nnn

The issue boils down to the above. Many here think the pilot should have sucked it up for the sake of the passengers. UAL pilots, to a large extent, as admitted by the pilots on this board, disagree.

SFOTurtle

Assuming the facts as stated, with the co-pilot and at least one passenger offering to buy the pilot whatever bread or dessert that any ordinary human being would be just fine to have, I don't see how the pilot would be "sucking it up" for the *sake* of the passengers if the pilot had taken them up on their offer pronto. All he is doing by not accepting that is trying to prove a point to management at the *expense* of the passengers. It's hard to characterize foregoing a catered dessert as "sucking it up" in any event.

EsquireFlyer

+1

+1

nnn

I do not understand your point.

Baseline as can be surmised from OP:

1) Pilot believes he is justified in delaying plane until catered meal is provided as per contract.

2) Pilot is upset with catering situation, and presumably believes his feelings are justified.

Therefore:

1) By accepting an option other than the catered meal as per contract, he would have, by definition, been "sucking something up."

2) Pilot would have sucked up said alternative culinary arrangement to get the passengers out sooner than he felt necessary under the circumstances. Thus, again by definition, his action would have been for the sake of the passengers.

OPNLguy

Before getting directly into the airline biz eons ago, I worked in peripheral jobs like fueling, and yes (Gasp!) airline catering. More than once, someone back at the kitchen botched a crew meal set-up, and despite it supposedly being "checked" by someone before departing the kitchen, the goof was only discovered later when I was servicing the galley. Our kitchen was pretty close to the gate areas, and a quick call back to the kitchen usually resolved the problem via someone screaming to the gate in a pick-up truck at near V-1 speeds to deliver the missing item(s). I did have one case where the captain was exceptionally laid-back, and offered to grab something in the terminal, and he indeed did do so. That's not to say that the UAL captain here wasn't completely within their rights.

Since this thread has deviated left and right of course and gotten into various difficult topics, please allow me to inject a liitle humor here with the Mother of All Airline Catering stories, that occurred back in 1982 when I'd finally made it onboard an airline as a dispatcher.

Our airline flew a 727-200 MIA-LGA, and it normally spent the night parked at LGA. One night, it was to instead ferry empty LGA-JFK to be in position for a charter from JFK the next morning. During the short LGA-JFK flight, the crew got an unsafe gear indication, and although they landed at JFK without incident, the aircraft was out-of-service until it could be fixed by contracted MX folks on the overnight.

The next morning, the now fixed aircraft was to operate JFK-PHL, and then PHL-SXM (St. Maarten), with half the pax getting on at JFK, and the other half getting on at PHL. The caterers at JFK roll up to the aircraft, but only board soft drinks and ice. When asked by the F/As where the meals were, the caterer said "Our kitchen in PHL will be putting those onboard." Off they went JFK-PHL, and the unsafe gear indication problem returned, which grounded the aircraft at PHL. More contract MX folks working the problem, During the delay, the F/As noticed no catering had been done yet, and it was discovered that the catering outfit at JFK didn't even HAVE a facility at PHL.

Given the MX delay, the entire crew got resourceful. The F/As scrounged up more ice and soft drinks. The captain called a local catering outfit, and ordered 170 ham sandwiches, and also went to the Duty-free shop and bought some booze. After 2-3 hours, everything was ready, and off they launch PHL-SXM.

About an hour later, with the flight down near Wilmington NC, we get a radio call from the captain. The tone of his voice telegraphed what we all suspected was coming--that the unsafe gear indication problem has returned yet again. Rather than have the aircraft broken down in a far away foreign place like SXM, we diverted the flight to MIA, where we assured the captain that we'd have a replacement 727-200 fueled at the next gate and ready to go.

We thought that would make him happy under the circumstances, but his beleaguered tone was still evident as he made one more request---that when we contacted our caterer in MIA, to be sure that we ordered 170 meals that Jewish people could eat....

EsquireFlyer

Kudos to that pilot and crew for at least trying to save the day, though. The pork thing was unfortunate.