Originally Posted by
cessna157
Uhm, you do realize that's not a result of PBS, but is a result of a terrible contract, right?
Allow me to tell you guys this, although you'll probably just dismiss it as nothing:
ASA isn't my first airline. I came from another that had a PBS, had it for a very long time. While I was on reserve, I could build my very own schedule, got whatever I asked for off every month.
"How?" you might ask. Well, it was a combination of 2 things:
1) I bid smartly. I bid for what my seniority would get me. I knew it was unrealistic to bid for 1 day trips Mon-Thurs. Guys at ASA try to bid this, and get mad when they don't get it.
2) We had a good contract. I would bid for whatever reserve hard days and soft days I wanted, this is not possible at ASA due to a terrible contract with basically no reserve rules. I could pick up flying on my days off, which would automatically pay me 1.5x, and on top of guarantee. And reserve there was basically what would be known elsewhere as "relief lines", ie I would get reserve for the month, but many times, half of the month would be pre-assigned with the leftover open time.
Sorry for getting off topic. There's a specific thread for just this topic, and this isn't it. We can move the discussion over there. Just don't blame PBS for a late schedule and crappy work rules. I don't like it any more than you do, but let's assign responsibility to where it should be.
Ok, I'll respond to this and then leave the rest for the other thread. All ASA guys have the same argument simply because again, they don't understand our system. I'm sure PBS is great and working well for you guys compared to what you had. I have been a line holder for 5 years, and I have always done 1 and 2 day trips. Even when I was the very last line holder in base and all I could hold was 4 days over weekends. During line improvement, I would simply trade my four 4 days for a selection of 1 and 2 day trips that were dropped throughout the month due to senior pilot conflicts from vacation, training, ect. As a result, I would usually gain 6-8 more days off and I would get all my weekends off. I appreciated this as one of the last line line holders in base. The senior guys didn't need to trade for these trips as they were holding what they wanted. What don't you guys understand? You can have the schedule you want, even if you're the bottom of the barrel! Why accept a system that simply awards you what you can hold and thats it? Why force yourself to only bid what you know you can hold? In our system, it doesn't matter what line you get! You don't have to fly a single trip on it. You just need to have a punched ticket into initial line improvement. If you're an initial line holder, you can manipulate your schedule however you wish. If I was a junior line holder, I would rather get 10% of what I want and then trade into 95% of what I want, vs getting maybe 35-40% of what I want and then thats it. I'm stuck flying what I'm awarded. Your system is fine for phase II bidding (guys who would have been reserve but are awarded lines) but we will never accept this for phase I. What we have is simply too good, and once its gone we would NEVER get it back.