Originally Posted by
FangsF15
Backups are, by definition, only a 'thing' for commuting by air. And I actually did put this on my survey (not the way you characterized it, but more like the way LumberJack did). No backup flights required ever, unless you miss 4 commutes in a year. No reasonable or responsible commute will be affected. (someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told that is essentially 9E's commuting policy). The 'discipline' is that you require backup flights. No more complicated than that.
Though I'd still like to see AA's policy more-or-less replicated here, where mode of commute is irrelevant - which protects drivers for 'wrecks on the interstate'. On that, I fully agree.
I agree with all of what you guys have been saying here about commuting. As pretty much a life long commuter here, I've always been miffed at our commuter language. However, this air line doesn't like commuters, never has, never will. If there was a way for them to force us into living in base they would do it. Fortunately, the only thing they can do to that end is make our commuting as painful a process as possible. Although I would cheer to have more favorable commuter language in this next contract, as I posted earlier, I think the ask for that would be too much for DALPA to agree on.
Would I like to see equal language to AA? You betcha! Their language covers most all of what we complain about. Again though, I think if we were to get some less restrictive commuter language it would cost us a pretty penny. That's why I would like to at least see more favorable pricing options for our FCFL programs. It's something we can all benefit from and I think the company might be more amenable to that over agreeing to something similar to AA commuter language.
Guess we'll see what tack DALPA is going to take on this come April. We can still ask, write the reps and push for it though. I'm not saying for us to sit back and do nothing in this regard.