We could pick up trips from pilots at SkyWest. It was great. I never worked on reserve and picked up LGA turns out of ORD on my days off. Easy money. I made almost as much on first year pay at SkyWest doing that as I do now.


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Someone offering up a flight to grab is not "open" or open time. The person offers it up and it's their's until someone can grab it. If it doesn't get grabbed the owner of the trip or segment is still on the hook for it.
(I know you know this, but some people may not).

The definition does not say anything specific about "Trips that are offered up as a grab" or any language like that. Looking further in the the Contract...the Scheduling Stand notes say specifically that pilot to pilot pick ups for Reserves flying on days off is not allowed. It doesn't however say why it's not allowed. Something Something....they don't trust us to not screw up our availability...or us it as a tool to get out of Reserve by maxing out block maybe? Still doesn't make that much sense. So, yeah, I guess I would like to know why specifically

 

One would still be flying 85hrs plus 5 for the month to max out. It’s quite a lot. Seems like a win for everyone


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I think part of the problem is that the Union would like for the pilots to be able to Drop those trips without having someone pick them up. That would mean more pilots are needed maybe. People (like me ) picking them up doesn't "help" with it's argument one might conclude. I still say it should be available...and not in the company's hands, as long as it's legal, I don't see a problem with it. The end game might be for a Contract that allows you to drop down more below what the have for the monthly min now.

 

If you aren't flying on reserve....and pick up something on a day off it counts above your guarantee. Meaning you might only fly 40-50 hours on reserve and pick up a turn or trip to get extra pay. Might be completely different in the summer..or at another base when they are flying guys on reserve up to 79 hours every month. But in slow months.....where you might fly two trips....it would be an easy way to get some extra $$$ if you were so inclined.

And correct me if I"m wrong....but the only limitation on Pilot to Pilot is FAR 117 rules right? Meaning the company Max credit time doesn't apply right? Open time pick up and trading IS constrained by the Company monthly max right?

 

The only reason you’re limited to Open Time only on reserve is because it benefits the company. If you pick up an Open Time trip for extra money while on reserve then the company gets to keep whatever pilot is on reserve that day that would have been assigned that trip from Open Time.

If you were allowed to grab pilot-to-pilot trips to increase your line value while on reserve, that does not benefit the company.

 

^^^
These, among other things have lead me to believe that AS management over the years must have been, and are still shaking their heads and saying to each other "I can't believe we've been getting away with this!!"

They are a data driven airline, that drill down on numbers to a level that is awe-inspiring, and they know they've been getting away with murder as it relates to overall pilot compensation costs relative to the industry.

There's an old axiom that says: "You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate", and whether through errors of ommision, commision or just pure bad luck, negotiations over the years have just not gone our way.

Going forward, we have to be united, determined and focused on achieving a contract that is in line with the industry in ALL respects.

I want this airline to succeed and there's no reason why it can't continue to do so while bringing our pilot's terms and conditions up to par.

We should not be a legacy airline in name only...

 

But it doesn't hurt the company either. You are on your days off. Only way it might hurt the company would be if you were bumping up against your FAR limits. That would only happen if you are breaking 79 hours every month regularly. Or more likely if you worked 7 days in a row (pick up plus a Reserve trip) and were close to getting 60 hours FDP. Either case seems very unlikely.

It only hurts the Union in that pilots are working "more" than they should given that the Union ALWAYS wants more pilots and wanting a daily min guarantee no matter who picks up the trip (aka you get paid 5 hours regardless if you do a 3 hour turn that you grabbed from Pilot to Pilot). Kind of hard to negotiate that if guys are willing to pick those up all the time......which actually helps the company.

 

Yeah, I agree with you that we should be able to pick up pilot-to-pilot while on reserve. I was just letting you know why we can't. - because if it doesn't benefit the company it isn't allowed, or if it benefits the pilot but not the company, that is also not allowed.

 

The company doesn't want it. You're right it doesn't cost them anything but look how hard the are fighting the union in HIMs; they won't give up anything unless it benefits them in atangible way.

They are very data driven so intagibles like crew qol that can't be measured and collected i.e. "data" doesn't compute and therefore must be bad or it must be something that the pilots will trade for.

If you want to change something here then you need to be creating data. Hotel and fatigue reports etc.... If they can't measure it then it's not happening.