Originally Posted by
iaflyer
Yep, and I remember 3 day trips that paid as little as 11. LAX to Mexico or LAX-Hawaii. The open time for LAX was filled with those.
People poo-poo scheduling rule improvements but I think they are key. They are hard to explain to Wall Street (they don't grab headlines like a "8% pay increase!") and FAs don't seem to care about scheduling improvements.
When I talk with my SWA buddy, his hourly rate isn't much lower than mine, we're both on the 737 but he grosses about 25% more... because of better pay for scheduling issues like reroutes.
Could the 25% higher SWA pay also be attributed be to higher utilization rate?.....when they are at work they grind out more hours per day? I know that was the case for my brother...it was both of those....not just the work rules(ie reroute pay).
But, you hit the nail on the head re Wall Street and costing out soft contract improvements....% increases on pay punches them in the head with an easily computable "cost". Other thing like better vacay hours, vacay accrual metrics and increased week(s) are tougher to cost out but can just as lucrative for the pilots.