Originally Posted by MinRest

Ehh BS...

Every major airline and regional airline has junior bases. Junior bases ONLY exist in this fashion because people commute in, and when they can hold another base, they transfer, thus creating and perpetuating a junior base. We are not unique to junior bases. Where we are unique is that we run fewer reserves than EVERY OTHER MAJOR AIRLINE by a significant margin. On top of that, the razor-thin reserve coverage we do have, we run them into the ground. All of that aside, high commuter bases are going to have staffing issues due to commuting as well. Captains aren't gaming the reserve system and calling in sick. I am not willing to admit FOs are doing that with any meaningful percentage, but I know that CAs are not doing that. So what is the excuse on the Captain side? We can't be overstaffed and understaffed at the same time. Management is pulling out the same BS playbook by not doing what they need to do in terms of staffing, then complaining that a base is underperforming.

LCC is proving to be a bad idea, especially the way scheduling abuses it. Getting rid of commuter hotels was a terrible idea. If we are going to say "well, SFO is junior for United and they have it figured out," then we need to operate in the same fashion if we want the base to perform in the same fashion.