Increasingly, by the time the tickets are actually purchased, the ACTUAL purchase price EXCEEDS the "accepted fare" (in some cases by a large amount $$$)
However, the company has decided that they only have to credit your "deviation bank" with the higher amount if you utilize the ticket AS SCHEDULED - ie. if you do
not deviate and just travel on the scheduled DH ticket - in escence it's a wash if you don't deviate no matter how much the company has to pay for the ticket.
This new wrinkle, when practically applied, allows the company to publish ANY $$ amount they wish for the "accepted fare" (with no oversight or input from the union)
An extreme example would be published "accepted fare = $1.00" - actual
ticket for the non-deviators costs $300.00, and the deviator would only get $1.00 in his deviation bank.
And since that is what the company has published as the "accepted fare", there is nothing any of us (union) can do (or is doing) to stop it.
To a lessor degree, that is what has been happening lately..........company is forced to pay higher amounts for tickets, but if you elect to deviate, you get whatever they feel like giving you as the "accepted fare" (even though that amount is becoming less and less realistic in comparrison to what they actually have to pay for the scheduled tickets) - not sure who sets the "accepted fare" or if there is any oversight process from the union - but I don't believe there is???
That's what all the hub-bub is about.
And the union has said that they have only found a negligible number of cases where the company has "traditionally practiced" giving guys the higher amount after the fact - even though most people think/say the company has "always given us the higher amount if we email them the actual ticket receipt"...... 