Originally Posted by
Trip7
Overall I think the key flexibility is Seniority. There's days worked and also quality of days worked. As a senior 73NB, I can vouch for the QOL benefits of "block hour surfing" aka drop all your trips, WS turns, out and backs to get to GS trigger and GS here and there on the weekends. Beautiful thing about this airline is there is something for everyone.
I couldn't agree more, but that's great for the super senior, and both you and I have been extremely fortunate with our seniority advancement...not everyone will enjoy that. TEDs post below nails it.
Originally Posted by
TED74
GS tend to flourish when flexibility is low. I often hear people say “Green slips are optional”…of course that’s true, but if everyone in the category has access to one or more per month, it’s likely that everyone in the category struggles to drop or swap trips or reserve days they were awarded but don’t want. Personally, I like a staffing model that gives some limited premium pay opportunities, mostly to senior (in their category) pilots, schedule flexibility for everyone, and consistent income potential from year to year. If you want or need more money, get senior somewhere or move to higher paying equipment. Obligating middle-seniority pilots to work their arses off every month so everyone has the “option” to green slip isn’t my version of a sustainable and enjoyable career. Finding yourself in that situation once or twice a career seems acceptable. Being in a perpetual state of forced productivity year after year…that sounds awful. Plenty of us and our families consider 200k to be more than enough annual income and would rather not yield significant quality of life (or cede our summers) just so 717As can have bursts of 350k/year income. I want to applaud you big earners that enjoy being on a short ARCOS leash, but what’s good for the goose ain’t necessarily good for the gander. I like a system that lets folks work as much or as little as they would like (within reason), but our running-hot status quo is a long way from that personal freedom.
Well said. The "greenslips are optional" types and missing the point. What's not optional is "max min credit bidders reached - Admin limit = 0."
Originally Posted by
Trip7
Agreed. Until contractual changes are made, you can either scrutinize which has no impact on your reality, or improvise thru the swap board, drops, and/or ultimately, a strategic AE bid.
Of course, you make do with that you have at the time. But in the mean time, that doesn't mean we can't discuss/debate about things we'd like changed...the two are not mutually exclusive. The issue is the types that don't want any change that they fear would reduce greenslips. That is a terrible way of viewing contractual changes, especially if that change would enable a big QOL enhancement for a majority of the pilot group.