Originally Posted by
Gunfighter
Can someone explain the coverage award logic? My category has no coverage awards for line holders. All the way down to plug +1 with no coverage awards. The last one qualified in the category is on reserve. Meanwhile, reserves were given coverage awards all the way up to 25% in category. Isn't the purpose of coverage awards (formerly unstacking) to spread out the work rather than stack it up over certain days. We have 28 coverage awards for reserve days on the 24th and 25th with no coverage awards for trips on those same days. Was PBS supposed to have awarded trips on the 24th and 25th to junior pilots rather than reserve days for senior pilots?
-Signed New owner of a Christmas bidding mistake.
That is an excellent question. I wish I knew a better answer. I know that there have been a couple of good replies to you. Absent a better one, I have also been burned in the past, and took these pointers to heart:
1.
Never assume that "reserve is junior." Yes, it has been that way traditionally throughout the industry, and at DAL. But depending on the category it in fact may go quite senior. Therefore
never assume "hey I know I can get those days off as a regular lineholder, so it naturally follows that I will also be able to get those same days off on reserve."
2. Always understand that reserve and regular bid groups are two unrelated entities. How one group pans out doesn't really predict how the other one does. Evidently, seniority and all its considerations only apply within the bid group types, not the entire category.
3. Always "hope for the best and plan for the worst." If you are going to start with a reserve bid group (like I did for Dec) always preface any Vacation Slide and Prefer Off preference with "Else Start Next Bid Group." After getting similarly burned by not putting that qualifier in a year ago, I learned my lesson for the Super Bowl (which I believe was Feb 6). I started with a reserve bid group, put in "Prefer Off Feb 6, Else Start Next Bid Group." Guess what? I got a regular line, but with Feb 6 off, while guys senior to me with reserve lines were Coveraged/Unstacked into an on call day on Feb 6.
4. I am not happy with how senior the Coverage awards are going up the reserve schedules--at all. I'd like to see a good answer from the company and union, because I don't think that the extent you have described is appropriate. Until then, however, always heed points 1-3.