Cool? I’m familiar with your IMAX language. It isn’t that good.

Anyway… Let’s see how long it takes AA to implement everything. How many items from your current contract are still not implemented while you just agreed to a new one?

No you are not familiar with anything AA. You were at PSA junior. Stop pretending to know anything about AA/APA.

It's criminal our contract allows grifters and OT *****s like you. IMAX should absolutely be eliminated for QOL gains.

You mean the $7 billion of added value that found its way into the American deal?

Go away management monkey.

7% is a tiny minority of pilots. Many other sections and mgmt philosophy suffers due to this provision.

I don’t blow anything out of proportion I just said what I wanted. Declining RO is one.

You don’t want to get into it because you get upset when I stay grounded and you get wound up and emotional.

Will this be the 3rd time you advocated for us to accept an industry lagging deal?

I imax by conflict bidding and picking up posted trips from other pilots not by picking up MU. How is that grifting? I help another pilot and the company pays me for a trip I don’t even work. It’s so easy even you could do it.

I bet you’ll still be here posting on the AA forums letting us know how it’s going instead of doing something productive with your life.

What 7 billion? And the only monkey around here is you moron.

Delta guy here, what is IMAX?

It’s basically a system designed to encourage pilots picking up flying at straight pay at AA in the hopes of maxing out the flying that can be assigned to them throughout the year, so they can sit at home with a paycheck for a bit of time and not have to work.

Ouch. Too each their own I guess, but that sounds like working harder, not smarter.

IMAX *****s will tell you different then have the gull to come on here and chastise us for voting NO on the now defunct TA. They want to protect their kingdom. The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many to them.

Sorry for the dumb question what is imax? I've seen a ton of people talk about it but I can't find any context.

You get 1080 hours a year obligation to AA and once past that in a rolling 12 months, your schedule drops.

Doing the math it's 90 hours a month credit. If you can exceed that, you get months off. Example, if you can do 98 hours a month for 11 months, you get a free month off. Somewhere on CnR someone wrote with 102.5 hours a month, you get two months off. Not quite sure how that works but that is what they wrote.

People bag on IMAX but what most don't realize is guys get the credit by trying not to fly, vs flying hard block. Someone working a hard block line of 75-85 hours a month will most likely operate (ie FAR block time) more than the guy shooting for IMAXing at a higher credit. FAR block is the enemy of IMAXers, and since the company staffs on FAR block, they don't really impact the company ability to staff.

Another benefit is IMAX is essentially unpredictable. The company can meter vacation, training (less in summer etc), but when people hit IMAX the SHTF and the company has to scramble to cover (potentially causing additional IMAX timeouts).

It takes effort to achieve but is most certainly doable. Being in a large bid status with options for trips, along with weather cancels etc really helps.

Many do not want to put forth the effort to hit it, this is fine but it's a pretty powerful tool if used. If you elect to work over the IMAX months, you can pick up premium all month long and really supercharge your earnings if that is the direction you want to go.

The wb guys have a good shot at it, because of less FAR rules and credit times. I knew a 777 FO who was doing something like 150 credit a month. He can hit IMAX in eight months and then take four off. Crazy stuff like that. NB guys more have to rely on weather cancels and timing out conflicts.

This couldn't be farther from the truth.

Sounds like it’s structured to work like the old rest requirement pay protection. Pilots would load up and make themselves illegal for Dec if they had pay protection (which most did) for far illegalities. Now that it’s rolling I’ll guess APA just preserved that ability with the rule changes. The fact it’s credit and not block is even better. Increasing your soft time with vac and training should help a bit.

The guys that do it right don't work harder. It's a zero sum game if you are actually building the credit by flying. A caveat on zero sum is that it would open a month(s) to only flying premium. I don't IMAX currently but if I moved into a WB status most likely would. The problem is that a very small percentage, less than 10%, of pilots actually utilize it. It is a valuable trade chip but the union/NC would be hung out to dry if they actually tried.

It "can" be done by everyone but is more difficult for NB. It helps to have: A large bid status, WB, trade partners to launder trips with the same intentions, high sick bank, lots of vacation, high seniority, willingness to sometimes get stuck flying something you don't want or didn't mean to fly.

It could become wider used especially in NB statuses if someone could produce an app or website that somewhat automated the process. A group of pilots essentially throwing all their trips into the hat on an app that can sort who flies what and when they fly it combined with what they borrow to launder or keep for blocking could be powerful. It could also help with PBS for conflicts.

I say get rid of it in exchange for gains that everyone will enjoy but there will be one along shortly to rabidly defend I'm sure. :D

At DAL we kind of have a partial variation of that. They call it "credit surfing", and what you do is use the swap with the pot function (swap with open time) to dump your regular trips for broken trips that start to show up around 48 hours prior to report time. They usually have a fly 1 or 2 legs, and then DH back the 2nd day. You wind up with a lot of credit, not much block, and you can pick up premium after that because you won't have any FAR limitations.

There's also "Rolling Thunder" on reserve. You bid a bunch of days off in a row at the beginning of the month. Then you "green slip", which for reserve pilots is working on a day off and pays above the guarantee and you get your day off back (kinda, it's more complicated than that). The end result is you fly over what were your off days, all over guarantee, then at the end of your off days, you've got a bunch of days off coming back to you, and so you sit the rest of the month. Done right, you can also pocket the added days off as "payback days", which are very, very powerful if used right. Net result is everything you do is above guarantee for the same amount of work. Guys and gals can kill it that way, and then simply coast a few months by dropping to zero, or close to it. Between personal drops and APDs & IVDs (trip drops with a silver bullet), you can clear out your schedule biggly.

