Hello,

I am a part 135/91 lifer with a current CJO with American. Can someone give me a basic idea of what soft pay means and how it relates to the recently ratified contract?

Thanks!

Soft pay is everything outside your block or better (flying) pay. We have RIGs which is pay that trips have added based on time away from base, time of day (WOCL), etc.

The most common soft pays you'll see is sit time pay and min day. For example, you could fly 2 legs, DFW-MSY-SAT and only fly 3ish hrs, but you'll receive an hour and 15 min of "soft pay" due to our min day being 5:15.

Sit pay pays out at 1 min for every 2 min (50%) of your SIT time, scheduled or actual, over 2.5 hrs. Before we only got paid scheduled sit time starting at 2 hrs. Now it doesn't start until 2.5, but you get paid actual now, a gain in our new contract. Example: I recently had a schedule 1:25 sit in DCA. We got in early, clock starts, and we ended up getting delayed, go figure. Sit ended up being 4:15. This equates to 1:45 sit pay. 105 minutes / 2 = 52.5 x pay rate(in minutes). This was cash wouldn't have been paid in previous contract.

Thank you. In your example, do you keep an accounting of this to cross reference your paystub?

The majority of this will show on your updated "time card". It isn't called a time card, but it shows you what you have worked for the month automatically.

There is a 3rd party vendor that you can pay to monitor your pay check and they constantly look for errors. This used to be very popular, but that popularity has decreased in the past few months. The Union has a beta version of an app that will do this as well. It is not fully functional as of now, but it seems to be coming along.

I have found errors at least once every 2-3 months and had to submit a pay claim, so it is worth watching.

The new APA app has a check my pay function. Already made me $197 in 2 months.

Yup, that's what I said above. It is just not very good yet, but they are improving it. It has missed several items already. But I do look forward to it when it is at least as good as Check My Pay.

Checkmypay had done squat for me. It's hilarious seeing those fake testimonials posted on Facebook by people whoring for referrals. Don't see those much anymore since the Pilot owner threw the whole pilot group under the bus to make some extra money.

How's premium pay pick up on days off works? Is it first come first serve, seniority based order or Crew Scheduling assigns it to whoever they want?

Seniority based based on who's qualified and what formula crew scheduling wants to use that day. Sometimes it is reserves on their days off, sometimes it is line holders on their days off.

The best "secret" in the system is to bid reserve and pick up 4 and 5 day trips that cover 3 and 4 of your reserve days (coming in 1 day early). You get paid premium for the whole trip, even the days that you were supposed to be on reserve. And all of this goes on top of your reserve guarantee.

The super senior guys bid a line with 1 and 2 day trips, drop them all, and just fly premium, and end up with 130-140 hours of credit. The smarter ones bid reserve and end up with 225+ hours of credit.

Still new to the game, but reserves can’t get premium, only over guarantee, right?