We had 11 hour 3 days at AA. I’m not talking about pay rates. Talking about work rules. I know when I got hired in the 90s USAIR had a good contract.

 

If our benchmark is the US Airways contract and career of that era, God help us.

US Air ground contracts stipulated mechanics do pushbacks. Since we support our union brothers, we should totally be pushing for that back too, right?

 

Remember this thread when it happens to you and your career, while you're trying to explain how that is somehow didferent.

Same old song and dance...

 

It would behoove other work groups to support us no matter what - we are the only thing keeping them employed as mainline employees.

Without airplanes classified as "mainline", the company is free to outsource everything. All that would be left most likely is management staff overseeing revenue/sales and smaller silos overseeing the various contractors.

Scary concept!

 

I watched from across the aisle as Parker courted the APA during talks and the merger marriage. I saw the LBFO, then the amended offer (???) of higher pay rates and yearly increases. The pilots here folded like a cheap suit. Are you saying because I’ve been here three years I can’t have an opinion on where we stand contractually? I’ve heard it before, you’ll be senior someday.

SWA was a contender for me as was AA. I have a business in DFW with kids in school here. I’ve commuted enough to know it’s not a good fit, so UAL and DAL are out. Now that I’m here I’m thrilled. Life is good. Our contract is not. Contracts at cyclical. Today’s worst won’t always be the worst. I knew that coming in. Here we are today, fighting for the best. Except guys like you are content which only makes the fight more difficult.

All the majors started in the mid $30’s an hour for about 15 years. Your point is moot and proves my point that airline contacts are cyclical at the same time.

We are at the bottom of the work rules of any comparable major. At a time such as this during negotiations how would you choose to label our current contract?

 

Umm.. no.

I have less days off than I did at a regional. Also making quite a bit less money. Not on probation year anymore either which shows how crappy our contract really is. Second year anniversary = second year pay? Nope. Not at AA.

Not to mention now I get to work on scheduled days off for free up until NOON on RSV with zero penalty for them doing this. Lovely.

Could my prior regional just move my days off (2 moveable days)? No. All my days off were "Golden". As they should be.

If my regional did fly me into a day off for unavoidable circumstances I actually got a RETURN DAY OFF and junior man pay guarantee. AA you basically get a stick in the eye and no return day off they stole from you.

RO? Lol

Coverage days basically everyday?

Premium only 1.5??? Then sick later.. Uh oh.. What a joke.

Which brings up how you can't even call in sick for just one day of a trip even if you are only sick for one day of a trip.. you have to dump the whole thing and lose all your sick time. WTF? What regional does this?

Could continue on and on with our trash scheduling section vs a regional for several more pages but anyone that came from a regional recently already has realized this stuff by now..

Our vacation bidding, post award schedule adjustment and PBS system is probably the worst in the entire US airline industry.

This contract is total garbage for a LEGACY carrier. People at the regionals were expecting improvements moving up to AA not a sub regional contract with higher pay rates. The sad part is our leadership seems to be totally ignorant to the fact that even regionals now have better work rules than we do. I've brought it up in emails, conference calls and they just blow it off like it isn't even real. Well, maybe the out of touch widebody leadership should have listened to the junior pilots because that's how they got themselves voted out and will continue to be replaced if they keep ignoring the rapidly growing population of below the line pilots not willing to accept another garbage "pay rate" contract ignoring narrowbody QOL issues.

Some of the people here are so delusional that they think they are making 4X what a regional CA makes. Ha.. Maybe at Delta they are but not at AA.. Highly doubt more than about .001% of people here are making 450-500K+ unless they have zero life. When I left a regional over a year ago there was an offer to START at an AA wholly owned regional as a street hire CA and make 120K FIRST YR with bonus. Far more than a 1st yr pilot at American makes. That is at AA's own wholly owned regional paying more for a 1st year pilot than a 1st year pilot at mainline!! This is not a joke or exaggeration, it's Pathetic this is allowed. APA leadership is oblivious to it/and or don't care.

 

Sounds like you’re comparing senior regional captain pay to year 2 fo pay, prob on reserve. Obviously in that situation the regional would make more if they were senior check airmen who flew a lot. But our group 2 and above captains easily make 3-4x the average regional captain.

You can’t call in sick for one day of a trip for a good reason, it would be a manning concession. The company would love for us to ask for that in the next contract.

The contract needs lots of work. No doubt about that, mainly in the reassignment area. I’m confident the union can get us a solid new contract.

 

Yeah, we have a ton of friggin' work to do on our contract, but GMAFB with this less time off and less pay than a regional. I'm a 5 year narrowbody FO doing better than $200K just flying my line with almost 17 days off per month. United and Delta have it better and that's something we need to fix, but let's not get carried away.

 

Yeah when I got here my schedules were really bad and the pay was worse. Anyone coming from a regional to here will have a crappy few years unless they go to a very junior domicile. That's just common sense. You're at the bottom of the totem pole again.

The alternative is you stay "senior" at a regional, big fish in the little pond so to speak.

I worked at a regional with an excellent contract. Except for RO most of our stuff is similar. RO is actually industry standard at the major level. Premium was also 150%, and if you called in sick you lost it.

The movable days are BS and that totally needs to be fixed, but honestly I never got moved or flown into a day off. It may happen but it's extremely rare. That shouldn't be a problem getting removed, or modified so you get 1.5 pay for going into your day off.

Also he thinks that if worked into a day off it's for free. That isn't true. If you finish on reserve at 10am on your day off you go on call starting at 10am during your next reserve sequence.

 

I was a DCA new hire bask in 1999 and we had great schedules and fun trips. After some trips a few guys/gals would hit the bars in Crystal City. To bad times have changed.