If we go with PBS it seems to me that being able to interact with open time after the Schedule Adjustment Period (SAP) will have a huge effect on our quality of life.
In the SAP period we will only be able to pick up, swap, trade or drop anything that doesn't require manual input i.e. no partial trip trades and no trades out of base.
This is pretty much useless to me to improve quality of life. Currently if I am looking to use Flica to improve my quality of life it is not very often I find a pairing in open time that I can trade one for one with a pairing on my schedule. I almost always have to split apart a pairing to make it commutable.
Therefore I doubt I'll be making many changes to my schedule in the SAP period. If the company now decides to assign all the open time to our reserves immediately after the SAP, as they are allowed to do, then I will not see any quality of life improvements with the new contract. I thought this contract was all about QOL improvements!
Why can't our MEC get language in our contract that states open time will be made available to all line pilots until 48 (72, 96) hours prior to the start of open time pairing.
Our MEC in an email today said:
Under the proposed TA, the company still has the right to post open time or not; however, once posted, that open time may be used for any type of transaction the pilot desires. While we were not able to achieve contractual language to support required staffing levels or guaranteed open time availability, we realize that airlines generally staff themselves to cover their known flying, not to allow crewmembers to do as they please with their schedules.
I think we SHOULD have something in our contract to guarantee open time availability. This will be part of our QOL improvements.
Do other carriers have open time availability in contractual language?