Dude, you are not getting my point. YES, a uniform credit is nice, I'm not arguing that. But like Seggy said, this is happening at the same time as all the pay credit problems. It's like 10 steps backward, and one half a step forward, and I'm supposed to be happy about the half a step forward. How does this make sense to you?
It sounds like you haven't experienced the joy of being screwed recently, so let me describe an example. Did you know that crewmembers now need to be sitting for at least 4:45 in order to get hot reserve pay? Many people still don't know this, because the company hasn't disseminated any kind of memo on it. And the thing is, about half of our lines have sits of like 4:30 or so. (I'm at the largest base in the NE.) Some of those lines have like a 4:20 sit every single day. Guess WHAT.. you're not getting paid jack.
ALSO, the cancellation pay incidents. I had a bunch of cancellations, most of it for wx. Long story short, I had credit for all those cancellations disappear mysteriously (meaning it happened several weeks after the fact, without anyone mentioning that this was going to happen), then had to fight two weeks and eventually write to the Tom Brink to get them back (and I'm still missing some, despite promises that it will be fixed.) Apparently I wasn't the only one with this problem because during the conference call Brink said about 15 pilots wrote/called him about this issue. And that's just the people who actually bothered to write/call. I'd venture to say the actual number of people who got screwed is probably tenfold, since we have complainers who never say anything to mgmt.
I mean why does it have to be SO DAMN aggravating trying to get the proper credits back. WHY do we have to fight and fight for money we were supposed to get? How do they change the rules and then not tell anyone? I'm just so tired of arguing about pay credit. I just want to do my job and get paid properly for it.
So to answer your question, sure I would rather have a uniform allowance than not. That's not even an argument. But you are telling me this $200 allowance helps me, meanwhile I'm having to write to the chief pilot about getting ripped off on pay, and then losing out thousands in future earnings because of this hot reserve/cancellation pay issue. Considering this, the uniform allowance and parking pass reimbursement all don't mean jacksquat. They're making very minor "improvements" to placate pilots, while worsening/ignoring the big stuff.

The question is how can you NOT see this as belittling and patronizing. Progress? Why didn't they make these "improvements" last year after ALPA drive failed? Why did it take a full 7 months.. because coming up with a simple commuter clause takes so long, when it isn't even a contract?


AND, like Juice said, Mgmt can and will take these "improvements" away at any time. Just like they changed the hot reserve policy at their whim.