MG wants you to hope for a better contract soon. “Hope is not a strategy”, MG 2020. Base your decisions on facts as they are today.

Let’s all remember that home every night isn’t a negotiating tactic for the company. Have y’all ever thought about how many millions of dollars go to hotel rooms every night for crews? That’s actually an argument for us to ask for more pay. If they give us pay raises and then switch to overnights they are hit with way more losses than if they stick to home every night model. Plus home every night model is awesome. It’s great for us and great for the company. The only negative about home every night is those based in the less desirable bases. Maybe if we identified “less desirable” bases and gave the pilots there 4 commuter hotels a month and or positive space to their base, that could be a great way to keep the model and it would be waaay cheaper than hotels every night.

I think if they move away from the home every night model they lose a big portion of their pilot group. Maybe the top % of people will stay, but at that point they’re no different than a legacy. Except worse bases, benefits, and employee relations.

Yes moving to trips is a terrible idea.

I don’t think it would be the end of the world, but I don’t think G4 knows how to effectively pull it off. What I observed a few months ago is that their 3 day trip was essentially taking a crew from one base and having them fly another trip from a different base. It made no sense as the plane returned “home” every night, but now we, the crew, were doing a low credit 3-day trip. Very inefficient, and a real head scratcher.

Not to mention trying to pull this off under our current contract.

I did a couple of those trips to try them out. I don't think there were a inefficient as some made out, or at least mine were not. On both last days, I was one and done, so 2 hrs work for 4 hrs pay. Middle days were always 4 legs so close to 8 hours.

But they were boring. Same place overnight, No FA's to hang with (if you got paired with a DB you were screwed). And they made no sense. I would happliy take the overnights if it meant my base doubled in size so that I could see upgrade in the next 15 years in Florida. I'd even bid them. But we need protections, better trip planning and bigger bases to justify it. If I could do a 3 leg day 1, overnight then a 3 leg day 2, each leg 2.5 hrs credit and go home I'd be happy as a clam. 15hrs 2 days. Yes please. 12 days, 90 hrs.

Up ‘till now I would agree they lack the IT capability, infrastructure, and industry expertise to transition to a traditional airline model. That may be changing as they implement more capable software. Going forward in an environment where they cannot substantially grow or possibly even maintain current pilot staffing levels, they are going to have to look for ways to mitigate that. One way would be to consolidate down to 4-5 large bases & multi-day trips; more efficient use of crews, less reserves, etc….Or they can park older airframes (319’s?) and downsize as they add 737’s. Or some combination thereof. They can’t grow & add Boeings and do all the things they want so change is coming one way or another.

Agreed. The trips just didn’t make sense returning to someone else’s base knowing they were staying at mine. I’m in the same boat about taking the RONs if it helps move around some of the seniority. I felt that there are some bases where people would love to see trips and commutable lines (mid-con bases).

Yeah, I’m not bidding for them if they show up anymore. Pretty long days, with an early AM day one and always a midnight finish day three. It was like 14 PCH for the two I did. It’s clearly just not the airline we are designed to be. Maybe one day if it helps out the FL and western guys, but I won’t hold my breath

It’s already started. Shrinking is winning according to management.