Originally Posted by
CozyDriver
Thanks for the insight. Are you a CA, or FO? Commuter? Any particular reason this is happening? For example, are they positioning you for flights that keep getting cancelled? Do they have knowledge that your flights are being cancelled well before you head to the airport, and telling you too late? Is it happening to lots of pilots? And what do you do sitting for hours and not flying - cribbage, APC, and updating jepp charts? Speaking of which, when are iPad EFB's coming?
It happens because CommutAir has a terrible contract that allows it to happen and they don’t know how to run an airline. I’m not exaggerating. They aren’t positioning you for anything. They simply don’t want to send you home and still pay you. However, that’s exactly what happens at most airlines. Instead, CommutAir Forces pilots to sit at the airport when their flights cancel for upwards of eight hours. They will do this no matter how many reserves they actually have. I’ve seen over 20 pilots sitting around doing nothing with the company refusing to let them go home. This has resulted in pilots being forced to stay overnight and missing flights home.
I’ve personally sat “conditional reserve” for over seven hours on more than one occasion in a five month period.
It happens all the time. They often know before you commute to work, but will not tell you until you actually show up. Other airlines will tell you before you commute, and you will be off with pay at home. That’s how it should work.
MGMT will try and spin this somehow, And will tell people that don’t like it that they should quit. That should be a red flag to you.