I definitely see where transition may need changing. It's much more than a monetary issue for company. They spend countless resources trying to cover the flying during monthly transitions (agree it presents a scheduling nightmare for them). Regardless, flights still need to go out. I'm all for providing some relief for the scheduling headaches, but it will not come for free, or at a loss at my expense. Everything is give and take. If I allow you to tweak my sked to make your staffing work, I should NOT be penalized by your reducing my guarantee by up to 10 hrs, and then having to try and claw my way back. Now I'm trying to shoehorn some crappy leftovers into a few days off that were created. Besides the obvious financial implications, this means I could very likely end up with fewer days off than before we started the game!

There are several angles from which to approach a solution. One of which (strictly speaking the $$ angle here) is to look back at objective historical data (say last 24 months) to ascertain the average hours per pilot of soft time transition conflict. Then either boost the hourly rates commensurate or add on a guaranteed "transition rider" for every pilot, every month. Let's assume the average pilot received a 10 hr transition conflict per month over the last 24 months. After we do the transition dosie doe, every pilot gets an additional 10 hrs/mo credit regardless of whether or not they have a transition conflict. Now that financial implications are mitigated, we can handle the business of adjusting my sked to meet company staffing demands.

I demand to at least be made whole (paid every hour that I fly or give up to allow you to adjust my sked), so this is similar to the "greater of block or actual" logic. But it takes away majority of incentive for a relative few pilots to try to work system, creating even more staffing headaches. And none of us are "losing" money. We're still paid greater of old-scheduled or new-scheduled (but not double), but we also receive compensation (example 10 hrs/mo) for allowing them flexibility to adjust our skeds over a few days to make everything work. And it's an easy number for their bean counters to budget. Give and take. We give them scheduling flexibility, and we take a guaranteed premium. And we lose the headaches of trying to play the monthly game--and screwing over many of our reserve brethren in the process!


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