New Commuter Policy United vs American
 

Anyone have a good view at the commuter policies on the new contracts United vs American they could post?

Thanks!

Yeah, AAL has the better commuter policy.

AAs is hands down better. No second flight required, no buying your own ticket greater than 12hrs out and still arriving 90 minutes early, no requirement to maintain awareness of forecast weather and other factors affecting travel and use prudent judgement to commute extra early (and sacrifice days off and bear added cost of lodging to commute in early). And you can reserve the jumpseat at AA.

Agree with above

United got substantive improvements but AA still much better

But I've been told we're dragging down the industry.......

Speaking of commuting; I’m trying to wrap my head around some things. I am a new hire living in Tampa. I thought being based in Miami and bidding LC would be a no brainer. After speaking to several people, I was told that I would be better off commuting to CLT, DFW, or PHL. Reason being that I will have a hard time non-reving to MIA from TPA due to the large amount of AA commuters. Checking AA, it looks like there are 5-6 flights a day from TPA to MIA. So my question is, if the commuter policy says I only need 1 flight to get me to base on time, why do I care if the flights are full, I get bumped or can’t reserve a jump seat? I have met the commuter policy, haven’t I? What am I missing? Caveat, I understand I’ll be on probation and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize my job. Just don’t fully understand why commuting to another base would make much sense. TIA for comments

AA’s policy didn’t change at all.

AA’s doesn’t require any flights, let alone a backup flight. Someone who walks to work from their cardboard box in the bushes across the street from the terminal is every bit the commuter as someone who commutes from, say, Mongolia.

You’re not missing anything. You don’t need any flights, let alone a single flight. There are a ton of AA pilots that live in metro Tampa and metro Orlando, making those commutes “difficult” in the sense that the reservable jumpseat(s) are pretty much always reserved as soon as the reservation window opens 8 days prior.

I’d obviously tread lightly on probation. Use the policy sparingly and you’ll be fine. Never lie on a recorded line.

The biggest hassle of a commuter miss when you’re commuting via air is the loss of pay. At some point… you need to work to make money, right? Some bases may be more commutable by virtue of having more reservable jumpseats closer in to departure time, perhaps.

Got it. Thank you!

Bid long call and book the jumpseat when it opens 8 days out. Proffer for trips, and you’ll be fine. You don’t want to burn commuter misses due to laziness. You’ll take a financial hit and potentially get a chief pilot meeting if you do it too often.

Probation probation probation

Your goal should be the chief pilot never seeing your name for the first year.

I’ve met very few Clt commuters from Tampa. You can’t drive it though like Miami if you had to. All Airbus Clt-tpa all the time, Miami is only 2/6 Airbus with 2 envoys right now.

Copy, thx! Definitely not trying to use it as any type of excuse. Being new to all this stuff from CBA to PBS bidding, commuting, etc…is a lot to understand and swallow. I’m sure it is gonna be a ton of trial and error.

Agreed!!! He should never no my name.

Just looking at tomorrow, there are 6 flights TPA-MIA, half of them Envoy, one a 737, and the others 319s, which leaves you a total of 5 reservable jumpseats to work. There are 9 flights to CLT, all 321, which means you have 18 reservable jumpseats to work, to say nothing of the additional seats in the back of the aircraft. A sample size of one, I'll grant you, but I imagine the stats are similar throughout the year. MIA would grant you the ace in the hole of driving, though.

I think the idea of commuting to CLT could be a good one unless you like the drive. Now, once you can hold MIA 777, a whole other calculation.

Yea, I missed that half the flights where on Envoy.

Wait, book which jumpseat? Are you going to book a seat every day? That would tie up many seats…that mostly would not get used. On reserve I only bid a seat when I’m pretty sure I’m getting my proffered trip, or after I’ve been assigned a trip…so day before only.

I’m assuming he means the jumpseat to get there on day 1 of reserve block around 1130AM or so.

Except for a certain NY CP pretty much doesn’t believe any of this.

Yeah, this. Just book the first day of your sequence in advance and proffer for a trip. That way, your bases are covered. After you get off probation, you can get more creative. If you fly earlier in the month, your credit will build and you will be less likely to be used, and you can sit at home and not worry about it later in the month. The APA app is pretty good about telling you where you are in the assignment queue and you can view the open time and assess your likelihood of being used.

Said NYC CP has been a problem child for a while and is welcome to think what they want to think. They’ll continue to try to bully the junior, the probationary, the contractually clueless, and the mission hackers… of which there are many. They’ll continue to get smacked by the union, and backpedal as soon as HR gets involved.

Who cares?

Bidding NY is a choice…

After probation the CP can pound sand.

Sounds like somebody shouldn't be a Chief Pilot. That being said, I think there are some pilots that abuse it. I've commuted a long time and not once had to use it.

Do we have positive space like Delta?

The loss of pay with limited to no ability to make it up in the same footprint.

Delta has positive space commuting? Right now, today?

Very base and seat dependent.

Lots of people are able to make more money with less work picking up premium over their Commuter Miss footprint after the unfortunate circumstances that led to the CM are rectified.

What base and seat are you on? Sounds miserable, and people should probably bid elsewhere.

When has that massive dumb ass ever been accurate with anything?

That was a covid thing when every flight was 95% empty.

When I was at endeavor, our second option was positive space, I believe delta is the same way.

You can call scheduling if you’re unable to make your first attempt. Usually they’ll give permission to A1/A3 yourself. I’ve never personally done it, but I recently had a discussion with a coworker who had.

I believe for DAL it’s basically the same process, you’re at the discretion of scheduling.

not a choice for many

Pretty sure it’s contractual, not at the discretion of scheduling at Delta, but you’ll have to ask them.

My buddy at Delta has said the same thing as you've been saying. 2nd attempt is positive space.

Another Caveat, seniority will be significantly better out of MIA than CLT. It could be a reasonable move down the road though.

It's a long standing FOM policy, but not contractual. If the backup flight is on Delta then scheduling can positive space the pilot.

I have never been positive spaced. They have the ability but only when they need you. When I need them it is no. Sorry. It’s only 3 times I have asked. I am a conservative commuter.

since Covid it has been very challenging. The few times I have missed trips I just chalk it up as more time off. I usually try to get things done at home that have been put off.

i have never been called after missing a trip.

That certainly doesn’t sound like “positive space commuting”. AA has the same provision and I have never seen it offered by the company.

It’s okay, it’s only a 7hr 2 leg commute through DFW to get back to the coast when they don’t offer it if you don’t decide to go back to the house.