so you are saying our MEC is lying to us?

 

There can be no evidence if no evidence is found. It also wouldn’t be the first time the company has overstated their claims, eg commuter hotels.

 

It is entirely possible they couldn't find "evidence" of a nature that would be actionable by the company.

Like if the cops find a dead body full of bullet holes, have a suspect, but can't make a good case for the grand jury. Doesn't mean a murder didn't happen, that's pretty apparent to any observer.


And in case anyone is unfamiliar, it doesn't take the NSA to write a bot script.

 

you know it would not be difficult to prove. The computers record when these trips were picked up and how fast. Your analogy could very well have been a suicide? Maybe the individual worked for the Clinton’s and shot himself in the back 28 times.

I don’t see why the MEC would try to cover this up.

 

I don't think they did cover anything up.

If a bot user was smart, they could use a bot to their heart's content as long as they...

1. Didn't allow it to run when they were between block out and block in.

2. Only ran it from their actual physical location.

So basically don't let it run 24/7 on your home PC while you're on a trip. You could get in trouble for picking up trips while flying, regardless of bot use. If your home computer in SEA is picking up trips while you're on a DFW layover that would be highly suspicious.

Very quick response time wouldn't actually prove bot use, at least not to the degree necessary for discipline. They can't prove that you don't spend your days off with your finger hovering over the enter key.

As long as it stops, I don't really care either way. If it keeps happening and the union and company shrug their shoulders (like at some airlines) then I have a problem.

 

This is fixable by simply having open time/schedule requests run periodically in a queue system rather than constantly in a real time system. It eliminates (mostly) the snipers and essentially neutralizes the bots. The big hurdle is to get the a company to do anything, since as long as trips get filled, by hook or by crook, they have zero effs to give to the problem.

 

At one of the surf to summit gatherings I asked and the Union rep did say a that there were none found on the AS. However, there were some found on the HA. Just passing on what was told to me face to face by t rep that I highly respect.

 

I asked the same question to reps and management at HAL. They said there were a handful of pilots with "high activity clicks." Now these clicks are any clicks on the Flica program, not necessarily opentime refresh or submittals. The approval rates were the same, if not worse, than every other pilot when compared.

Also, was told off record by a reputable source, the usual suspects are clear and have no evidence of Bot usage. So looks like the ones with high ping counts have a bad bot, if there even is one.

 

I agree this is the way to do it. UAL has a system like this.

 

JetBlue and Spirit already have issues with bots. As stated before, it's incredibly easy to write a script or a browser extension to do it. You can even go on google and hire a programmer to do it for you. I'm not even sure how people are able to snipe trips in open time at 9am on Open Time day, because you can click "submit" at 8:59:59 and somehow still be 78 in the queue and the trip you're trading for is gone when your position clears. Then that trip is posted up for grabs an hour later by the person who grabbed it, if not asking for Hawaii trips.

Even if you tried to run a manual program, even if you did it first come first serve, people can create a bot to create forms to submit when trips come up so they're first in queue every time. Other issue is supposedly if you have T-Mobile, which is what the company uses, you get the text alerts first. You can also see if you're just on the crew access, you'll actually see a trip before pop up a minute before the text goes out. Best way to do this is when you get a text, hop on crew access and notice that trip is gone, and the trip the other crew member who dropped for it for is there in open time.