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.

 

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.