Originally Posted by
flydiamond
The new policy will benefit most of the pilots greatly (basically anyone at least half way up the fo or ca list in nyc who is senior enough to get commutable trips or a specific codomicile airport) but *severely* hurt those pilots who commute to reserve and stay in Kew Gardens. For those pilots, the golden touch shuttle worked pretty well if you worked your commute around it. I simply think the company intended well but is totally out of touch with the price of transportation in nyc. Even public transportation is expensive, with only the LIRR stopping in “prime” Kew Gardens. How is this an enhancement if it’s cost neutral? The size of the base has grown, company should have invested more into the Golden Touch shuttle. This wouldn’t be as big a blow if It wasn’t happening in such a moment of stagnancy but there is no relief in sight for our reserve pilots right now...
$50 gets you round-trip from Kew to either JFK or LGA nine times on the MTA. The Q10 is a slam dunk down Lefferts to JFK. The E/F-train to the Q70 to LGA is more of a pain, but it's doable.
I used the MTA for several months when I was on winter reserve in Kew because the shuttle schedule sucked. $50 would have gone a lot further for me on reserve than the shuttle ever did.
I now often use the MTA to get between LGA and JFK for the same reason. I'll take the $50 over the ride that rarely aligns well with my commute.
For those who are saying "I'll never ride a bus", stop. I'm not happy that this isn't a Lyft account or an hourly shuttle, either. That being said, we should like babies when we say sh*t like that.