Originally Posted by
maxjet
You point is well taken. Any responsibility = no day off. Using your criteria you then have very few days off a month. Your company and Union may be telling you that you have a minimum of 10 days a month off. Do you really? Don't you have a responsibility to your company to be at work on time? Would that not mean that the day early that you commute on is NOT a day off?
I was never debating whether it is a day off or not. What I am asking is how many days off do you deserve a month and why?
I will take a stab at it. 8 days off as a national average. Plus one day for each day that you have to commute back and forth to work. If you have to commute in on the day before add a day. If you have to wait to commute home on the day after a trip then add a day. Plus one day for each time you fly over 30 hours on a trip. 30 hours of commuter flight time is enough with out a day off in my opinion.
Lets say you work 4 trips this month with one going over 30 hours and only 2 trips are commutable on the first and last days 8+1+4= 13
As for me? Yes, I love this job, but it is not for everyone. If my children were not adults I would not work here. We work up to 17 day schedules with then 13-14 days off at home. Home based (everyone is based in YIP) with company provided travel. Of the 17 days on the road most months I average 8 or 9 days of flying. As far as overnights. We don't go to the same places enough for me to get tired of any place but New Delhi, India and I haven't been there in 2 months thank God!
BTW. My reserve was canceled as there are no flights to protect. I am now on a 1-7 which mean I can drink if I choose or I could non-rev somewhere. I have no responsibility to even contact the company until 34 hours from now. That is a day off without responsibility but neither I nor the company consider that a "day off" as I am not at home. :-)
If I used your definition of a day off then I would be off some months as much as 18-20 days as they will put us on multiple 1-7s if there are no airplanes to protect where we are. (bad for breaking guarantee but great for sightseeing) If I had kids at home I would find 18-20 days of reserve when not being used, to be much more valuable if I lived in base.
Me deciding to not live in base really shouldn't be considered "responsibility to the company." It's not the companies fault that I don't want to live in one of their crew bases, it's mine.
Commuting pilots shouldn't get more days off just because they commute.
My example would give a pilot either 14, or 15 days off depending on how many days are in the month. I think that is fair.
I also haven't had to commute in the day before yet this year. I think I had 2 last year. One of which I traded in to myself to get a different day off.