Originally Posted by
atpcliff
This is very true.
BUT:
We don't use the Legacy operating model.
Legacy guys have to get to their base (hub) on their own. They ALWAYS start and end in the hub. The hubs are in the US. There are lots and lots of domestic flights, on lots of carriers, going to those hub bases. They know when their trips will start, and end, and they can plan their travel to and from their hub bases well in advance.
We start and end trips all over the place. If we had to jumpseat, I would've had to jumpseat to and from Jakarta last year. I don't want to do that. I would've had to jumpseat to and/or from all sorts of international destinations to start and end trips (Taipei, Calgary, London, Riga, Kuwait, Aguas Calientes, Melbourne, Australia, plus a lot of domestic destinations that are hard to get to).
There ARE many airlines with Home Basing, and none of them have a Hub and Spoke model.
There are also aviation organizations with Gateway. Again, non of them operate Hub and Spoke model.
We are the ONLY organization that uses 2 of the 3 systems: We use Bases AND Gateways. This is very stupid. It creates imputed income, and it creates stupid scheduling/pay issues related to where your trip actually starts.
NO ONE has Bases and Home Basing.
NO ONE has Home Basing and Gateway.
We have Bases AND Gateway....a really, really bad idea.
I really, really want Gateway Basing. To get it, it will save the company a LOT of money if we go to International Gateway only...no Pilot Bases. To do that effectively, we need PBS, which I also think is a BIG improvement over Line Bidding, with our structure.
And, why Gateway Basing vs. Home Basing? Gateway Basing is cheaper than Home Basing, and it is almost as good for almost all the pilots. It is cheaper because Home Basing would include a number of very small airports way out in the boonies with very expensive ticket prices, and a lack of service. For example, a fellow Atlas buddy of mine lives in a town with one flight per day in and out. The flights are expensive, and inconvenient.
Omni actually has home basing combined with gateway. It's a really bad idea, as well. Even though you'd go to work on Day 1 (rather than a day early), any sort of domestic commercialing to get you into position didn't count toward duty time, pay credit, or per diem. Only international segments counted as deadhead for purposes of the contractual duty time limit. What happened out of that was if you had to commercial from your home (say, in LAX) to Kuwait, they could send you LAX-DFW-ORD-JFK for 16 hours, then start the 20 hour deadhead clock in JFK as you board your flight to KWI in coach. Boom, 36 hour day caused by taking advantage of weak contractual language.
I bring that up because I strongly believe we need a
professional team of negotiators for our Atlas CBA in 2016. I've seen how the Teamsters do it, and we need better than a negotiating committee comprised of a couple line pilots and an attorney. We'll get eaten alive if we don't.