When you love your job, others take notice. Captain Jason Lopez epitomizes the sort of professionalism and care that characterizes a great airline captain. He also provides an example for his co-workers.
United Airlines spotlights Captain Lopez in a new corporate video. From keeping passengers updated and calm to introducing young flyers to the cockpit for the first time, Lopez appears to encapsulate all the qualities you’d want in a captain.
You can watch the video here:
Doesn’t it make you smile? Wouldn’t a captain like this make you more loyal to United? At least for me, the answer is YES.
I know I rip on @united a lot, but I’m going to take an opportunity to give some props this time.
Big thanks to pilot Jason Lopez, who kicked off our daughter’s surprise trip to Disneyland with a hands-on description of our route, and then a tour of the cockpit.
So, so rad. pic.twitter.com/rclKOuBOCA
— James Huang (@angryasian) May 4, 2019
So kudos to Captain Lopez for being recognized for what he has done for years (and so nice that he thanked his mentor, another great United captain).
One reason I am writing about this is because I was not happy about the many of the comments in a recent story I wrote about United Captain Jeb Baum. He also stepped out of the flight deck and spoke to the passengers, clearly explaining the reason for our delay and in doing so, helping to calm down many passengers concerned about missing connections.
It was the sort of caring touch that every captain should provide, but deserved praise because it frankly is not the norm. I’ve written similar stories about gate agents, lounge agents, and flight attendants who go the extra mile.
But this story set off a lot of controversy, not so much for what the captain did, but because I named him. There were charges that I violated his privacy and that he would never have wanted this publicity. Other pilots claimed stories like this are why they would never consider stepping out of the flight deck.
My counterpoint is that captains like Jeb Baum or Jason Lopez are not doing this for recognition, but recognizing them is proper.
> Read More: A Model Captain On United Airlines
Why It Matters
From a customer’s perspective, a caring captain or first officer can make up for even the most annoying of delays. From an airlines’ perspective, a caring captain or first officers makes passengers more loyal. And from a pilot’s own perspective, doesn’t a resolution to love your job and do it to the best of your ability actually make you like it more? Doesn’t the day go quicker that way?
I may be a hopeless optimist, but I wish what Captain Baum or Lopez did would not be noteworthy, but rather commonplace.
CONCLUSION
Great leaders in any industry are not in it for the recognition. But recognition is an important way to recognize those who do not just do their job well, but go above and beyond.
TIL: Captan is a general use pesticide that belongs to the phthalimide class of fungicides.
Does no-one proof read these above articles before they are posted
A lot of stress and scrambling this morning due to the site being down for four hours. Sorry for more errors (than usual).
I agree. There’s so much negativity in the media. It’s nice to see the good stuff called out. I fly LAX-HNL pretty regularly, and on one trip the captain come out to thank me personally for being a 1K and provided me a business card complete with email. Did the same to the other 1Ks. It was a small gesture, but a unique and meaningful one. I emailed a thank you to him and to United.
Flying is becoming a lost art I really find it hard to believe that everyone isn’t amazed that we get an aircraft in the sky Maned by humans . I believe it deserves a lot of respect ! I miss the days meeting the captain when you boarded Miss the days when they came out from the cockpit at the end of the flight Pilots are a special breed and deserve a lot more respect than they get
Reminds me of a retired UA 757 pilot Danny Flanagan. I’m flying as we speak with Captain Lopez from ORD- MSY – and it’s somewhat weird as a 1K and frequent flyer to hear him talk about tsa lines etc – but I guess it puts less frequent travelers at ease. Nice touch.