Originally Posted by
Verdell
Ahh. Ok I can see your point there and its merit. I think we can agree then that SS in their current form lack a proper leveling mechanism. I'm curious what others think, let's brainstorm the last few posts.
1) Keep SS as-is
2) Make SS have a counter like GS do, and award only 1 per PCS cycle
3) Make SS count towards GS counter, and GS count towards SS counter. Share a counter. (1 per PCS cycle?)
4) Get rid of SS altogether
I personally don't like #1 or #4. I think #2 and #3 are much better. And I think that 1 SS per PCS cycle is important.
My vote would be for #4. And I say this having enjoyed some nice Silvers in the past. After playing the reserve game and seeing how PB days affect premium across the entire operation I really see that as the one major difference between our contract and all the other majors' as far as work rules are concerned. IMO it (along with 18-hour call out) is the secret sauce that makes Delta pilots so much money, so anything the company gets which keeps reserves even minimally healthy is detrimental to the whole pilot group. In other words, reserve GS offer a return to the pilot group as a whole (they drive broken trips, RR, 23L4, 23L8, more GS, good WS, good OOBWS, etc), while SS offer a return to a single pilot, and ultimately work to benefit the company by letting a full bid-pack trip go out to one pilot.
My second vote would be for #3. Just make it a long-range GS, and count it as such.