Northwest’s Pilot Scheduling Issues May Be Over
Aug 3rd, 2007 | By Jared BlankNorthwest’s summer of discontent may be over: The carrier announced that it has reached an agreement with pilots that should keep all (most?) of their scheduled flights in their come the end of the month (this would be a stark difference from the past 2 months, when the end of the month has led to a bunch of canceled flights). Another way to put it: Northwest was selling seats on flights it knew it wouldn’t be flying. Nice. I think this goes to the heart of why people tend to hate airlines: if we cancel, we’re charged $100, if the airline cancels, well, um, nothing happens. You’re outta luck. Go fly someone else (unless you live in Detroit or Minneapolis, where you don’t have much of an option).
In any case. The deal covers a bunch of pilot rules that aren’t important here, but just know that if you’re a pilot and you show up for work every day between now and September 3rd, you’ll get a bonus of 15% of eligible earnings. Yes, you did read that correctly. A bonus for showing up to work for a month.
That’s good to know. I’m flying Northwest in two weeks.
But a bonus for showing up for work? That’s ridiculous.