's $250 for everybody. At that point, its simply a "late" fee, regardless of what they call it.

Davescj

+1

Obviously, no one wants to leave late. That includes the crew. Does anyone really enjoy sitting around an airport doing nothing?

DlFlightAttend, I think one of the saddest things that are gone are crew meals. I can see the point (money and why have the crew eat if pax aren't etc...etc..etc..), but it doesn't make life/work any easier.

Dave

TheBisch

I would understand that a little more if her inbound flight was late, however I was on the FIRST flight of the day from DTW-BNA. I kind of got the impression she was just late. Like slept in late. THAT is no excuse for stopping by and getting coffee and breakfast... when I am late for work, I certainly don't stop by the drive-thru on my way to the office. I just go hungry until lunch.

TheBisch

Dunno, as I just mentioned, it was first flight of the day. Bed was just a little too warm to get out of on time, maybe?

TheBisch

It was not another FA. She made a comment on the PA trying to apologize for being late. It didn't go over well with those of us on the plane.

DelrayChris

People are apt to posting their grievances on FT, but show an utter lack of confidence when it comes to contacting Delta

CJKatl

Chris - Count me in the group that does both, but let me share this...

Over the summer, I had a few experiences where DL employees went above and beyond to the point where I got the names and wrote to DL.

A few months later, I ran into Lisa in RDU again and asked if they contacted her to let her know about the email. Nope. Later that week, I was in IAD, so I went to the baggage claim office. Same woman was there. Nope, she hadn't been told. The next day, the other GA and her manager confirmed they had heard nothing.

Why bother commenting to DL if it does nothing?? Lisa told me that it may be put in her file and brought up at performance review time, but shouldn't DL let its employees and their managers know this? "Hey, a customer appreciated what you did," would be a welcome thing for any employee to hear.

DelrayChris

^

Perhaps a call to (404) 715-2600 x8 would be in order.

PaulMSN

You do realize that you're treating "impression" as fact, and then adding concocted detail to make it seem worse. Do you know as fact that the FA slept in late or stopped by the drive-thru? If you just stick to known facts you would appear less vindictive.

Let's hope others give you the benefit of the doubt when you err.

mtkeller

And let's point out that sometimes traffic accidents and the like disrupt normal plans. If you got trapped on a freeway behind a big wreck, you'd probably want breakfast before starting work, too. Unless the full situation is known, better off not speculating.

Right after Snowpocalypse: UK Edition (2010 Series 2), there was a delay of about two hours on one of the DL-US flights. The plane was there, the passengers were there, the airport was operating normally. However, the entire flight crew was stuck in on the road behind some big accident.

mersk862

Not to mention the reality that a friend of the FA might have grabbed that stuff for her while she was running late. It's not uncommon for one FA to grab something for a friend of theirs that might be running tight on time so that they don't have to wait in line for food/coffee.

mtsublueraider

Well, turns out the FA showed up about 25 minutes late and they immediatly started boarding. I could see a supervisor showed up in the gate area to make sure nothing "funny" happened. I hated that nor the pilot or the FAs said "i'm sorry" for being late. BUT I will credit the pilot, I've NEVER taxied that fast to the runway or taken that steep of a "heading adjustment" to get to ATL in record time. We only ended up being about 15 minutes late to the gate so with my C to D concourse 45 minute connection I ended up getting there just in time. BUT...

EVERY seat was filled on the CRJ except for the 1A in the bulkhead. The door didn't close until 10 minutes past departure time. Why? We were waiting on a dead-head FA.

Happy days are here again.

mother-

When a FA is late the cost has to be at least an order of magnitude beyond what it is for most other professions! I would guess the a crewmember being late by 30 minutes costs into 5 figures per incident. Not only do you have the hard costs (gate time, ramp time, airline personnel costs, crew limits, fuel for the APU, lost seats, etc.) but a minimum of 50+ man hours of time lost by passengers...

I'm not saying the job is awesome or the compensation is adequate, but it is the job they choose to have- and it is one that means you leave however early you need to so that if [insert rather foreseeable but unpredictable events like traffic] you still arrive on time / early. I don't know about you but when I'm late I inconvenience the 2-5 people that were in the meeting with me. There is no way the two things are on par with each other...

If you want slack for having bad days (w/r/t being late) you should pick a career where you are not in the critical path for so many things- Not all jobs are for all people! (Or even, arguably, any sane people at all...)

duchy

There is no evidence the FA was late through something foreseeable.

She was just late......

So maybe her car broke down, maybe her babysitter didn't show, maybe someone threw themselves on her train line (all reasons I've got delayed but still made it work a bit late rather than call in) Life happens sometimes-and there is no evidence to say she makes a habit of been late.....just as there is no evidence to say she doesn't. Delta have a process to deal with lateness -probably stricter than most of us here have to adhere to ....but probably not the flog em and hang em punishment those same people appear to be advocating (Personally I'd take their magazines away from them for month)

CJKatl

When my father had the first of his two heart transplants, in 1984, there were very few surgeons who knew how to do the procedure. One of the two surgeons who was supposed to do the procedure was playing tennis earlier in the day and decided to jump the net when he won. After dislocating his shoulder, the third qualified surgeon on the hospital staff had to return from Japan to perform the procedure. If the surgery was delayed, the transplanted heart would be no good and my father would have likely died. He had been on an artificial heart (called the Penn State heart at the time) for a few days already and was close to setting a record for the longest survival up to that point. The surgeon made it, the procedure was a success and my dad lived for many more years.

I cannot get bent out of shape about the ripple effect of an FA being late. It's not like anyone will die because the FA is late. I fly 150+ flights a year. There are going to be delays whether I get upset or whether I remain calm. I have control over my reactions and I'm the only one impacted by those reactions. Why would I choose to get upset over this foreseeable problem associated with air travel?

One more thing... I can work in the gate area, so if I'm on the plane, while it's an annoying inconvenience, no man hours have been lost.