10-27-2009, 04:16 AM
Allegedly, Delta (which now owns Northwest) ordered all pilots to abandon their old scheduling software and replace it with Delta's undecipherable web-app to register their availability for assignments and receive work-schedules.
Northwest had a similar app before the acquisition, but it was supposedly very easy and intuitive where Delta's was... less so.
The software doesn't just help a pilot choose a schedule, it assigns schedules based on obscure rules and does not necessarily respect seniority, sleep-schedules or where the pilot's home-city is.
With that in mind, put yourself in the position of the pilot and copilot trying to figure out how to not get screwed out of the best routes and flight-schedule by the unfamiliar software and it's probably a little easier to sympathize with their intensity of focus on the problem.
OTOH, I'd still like to see them fired for ignoring messages from ground control and for BOTH using their laptops at the same time.
Northwest had a similar app before the acquisition, but it was supposedly very easy and intuitive where Delta's was... less so.
The software doesn't just help a pilot choose a schedule, it assigns schedules based on obscure rules and does not necessarily respect seniority, sleep-schedules or where the pilot's home-city is.
With that in mind, put yourself in the position of the pilot and copilot trying to figure out how to not get screwed out of the best routes and flight-schedule by the unfamiliar software and it's probably a little easier to sympathize with their intensity of focus on the problem.
OTOH, I'd still like to see them fired for ignoring messages from ground control and for BOTH using their laptops at the same time.