Originally Posted by
MikeF16
It's a good question and no offense taken.
Commuters lose no seniority in commuting. They have made a voluntary choice to use their seniority to enable their commuting lifestyle. VB will remove trips from the bid package which somebody who hasn't bid a VB (both commuters and those who live in domicile) would have had access to.
Example: Senior commuter lives in Dallas and uses their seniority to bid double commutable NYC trips. VB established in Tampa. All those late sign-in early sign-out trips that used to do NYC-TPA are now gone to a new hire who just happens to live in Florida and bid the TPA VB. How is that fair? That has most definitely abrogated the seniority system.
The same could be said for any new category created under the current PWA. For example, the last AE stated that MSP 717 is a strong possibility as a new category. Since the 717 fleet is not growing, that new category will undoubtedly remove trips from other 717 bases that currently flow through MSP.
In general, I think having more bases and categories creates greater opportunities for us to do the type of flying we prefer in the cities we prefer. Opening bases in new cities creates a lot of overhead that Delta simply won't justify in cities like MCO or DFW. VB bidding is still done in seniority order like a normal AE. If anything the month-to-month VB bidding process honors seniority even more than a traditional AE. Every pilot has a shot at the base in seniority order each bid period, without regard to the timing aspect of AE offerings.
I think we need to see how it works before we start shooting it down.