sfozrhfco

up to 109 today and NW is blaming the pilots and expects more cancelations to come through the end of the month...so plan ahead with your alternative routings/airlines.

socrates

welp I'm on reroute #3, heading to CLE on the 6am....NWA's computer had me routed via STL but CLE will get me home a few hours earlier

bigguyinpasadena

Good to hear that they have recalled their furloughed pilots-but with what kind of contract?The timing on this stinks-it calls into question the pilots loyalty and also really puts them on the spot.The pilots that have been flying are timed out for the month-and they are pi***ed at having been put under undue strain.
If NWA management had acted in good faith and recalled the furloughed pilots 2-3- weeks ago it might not be a repeat of last months fiasco.But doing so now reeks of a PR game with management being able to say-"well we tried"-and thus blackening the pilots story.
If NWA will sit down and work out a good contract for all parties involved then I fully expect all parties to agree-but it must not be insulting to the workers.
I do hope they get their act together-but I just cannot see how with the current suits in the front office.Too many broken promises,and too much disrespect has been passed down.Something has got to change-and a shakeup at NWA HQ just might be the thing.

socrates

2-3 weeks ago? You do realize the FAA does require recalls to go back through training in the sims right? Plus there's the required time in the contract that gives the pilots x days to decide if they wish to come back or not (or if they wish to defer)....they should have started calling back folks 2-3 months ago

SchmutzigMSP

Wait a second: "undue strain"? NW hasn't been forcing the pilots to fly illegally, and they haven't been forcing them to fly more than they agreed to in their contracts. Sure, if NW had the extra cash and crew, they might have the luxury to only have to fly pilots 70 hours per month. But they don't have those luxuries, so they have to fly them as much as they can. That's why they set maximum limits. This is not "undue strain", so please stop spinning words.
I think socrates pretty much covered this, but 2-3 weeks wouldn't do jack squat for the problem. Usually the recall allows upto 2-3 weeks just to get the pilots back to class, and then it's at least another 3-4 weeks at an accelerated pace to get them back to speed. Most new hires take 6-8 weeks of training and testing.
So are you saying that this is all a work action brought on by pilots unhappy with the contract? Because they'd adamantly disagree with you right now. Their claims are that NW doesn't have enough pilots and that there are weather/ATC delays, nothing wrong with their contract.
Would you mind outlining the broken promises and the disrespect that "the suits" have shown to the pilots? And then after you're done with that, can you attempt to rationalize the disruption that the pilots have caused NW and its passengers over the past few months?

sfozrhfco

Honestly, do you think the average passenger cares if management or the employees are "right?" People buy a plane ticket to go somewhere not to get themselves in the middle of an argument. Even with the reduction in schedule they have already canceled 120 flights so far today. If you don't want to worry about whether or not your flight will operate, don't bother to book on NW until things are worked out-especially if you are travelling the last week of the month.

KenfromDE

Hey Schmutzig......You are right on the money, as usual.

bigguyinpasadena

So why didn't they?

It has taken the spoltlight of enormously bad press to get management to move on this.

Stripe

The schedule reductions don't actually come until August. Presumably it was too late to fix July when the fiasco first surfaced at the end of June.

I wonder how many folks already had August flights booked back in June that got dropped from the schedule.

bcphitau

I sure did.

Got the big cancel on a LAS-MEM at end August.

No call, no email.

After reading all this I thought to check my itins, and, sure enough: had the broken itin alert at the top but no rebooking.

Could not auto-rebook on nwa.com.

Had to call and was placed on a LAS-MSP that looked very, very, very full on the seatmap.

socrates

There has also been some bad press for Alpa...I mean who works 90 hours per month...I travel just as much as they do and spend probably more time away from my home than they do and I probably come close to working that in 1 week....hopefully you also realize that ALPA is trying to get more customers of their own...more members = more customers = more in bound dues; you do realize ALPA would love to reopen their contract right now but since they refused to reopen the contract early with NWA when NWA asked I dont believe NWA isnt willing to do it either...perhaps had ALPA sat down when management asked them to do so YEARS ago the airline wouldn't be in this situation today...again we can point fingers in both directions, there certainly is enough blame to go around...my question for you is how many NW flights have you taken this year? I've reached gold via both miles and segments (coming close to plat on segments these days)...Given you're history of posts I believe it's fair for everyone to know if you actually are flying red tail or not

mike_plat

I think it's quite simple. They want Steenland to fall on his sword.

bigguyinpasadena

Socrates wrote"...my question for you is how many NW flights have you taken this year? I've reached gold via both miles and segments (coming close to plat on segments these days)...Given you're history of posts I believe it's fair for everyone to know if you actually are flying red tail or not"
Please observe the TOS's.Address the issues rather than attack other posters.Thanks.

UnitedSkies

Through 10:24am Central Time on Saturday 7/28, NW has already cancelled 100 flights!

3Cforme

We really need a court to declare that foreseeable absence of crew is not a force majeure event. If the published schedule demands pilots to work (voluntary) overtime when management knows they won't, customers are being led to the cliff. Without force majeure flyers can demand to be booked on another carrier. That financial penalty would cause a change of behaviors very quickly on the part of management and the pilots.