Originally Posted by
sailingfun
We started with a system where you did not get any pay protection for trips prior to the 24th of each month. If they took your trip you had to find something to pick up or face a low hour month. Eventually we got to the point where you were pay protected for the entire month. What quickly happened is that senior FO's figured out how to sharpshoot the system especially on the international. I had a friend who took a 5 year vacation from Delta. He bid great trips and simply swapped to the senior position on any trips with line checks. The junior FO who was going to have to work the trip anyway so would always swap for a better trip. The company got tired of paying guys for years who never worked. The other thing to keep in mind is that when we had the system junior guys never got removed. Line check trips were highly sought after and swapped for as I mentioned. I don't like our current system and it needs to change. I am not however in favor of a system that allows pilots to never work and draw full pay. In effect the flying pilots have to subsidize that pilots salary. Recovery needs to be cleaned up and it will be in the next contract. Recovery pilots should come after all reserves have been used. I don't mind working for my pay but the rules should be reasonable.
It is actually more basic than that. The company was going bankrupt and the MEC decided to give concessions to try to prevent bankruptcy. (didn't work but at the time they decided to try) The first areas to look at were those where pilots got paid for not working. That was the reason for the change to recovery flying. Same reason why the reserve system is designed to equally apportion reserve flying to minimize reserve guarantee paid. That's how you save the trip rigs and quality of life, especially for narrow body pilots. We came out with narrow body pilots flying 13-15 days a month rather than 18-20 like at some other carriers.
Now is the time to start looking at some of those hard choices that had to be made in the tough times and the MEC will decide which problems need to be fixed and in what order. It is a marathon and not a sprint.