Originally Posted by
Larry in TN
The airline needs a way to recrew flights on short notice when they get a late sick call, a pilot times out, or a crew misconnects. How do we want them to do that?
One way is with field standby.
Without FSB, there will be a lot more line holder reassignments, one of the things that APA has been complaining about at AAL.
What other options are there that I haven't thought of? How do we want these re-crews to be handled?
I think a big deterrent to bidding a seat where you'll be on reserve is the 12/13 days off per month. That's not enough. I'm not willing to do that. Would it work to have 15/16 days off with reserve pilots able to pickup additional reserve days, for additional pay, down to 12 days, or even 10 days, off? I don't know. I'd look at reserve differently with a system like that.
If they eliminate FSB and rolled days off it will increase staffing requirements, thus opening up more slots at the top end of the pay scale, across all bases. Increased reserve staffing will decrease reserve utilization, greatly improving quality of life. Every other legacy airlines survives without FSB and rolled days off on reserve. United ALPA should be seeking to increase the number of the highest paying union jobs, not getting rid of them.