Further, it's important to know that federal regulations limit crew to 100 hours of flight time per calendar month and to 1000 hours in a calendar year. The latter averages out to only 83.33 hours a month.

The link is in my post above; for Intl, it's

Does this mean that the hour meter starts ticking when the plane leaves the gate? What about time waiting on the tarmac for a take-off slot to open, or a landing slot at the destination airport to open? How about time waiting on the tarmac at the destination for a gate to open? These times are increasing year after year. Are these times included in actual "flight time"?

I recently did a daily commute JFK-RIC-JFK. Actual flight time is ~45 minutes. On the return flight, from when we left the gate at RIC to arrival at the gate at JFK was 3.5 hours.

From what you say, the pilot and the crew are allowed to deduct 3.5 hours from their monthly allowance for 45 minutes flight time.

Sounds to me like the ground crews and ATC need to get their act together to reduce the amount of ground wait time at both origin and destination and that will improve things. Upgrading from WWII technology would be a logical first step.

Crews are paid from the time the door closes until it opens at the next destination. They're not even paid for the time they are assisting you board and deplane (although I'm sure that's all figured into their flight pay). Usually a three day trip is less than 20 hours flight time.

Technically, flight time for pilots runs from "when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight and ends when the aircraft comes to rest after landing." CFR 14 §1.1

So if a tug is used for pushback, that doesn't count. Neither does waiting at rest for a gate to open.

BFG used door closing and opening, but that's for pay, not "flight time."

Ok, So which is used to determine whether or not a crew can continue to fly? Flight time or Paid Time?

Frankly, being a paying passenger, I'm not concerned by the burden that the airline has in scheduling it's crew based on their union rules. The customer should never be exposed or inconvenienced by these things.

If it's a scheduling concern, perhaps they should put half of the pilots/crew on an alternate month (running 15th to 15th) so that by the end of the calendar month half of the pilots/crew are only halfway through their cycle.

The airline industry needs to reinvent itself. Delta is no exception to that and now that they have come up from bankruptcy, should be leading the charge in rethinking what an airline should be. It's time for Delta to be the latest disrupter.

The LCC was the previous disrupter in this sector. The next disrupter needs to challenge the way the customer thinks about travel in general, airport experience, air travel, crew compensation, airline food, air travel delays, everything travel related.

Most of what we experience during air travel is the same that has been experienced for decades. Some recent innovations have included personal in flight entertainment, which many consider deprecated because of laptop computers, personal DVD players, iPods, and now iPhones. Aside from that international F (or Premium, BE, etc) has seen improvements in seating, fully reclining seats, personal travel suites, etc.

For the average traveler, there has not been much improvement in air travel for 20 or 30 years since the inception of the VCR. Frankly, there are many airplanes flying today that are at least that old.

I'm sure there are many other innovations that I don't realize. And I'm sure there are many innovations that are obvious that haven't happened yet.

I apologize if this rant has gone on far too long and has strayed a bit off topic. But the airline industry is overdue for changes.

Insofar as the FAA is concerned, flight time. But unions and airlines may have local policies with paid time.

Any idea if there are similar rules for foreign carriers? Was on a Royal Air Maroc flight canceled for non-weather reasons and was not offered any recourse. Ended up losing money and having to buy new ticket. Would like to pursue at least a refund for original ticket.

Yes, most carriers' Intl Tariff terms are very similar. AT only has a French version on their website (http://www.RoyalAirMaroc.com/eng/Nav...nsport&dateon=), but the wording of their "Article IX: Horaires, irrégularités d'exploitation et annulation des vols" is almost identical to the wording of DL's Rule 80 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...21#post8199121).

It seems as though putting crew on alternate month scheduling would help, but the federal regulations apparently prohibit it. (i.e. it does not say 100 hours of flight time per 30 day period, it says 100 hours of flight time per calendar month.) Unless the regulations are changed, that would be one solution that is apparently unavailable to the airlines.

I just went thru a disastrous trip. Perhaps someone can offer some advise as to how to proceed.

Booked a same day rtn LGA - ATL - TLH . Briefly i should of been there for a 1:00 appointment and home same night. 1 Flight canceled and the other got me in at 6:00pm . Missed the appointment and the next morning flight was cancelled too. I got fed up - went to US airways counter spent $700 and bought a (ticket thu Charlotte), a breeze :p
I havent called Delta to credit my return yet - what i really want is the entire ticket credited as it was a complete waste of a trip or at the minmum pay for the US ticket.........
Anyone?

Isn't that part of the country all over the news with tons of snow on the ground?

It happened well before the snow storms. US Aiways had no problem^

Your message is a bit confusing, but if I'm reading it correctly, you flew the outbound on a delayed flight, then the return flight was cancelled as well. If your original flight was cancelled, you should be entitled to get a refund on the unflown portion of your fare.

For future reference, as soon as the original flight was cancelled and you were likely to miss your appointment, you should have requested a full refund and bought a round trip on any airline that could have gotten you there on time. Yes, you likely would have ended up spending more than you originally did, but that's air travel - cancellations happen and as business travelers we have to be prepared for that.

You are reading it correctly.
The problem was that the outbound was delayed for 45 minutes x 4 then a cancelation so we truly believed that we were going to make that meeting!
Now back home - what can you advise/are my remedies.TY