Originally Posted by
Benwarren
I have to ask what you have achieved through your "culture". Bankrupt and 1400 pilots furloughed for the last decade.
Please tell us more about the pilot culture that made those management decisions. Please be specific.
Originally Posted by
Benwarren
Don't understand the mentality of soft time. Flying 65 hrs getting credit for 75 with only 12-14 days off is exactly as it sounds, stupid. Why not go to work to work. Work a little harder on your days on and we can all get more off. Ask a Southwest guy or gal what they think about 12 days off. You seem to think productivity is a bad thing. Sorry I have to disagree. I don't mind flying 8 hrs a day for 80 hrs and 20 days off.
You lost me here. Productivity is one of the many items both "cultures" can agree on.
The soft-time is a
reaction to UAL's scheduling practices that would otherwise build trips with
low trip credit in the off months and when desired by crew scheduling. Productivity is great but the
pilots don't build the schedules so even if productivity is desired it is not always offered.
Historically UAL scheduling has preferred
not to build trips with 8 hours of flying per day on the narrow-body so crews remain legal when the inevitable weather events occur at hubs. An operation with several major domiciles is, by nature, a different beast than an operation with two. They have also considered pilots a "fixed cost" so why give guys 18 days off when they can schedule 12 off and have them available for re-assignment without repercussion?
Now imagine that scenario in your example above but only get paid for 65 hours with 12-14 days off. And yes, that
is stupid and the rigs are a
reaction to that stupidity. We wouldn't need work rules, or perhaps even a union, if we were in a utopian universe with a benevolent and intelligent employer.