Originally Posted by Zoomie

So, for age 67 promoters and FTUD(fly till you die) promoters, I offer this recommendation:
We need to de-leverage seniority is done here at the airlines. I don't suggest abandoning seniority, just stopping the carveout for the super senior.

Delta has started de-leveraging seniority by doing a couple things:
1) booking of jumpseats by first come first serve, (I think AA does this to).
2) Green slips based upon senior gets first shot at premium, then a more Jr pilot gets a stab before the senior takes another helping at the trough.

Consider this:
I propose we bid for vacation in a round robin type system. 1 week vacation for the most senior, then down the list. Each round only gets one week of vacation before a jr pilot gets a shot. No more senior guy gets 3 weeks of vacation over the summer before the Jr get nothing.
I propose we bid for golden days off for vacations (the senior will still get everything they want), but those that are less senior will have to pick which vacations they want without getting them all off.
- A Jr pilot still will most likely not get Christmas/Thanksgiving/4th of July, but maybe they get Easter Weekend, or MLK weekend, or President's day weekend, Juneteenth, or Halloween
I also think that Jr guys should be able to bid for 2-3 days off a month based on their seniority before PBS starts building. Make PBS build us schedules around those days. Not everyone gets the same weekend off, but I still think that it's not too much to ask for a Jr lineholder to get one weekend off a month. Or if they choose to bid off their kids birthday, or valentine's day, or anniversary, we deserve that.

This isn't a senior vs junior argument. It's an argument for going back to being real unions. Right now most airlines basically carve out everything for the super senior. This happened during bankruptcy and with the advent of PBS type systems (don't give up your system without PBS SWAPA).

Under old ways of scheduling (Preconstructed lines) senior pilots had to make a choice: more days off, holiday off, more pay, better layovers, etc.

Right now with the way most PBS systems are designed, the senior take their turn at the trough before a Jr guy even gets a bite.
Why should the top 5% in seniority get day turn trips and someone at 10% can't touch one. Is it reasonable to expect everyone will ever be able to get a schedule like this?

Top 10% on the widebody gets all the super effecient trips and a guy at 50% can't even touch that city-pair till they are close to 10%?

Top seniority guy only knows how to fly to 1 or 2 city pairs on the WB. Sounds like a carve out.

Well, since now we will all most likely breath our last up at 40,000 ft, we need to rethink the design of our PBS systems and seniority heavy system.

No one is recommending that we remove seniority, it is necessary. I am merely suggesting there are ways to allow a more consistent QOL throughout your career.

That pilot that was hired at 23 will most likely be here till they are 80, think it's a real union based system that allows them to constantly get everything they want while you get nothing?

Bring on the comments. Flame on...