Originally Posted by
Ed Force One
Seriously? Someone had to program the system. 23:59 hour overnights are *not* a coincidence, nor are they rare.
They take maximum advantage of whatever we negotiate for. Fact. This is why we need stronger language in whatever we vote on next and not just rely on some magic duty rig fairy dust.
Duty rigs are a small part of it. You out the constraints on optimizers with rigs and other work rules. Setting parameters (from a contractual work rules agreement) with trip, duty, daily (avg or min day) rigs, plus things like commutability, redeye restrictions, overnight length, is what the pilots do. At jetblue, B6ALPA proudly advertised that they had negotiated industry leading pairing construction rules. Many people voted in the CBA accordingly. Right after the CBA, the company took the pairing builds away from a scheduling project pilot and gave them to crew planning, who then put them in the sodomizer and built them to contractual mins. B6ALPA response: we never thought they’d actually do that. It was somewhat self correcting as they were impossible with no slack, not enough rest with any sort of delays, etc., but the point is you have to negotiate the parameters and expect the company to optimize/sodomize the pairing builds to the worst possible within whatever your work rules/rigs allow to make labor costs the most efficient/cheapest they can.