Originally Posted by
Whoopsmybad
I think as staffing seems to be solid (most BES at least) it’s helping.
My category certainly doesn't fall into "most" categories I guess. We've gone from solid coverage, even though last summer, to coverage so bad I couldn't drop a single day of reserve. That's even with me being int the top quarter of my category. I'm glad other categories are experiencing this, but it's not something we're seeing. They're also not backfilling every spot on the AEs, so I don't see it getting better any time soon.
Originally Posted by
Whoopsmybad
I think 2 day out assignments are helping not only pilots plan their lives, but I think as all the new schedulers get more experience it’s helping them do better.
Trips are better, or at least they pay more. My last reroute showed up on my time card in 3 work days after the trip ended, and was right.
For the credit surfers and last second snipers, yeah, you have to figure a new way to hustle the system (not judging here at all). But I do think what we may be seeing is some of this QOL contract starting to play out. I reserve the right to adjust this statement, though, after this summer.
I don't disagree with most of what you're saying. Killing GS kills a few pilots QOL, but I'd guess that a larger portion of the group have increased QOL, which is good overall. I'd love to see a day where we have good (doesn't have to be great) coverage and a GS is just something that occasionally happens to cover true irops. Unfortunately, what I think we'll really see is something closer to reserves with mostly black days and working most of the days. It used to be that I could all but guarantee I wouldn't be called on my first block of reserves early in the month, not so much anymore. Credit surfing is what gives me a solid QOL as a line holder. Even as a reserve it was nice to fly more broken up trips, but the number of 0xxx trips assigned are sliding downward.
If they would build more 1 and 2-day rotations, I wouldn't have credit surf, which would be a very nice increase in QOL. In most categories 1 and 2 day trips seem to be gone by the first page. At least enough to build a line anyway. Funny thing is they said they couldn't include the 220/717 to the 1/2 day trip construction language because "it made the rest of the bid packet worse and the 1/2 day trips weren't great either." That seems to be counter to what we're seeing. For March, they did create quite a few more 1 and 2-day trips, and the ultra-senior dudes came out in force for them. Even at my seniority, I couldn’t build a line with them. The rest of the bid packet was pretty much the same as it every was. If their assertion was true, all these trips would be left in open time or awarded to those junior in category.
Either way, whatever is causing all this, it’s killing my QOL, at least until I figure out my next gameplan lol. But I can certainly see that it increases QOL for many others, so overall it's a win. These are all good problems to have.