Originally Posted by
scambo1
Mafia in this context is an organized group of flt attendants who use the high seniority of some coupled with a computer program to scour the swap boards, pickup trips, and broker them out to junior flt attendants for money...I've only heard all the stories, I have zero evidence.
Trip parking is where you move trips from your line to someone else's line so that you can pickup open time then you move the trips back. Normally it was done using swap with friends and only required two pilots to carry it out.
Management cracked down on the flight attendant mafias when they found out there was money changing hands. Its against company policy to sell trips. The "bot" computers they were using were incredibly efficient at sweeping up open time.
The practice of manipulating pick ups and swaps still goes on though. Among pilots and flight attendants. It violates seniority and it violates the contractual max pick up limits. ALPA put a stop to the most basic forms of trip parking but it still occurs and if we ever get out of base swaps it will become a HUGE issue again.
Out of base pick ups and swaps would be an enormous can of worms. If your "friends" are senior enough you could bid NYC and never fly a trip out of NYC. Just live in ATL and pick up all the ATL trips. Or SEA or SLC or any base you like.