Originally Posted by
JoePatroni
117 doesn't restrict any flight that operates normally, it DID remove the "legal to start, legal to finish BS." The company has a mechanism in place, as does 117, to deal with delays but they are choosing not to utilize it to prove a point. They would rather show who has the upper hand than fly the schedule, that's THEIR problem- NOT ours. They ROUTINELY pay in excess of 100 hours in add pay rather than pay four guys five hours each to extend, excuse me if I don't feel like rushing in and helping a management with that kind of attitude.
It's not, and never has been, about "rushing in and helping management". It's about maximizing negotiating capital to gain improvements for the pilot group by taking advantage of leverage when it exists. If what you say is true (and I'm not questioning whether it is or not since I'm not a widebody guy), then we should be thankful that management ego and stupidity is costing them millions of dollars of add pay because they refuse to offer 5 hours to the crew to extend. What a win for the pilots. With a new management team at the helm it's entirely possible they will audit this practice and realize that they have stupidly been costing themselves a LOT of money, fix the practice, and eliminate the leverage. Then you end up with basically the same situation as you have with the AIP, but with $0 paid by the company in exchange.