Originally Posted by
keenster
I'm sure it is and in no way do I want any pilot on any aircraft to have his QOL and sch get worse. I understand that there are going be growing pains in putting this all together. However, that does not mean that the attitude of "your compaining or get over it" should prevail. This is not a north south issue, but it seems to be labeled as a north vs south issue in that most of the time the complaint at hand comes form a north guy with the usual response of get over it coming from a south guy. Piont well made in an earlier post that the way the complaints come are divisive and I agree to some extent.
Bottom line is that I am for Max time for pay with min time at work. They can write rotations that are good for the pilots and cover the flying. Or, they can write rotations that are bad for pilots and cover the flying. As more of the airline commutes, commutable trips are also important.
Quality of life is very important especially if your are a family guy. You can have all the money in the world, but if you have no time at home to enjoy your family what good is it. Don't get me wrong here, I am for higher pay but QOL ranks right there with pay. Work rules and duty rigs are huge in terms of pilot jobs and QOL. I want the company to do great and I am prepared to do my part. In turn the company needs to do better in how they treat me. I am not just emp # __________. I want to be productive, go to work , fly my ass off, and go home. I want DAL to win because if they do I do.
So, being the new guys here how do we fix things like crappy rotations that don't work well for giving you a full month of flying or having to fly too many days in the month to get your time in. I may be wrong about this, but it appears that the south guys fly more days to get the same amount of flt time that the north guys got in fewer days. May not be the case, but the trend in posts and compalints seem to lean this way(I know that I am flying more days now). So I am for everyone to get their time in quicker.
What most pilots seem to forget is that the merged airline is not Delta and its not Northwest. The combined systems will require major changes in rotation construction to reflect the combined systems. Delta has some of the best software in the world for rotation construction. That software however is 99 percent geared to one fact. That is to keep credit time to a minimum. Delta has been very responsive to changing rotations as long as it does not increase rotation time. You also however have to be aware that one mans gold is another mans dirt. I remember when there were large complaints about EWR trips from 727 pilots in NYC. The company said OK we wont build rotations that start at EWR anymore. Nexts months bid package comes out with no EWR and all of the sudden there is a crises and all the pilots who live in PA and NY are screaming where did the EWR trips go. This happens all the time.
NWA pre merger had more credit time then Delta. They also had overall slightly less time earned per day. Probably as a result of the DC9 being the largest catagory. Carmine the program Delta purchased for 25 million dollars is going to eat away at that credit. Many are not going to like the result.
There is another factor also. NWA had for all intents and purposes 2 bases. DTW and MSP. The SEA base was small with one type of Equipment. That kept things somewhat consistant month to month at NWA. They also did not do as many seasonal flying changes as Delta does. We migrate aircraft to a much greater extent. With the combined system having 8 bases its going to drive much different solutions to rotation construction. One change in equipment or route addition or subtraction in LA could have a substantial impact on rotations in DTW.
What this all means is that rotations are going to change and change often. There can and will be dramatic changes month to month. You can complain all day long but its not going to change that fact that this is a much different airline that NWA with 2 bases and a more fixed schedule. The company is not out to screw anyone. They will however seek a rotation construction solution that produces the lowest credit time. Low credit time does not equate to the rotations pilots like to see.
It is worth talking with the people who construct rotations when you have issues. They will listen and if there is a solution that produces little or no credit change they will make the changes. What seems to happen however often when they do that is the improvements created at one base cause negatives at another base. There is no one solution every pilot and base would agree on. The combine NWA and Delta are vastly different from a scheduling perspective then either airline as a stand alone entity. The difference is duty rigs also comes into play. Plan on seeing major changes overall and continuing change month to month. Its the nature of being the largest airline in the world.