Same kind of thing here. Folks who are dialed into the system really can work it, and they're very, very sensitive to any changes. You don't have to be super senior, though, to make it work. Even junior folks can kill it.

I guess I'd have to see it in action. Just sounds like you're flying a ton for most of the year just to have some months completely off. I'm probably misunderstanding it.

You aren’t flying extra for more credit you are essentially strategically removing trips from your schedule while the credit remains.

There are various ways to remove trips.

It basically uses your credit from the past 8 months plus 3 months of future credit (assumes 82 hours for future months) to figure out what you can fly the next month (credit counting towards IMAX includes flying but not premium, vacation, training, dropping a trip to be paid out for it with future vacation, and sick time, plus some others?)

So if you can start with 1 low month to trick the system into letting you fly more, and then credit for 7 months near 90, then bump the credit to 140+ for 2 months, the next 2 months will be pretty much duds since it assumes you’re crediting 82 the next 3. So the people that love to maximize will then fly premium over those off months since it doesn’t count towards IMAX.

This is all based on a 12 month rolling max of 1080.


Probably more confused now.

If the new reserve system sucks I plan to get smart on IMAX.

I don't see it sucking any more than what we have now. The only thing that makes reserve "OK" now (and apparently this isn't even an option at every base), is bidding 3-day reserve blocks so you can limit the amount of days they can screw with you. If you're giving them 4-6 days of reserve (especially 5-6 days), you're going to get abused, big time. I usually do nothing but 3-day blocks, except after 1-day off, then I'll do a 4-day block. However, a few weeks ago, I had to do a 6-day block because of a string of days off I had to bid for. Well.... with 6-days available, they used me ALL SIX DAYS. It was brutal. I got hit with the first 4-day trip I had flown in over a year, followed by two 1-dayers.

What I really don't like about our reserve system now is that junior pilots in lower groups get to preference their trips before you do. So, if you have 3-days available and you're in group 4 and there are 8 junior pilots in groups 2 and 3 (less GTD), they'll give them their preference first, say.... a turn to MCO, TPA, RSW, NAS (name your good deal turn) and you end up getting hit with the 2 or 3-day trip with MORE HOURS THAN THEM! It's total BS. I always love when this happens with pilots 3,000 numbers below me in seniority.

Under the new system, Jr pilots to you (which I don’t care about, but you mentioned) in a 2 day bucket will get the cushy 2 day trip, while you in a 3 day bucket will not be considered for it. I really like the current system and often proffer for shorter trips than my “bucket” to pad my GTD hoping not to be used later in the block. Doesn’t always work, but often does. That said, I’ll adapt to the new one…if/when we get a new one.

That would be about the only thing I would like to see changed about how the current system works.

See how much open time there is, then gather how deep in the groups will the currently known flying go. So the flying will require someone from Group 1 through 4 to be used. Then it goes by seniority with the pilots from those groups. So if the most senior person in group 4 wants that turn or 2 day, they get it or pass, etc, etc.

I've been at a bucket system at a couple airlines now and trust me what American has right now is much more predictable. Senior people are not going to like this change at all.

i agree. Bucket system sucks if your senior.

Why? Sr people will be able to pass much more under this system since there is no consideration of GTD (time flown for non AA folks) so they will always be at the bottom of their respective bucket. As opposed to now, when they will be first to go if they have flown less than Jr pilots. I think Sr will like this, everyone else…a push or loss.

Until they’re the only ones in said bucket

That’s only inside DOTC. Outside DOTC will be based on RDW first, then seniority.

What will happen if there is a one day trip open with no-one in the one day bucket? It will go to a 2-day bucket pilot. What happens when there is a 3-day trip open with no-one in the 3-day bucket? It'll go to a 4-day bucket pilot. There may be a few 3 and 4 day trips open during DOCT, but after that, trips that pop open outside DOTC are usually trips that have fallen apart in the 1 or 2 day flavor.

thats how it works at every airline i've ever been at. it's not rocket science.

Ok but that's not how it works at AA right now. It's much better. Especially if you can hold max 3 day blocks.

You can pad GTD with cushy stuff and avoid a lot of the nonsense associated with reserve if you know what you are doing even a little bit. There will always be crap you don't want to do on reserve that's part of the game unfortunately. Our system right now allows you to avoid the worst case more often than not. The bucket system that AA is going to use will function exactly the way it does at the WO. It sucks at all 3 and will suck at AA. They use the same people and the same strategies at mainline now that they have been at the WO since the merger. They promote from within.

This will be a massive QoL hit to reserves. O btw, AA carries the highest % reserve in the industry.

Yep and we still can't fill our OT without giving out a bunch of PM.

or trip trade.

Yep. Maybe one day they'll come to their senses... or not.

Hell, they rather give out pm than straight time OG…

No-one should be volunteering for straight OG. If they want us to work on off time, make them pay for it!

The GTD is only calculated within a parameter, outside of that seniority comes into play. For the most part it is straight seniority. The reason buckets will suck is that you will no longer be able to shield reserve days by preferencing in to shorter trips. Senior reserves do this all the time and can recover 2-4 more days off a month using this strategy. Between buckets and lagging United by an extra day off a month the reserve good deal will be gone.
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well if you could work a PM show on your last day off that goes into your first 3 days of RSV, and pays 21 Hours of OG, I’d gladly do that