Originally Posted by
172skychicken
I'm starting to lean towards being against another increase in trip rigs, duty rigs, or minimum/average calendar day as well, at least without substantial changes to ALPAs control over the way rotations are constructed. Given that a change like that would dramatically increase soft time, I think it's unlikely we see that work in our favor. Given the choice, I would rather keep the current rigs and improve the rules surrounding how they build rotations, versus further increasing the rigs and watching the trips get even worse. And before someone jumps in and says that all the domestic trips have already gone downhill anyway, in many seats, they can still stand to get a lot worse. I don't think I'm alone in saying that I'm not willing to completely trash QOL at work just to get an extra day off or 2.
The optimizer gonna optimize. No matter the parameters the machine will drill down on productivity. Accept that this will never return QOL. On the contrary it locks in productivity. Management is now addicted to the productivity. The only way to get some back is to make a guaranteed day worth more so the optimizer has to add longer legs. The days of one leg to a 19 hour layover are long gone, and are never coming back. Get in, get the pay, and get out. This is the only real way to increase QOL which translates to more time off. QOL during trips is not an achievable goal.