Originally Posted by
TED74
And 10% was pulled out of someone’s arse, because as we’ve seen and heard Silver Slips are being had at other seniorities too - sometimes relatively junior.
Maybe mine, because I referenced 10% in some other data I posted several pages ago. I'll respost below if you're interested in what the distribution looked like:
Just ran some numbers in my category:- Top 5% were awarded 33% of the trips. Of those pilots, 57% have more than one silver slip.
- Top 10% were awarded 45% of the trips. Of those pilots, 55% have more than one silver slip.
- Top 15% were awarded 67% of the trips. Of those pilots, 38% have more than one silver slip.
To drive the point home, the top 5% were awarded more silver slips as the the bottom 85% combined.
Originally Posted by
TED74
because as we’ve seen and heard Silver Slips are being had at other seniorities too - sometimes relatively junior.
That is true, the issue of premium flying being so concentrated into the top several percent isn't a problem in every scenario. E.g.: If there is zero premium flying, leveling doesn't matter. If premium fying is so plentiful that everyone gets their fill, leveling doesn't matter. It's in between the extremes where it matters.
Originally Posted by
TED74
If you’re generally curious why people are okay with breaking the mold (as I am), it’s because other molds were also broken. We imagined a world in which premium pay could be had with enough notice to live a more normal life complete with the ability to plan family activities, commutes and kid care.
I take no issue with that aspect. That, in total isolation, is a clear win. But that's a separate issue from
who gets the silver slip.
Originally Posted by
TED74
If this premium pay is so concentrated in so few pilots, then dispersing it with a leveling mechanism is only going to add a singular green slip to a handful of other pilots - big deal.
"Big deal" works both ways. A single senior pilot losing his third silverslip in a month and only getting two is the same amount of "big deal" as the less-senior pilot getting one silvers slip instead of zero.
Originally Posted by
TED74
And if there are enough silver slips to disperse to make a significant difference to a large quantity of other pilots…well that could only mean they couldn’t have been too concentrated to begin with.
Why does "other pilots" have to be a "large quantity" for it to matter? It's a zero sum game. Reference my response directly above.
Originally Posted by
TED74
For every ultra-senior Captain who drops a full schedule of desirable trips into open time or the swap board…are we capturing the schedule-improvement benefit of his subordinate pilots? For every ultra-senior FO who stays put and allows others to upgrade sooner - are we capturing that too?
That's all worth considering, for sure. But so is the effect on greenslips. Assuming silverslips eliminate greenslips (a fair assumption, I'm sure), greenslips will also skew more senior.