Originally Posted by
gettinbumped
The difference is that regional flying doesn't really need the ability to roll days off. Worst case is you fly a couple hours away from a crew base. Much eastier to staff than a 6 day 747 trip that gets no closer to home than NRT. It would require a MASSIVE number of reserves to cover it effectively. Not saying that wouldn't be GREAT for us, but the company would cost it enormously. And given the RLA, there wouldn't be a whole lot we could do to change it without spending a TON of negotiating capital. I agree that the FDO for basic flying is crap. There are enough crew bases around to handle it.
Reserve QOL can be rough. It can also be amazing. I ran into a 747 Captain the other day who I know and he was headed back to DENTK for landings. Think about that. If this TA passes he's making north of $300/hr to fly less than 1 trip a month. Obviously a 756 FO is going to have a different experience. But believe it or not, reserve is a LOT better than it used to be; for LCAL prior to the merger, and for LUAL prior to about 2005 or so when there was no such thing as long call.
I'm beginning to think that many of the guys, specially 747/777 Captain with less than 10 years to go should go ahead and vote yes.
- Work rules affecting those fleets not likely change and plenty of opportunities to wave to add pay time or QOL.
- Even on reserve, many of those opportunities including more days off. Bigger advantage is where and number of destinations the aircraft fly and fewer last minute calls unless the pilot wants to make a deal.
- down side is we turn our contract to a piecemeal/let's make a deal contract and all pilots will loss including the 787 which the company will treat like a narrow body even though at a higher pay rate of the 747/777.
Like I suggested, 10 years or less and Captain on 747/777 vote yes and let the narrow body guys fight for QOL and work rules. If they vote the TA in, it's the beginning of a long hard fight. Can you imagine having a Jay Pierce type leading the MEC. Many have seen the contracts that Pierce and his predecessors worked with the company to get. No offense intended but they were on par with many of the RJ Airlines with a little more pay. Good Luck!