There were only two on duty schedulers in Atlanta at any given time and none had a working knowledge of our contract or apparently FAR's for that matter. Management has let go of most of our houston based schedulers and replaced them with Atlanta schedulers who are brand new. The brand new schedulers were using a scheduling system that isn't up to speed, they weren't quite sure how to book hotels or deadhead reservations, and they took their frustrations out on crew members and crew trackers by hanging up or insisting that you needed to do whatever they gave you. Almost every change they made those three days was either contractually or FAR illegal.
If I had done what they asked of me I would have been on duty for 17.5 hrs and would have a 30/7 violation which they didnt see because they amended my schedule the day prior incorrectly and completely deleted an entire turn which I had flown. They didn't notify us of our morning flight being cancelled (it was cancelled at 9pm the night before) so we showed to the airport at 5:30am only to wait on hold for three hours for a deadhead record locator. We get to IAH and they put us on a deadhead to EWR. I get to EWR and they had called me 3 times in flight to send me to ???. I wait on hold for an 1:30 and tell them i am illegal and they give me an earful and hang up on me.
After cooling down I am no longer mad at scheduling. I am mad at the management that put two clueless schedulers with a bad attitude in charge of half an operation. I am mad that we are left to deal with a scheduling program that doesnt work and a pay system that is so completely screwed up that it deletes entire turns off your schedule. We have brand new pilots being forced into doing stupid things by equally clueless schedulers who have ZERO understanding of our pilot groups contract.
The memo addressing "operational challenges" is probably the best piece of understated writing I have ever seen. These retarded monkeys just humped a football and are looking for a way to downplay their stupidity. This place is completely screwed with this leadership in place.