Originally Posted by
kronan
You may have a ton of events upcoming and don't want to work another day, somewhen in the future.
The most lucrative CH week I've ever had at FedEx was a result of SUB\Extensions. DH to work on Monday, Monday's flight was swept to Indy and revised with a rest\HSBY, then revised with a rest\HSBY...rinse repeat until Operated out Friday AM with a backend DH. Same footprint as my 30 hour hub turn week, big CHs thanks to the 150% and 200% overage, Extra Duty periods, and disruptions.
After we made it to the hotel that first night, and I grabbed a midnight beer to preclude a CRS change of the mind, I opted for OTP for that 1st 6 hour trip that went away, and then the 2nd, but 3rd & 4th I declined outright. Back then OTP was bid period +1, so might make a different choice today.
But again, that would depend on the timing.
Ultimately, you will always get more $$ choosing OTP. But the cost is another day of work, somewhen. If you have a staycation month during that somewhen, cherry picking an extra day of work isn't a big deal.
All depends upon what you want to do.
Substitution is one of the very few times where the power to work\not work is totally under a pilots control. And if you have day flying, you can even say NO to CRS's BS Sub assignment with certain conditions and not impact on your pay.
Spend some time chair-flying Substitution. Once you understand it, evaluating your options and making a decision is easy. And, you can make more $$ by understanding it and exercising your choice.
Or, you can do nothing and simply be paid BLG.
Or, you can wind up working extra when you didn't really have to.
(Had one bud with a trip removed for legality, he was leaning towards OTP when I pointed out that there would be no WAY for the company to Legally give him a SUB assignment so why go for an extra 90 minutes of pay in exchange for an extra day of work in the future when he could simply have a paid day off. His rationale was that he didn't want to stay in Memphis for his IAP on the SUB window, and I pointed out that there's no Requirement to stay in Memphis or at the airport during the IAP...and that you can always say NO to a SUB assignment. But a SUB assignment has to be a Legal assignment and since he was removed for Legality....not an option to use him that night)
How many different iterations of possible scenarios should we chair fly? The substitution chart doesn’t make sense to me and gives me a headache just looking at it (probably because no one I’ve asked so far has been able to make sense of it to me, but then again, I’m just a pilot).
There is something to be said for simplicity. The problem with these type of contractual clauses that supposedly is good with pilots is that ultimately, if the pilot doesn’t understand it, it’s useless. When a contract is overly complicated, it makes it less likely for pilots to be able to enforce it. If it’s difficult to interpret, the pilots won’t know when they are being abused.
The contract needs to be simplified.