Originally Posted by
Timbo
So...is "swap with friends" gone?
Can a guy park a trip, pick one up, then swap something else with buddy to get his old trip back?
I'm with Buzz on this, but I've been seeing some pretty squirly white slip awards the past few days, how could any line holder have headroom to pick up a 67hr. trip, unless he's 'parked' a trip off his line to get far enough under the cap to do it, unless he just straight up dropped the trip, in which case it should have gone into open time...but I didn't see anything there except two big trips worth 67 hr. and 58 hrs.
Both were picked up on white slips....how?
So, I think there are still some games going on...
I think an increasingly high number of pilots play schedule roulette, where they drop everything at the begininning of the month, and WS back.
I think this is a by-product of pmNWA pilots looking at the new system, and trying to figured out how it's used (I don't mean abused, just that it's 5,000 guys taking a fresh look, without the burden of tradition), and realizing WS gets served before SWP, and naturally infering that they would need to drop and WS to effect schedule changes.
In addition, having worked under a system that rewarding high-time months, with X1.5>80HRS, they cast a suspicious eye on the GS system, as it rewarded fewer pilots, less predictably.
Add in other non-merger factors, such a low pay driving desperate bhavior, an ultra-permissive swap system that lets people get around max pickup, and we're slowly getting to an FAR-limit-only airline.
It's completely backwards from where we should be, but it is what it is.