It's a lot cheaper to pay qualified pilots premium than it is to hire a new guy or girl and send them through the training process, especially if you're concerned they're going to be sitting around on min guarantee and not being productive. Bennies cost a lot.

 

Because it wasn’t negotiated. That simple. and you still avoid answering the questions.

you're probably one of those pilots that said it’s not about the money, it’s about more QOL, but you weren’t willing to go somewhere else and start over. You upgraded early according to the BS on this forum. So if it wasn’t for the money, then why did you stay with a company that you hate working for? You could have went to UAL 2 years ago and you’d be a 73 CA already.

 

They are getting rid of the I and D and getting rid of LA qual or some version of it. We have a simpler fleet. Go to training once a year. How many years did they run correctly staffed after parking the 80, 756, 330 and the 190. Without early out it Covid interference. Planes have been promised and delayed so many times no one knows what we are and aren’t staffed for.

Too many variables for you to speak with so much confidence when it really could be just your confirmation bias. You could be right but bring some data to the conversation instead of just emotion.

They are actively trying to be efficient, and FYI leveling the reserves so the senior and junior both fly equally is usually a concession to the company. You have managed to flip it and claim seniors not being leveled is a cost concession to the pilot group.

 

No **** it wasn't negotiated Sherlock, lol. Congratulations on getting the point after how many pages?

wth are you even babbling about? What does upgrade or anything have to do with the deficiencies in our contract? The only thing you are proving my assertion correct, at APA the philosophy is you will gain QOL through seniority and seniority only. To the point where they actually made it worse for those junior all the while ignoring sound-offs about open time, trip trading, and reserve level limits that needed to be imposed upon the company. Like what almost every other airline has better than us.

I bet your tattoos are pretty sick bro

 

The combination of divisions is still ongoing and the simplification of the fleet happened way before this contract was signed, so how would that impact it now? RAS has allowed the company to do this. It was a horrible deal and we got almost nothing in return.

 

Well where is the permanent job loss from fleet simplification, show us pilots per plane after fleet consolidation and before the contract signing.

Show us pilots per plane post contract signing. You’re likely blaming the contract when they really just reduced block hours due to trade war fears, or election uncertainty/interest rates skyrocketing right after contract was signed.

No need to be angry at APA because college kids have to pay their loans back and can’t globe trot anymore making it rain premium, or mortgage rates double and tripled in 6 months.

and yes I hope we go to ALPA.

 

Nobody here is talking about fleet simplification during COVID and certainly nobody is blaming the Union for that so not sure why you are even bringing that up since I think everybody agrees with you. The unions at UA and DL negotiated contracts during the last cycle that required each company to hire more pilots to cover the same amount of flying due to QOL gains realized through the whole seniority group. APA was not able to do this and as a matter of fact made it much worse. They caved on a RAS system which is much more efficient for the company without scoring a comparable gain for the pilot group. This also allowed the company to back off on hiring new pilots last year and this year thus far. All that combined is unforgivable in my book hence my strong support for a complete overhaul of our union. Bring on ALPA.

 

I am brining it up because it’s widely considered they aggressively reduced the fleet.

They had to operate the remaining simplified fleet at 110% because of delivery delays and making the mistake of parking too many planes. So from 9/21 until contract signing the consolidated fleet had more block hours to staff.

As planes show up and hiccups in demand happen they operate the consolidated fleet at 95%, but some how you have it on fact that there are years of data of 4 fleets and staffing required and the dip in staffing started only with the RAS.

You are just not explaining RAS separate from demand swings or prematurely parking aircraft and throwing the workload on the remaining aircraft.

U and D do have an advantage because a complex fleet helps lower reserve utilization, APA can’t just demand 7 fleet types then give it away and apply the savings elsewhere in the contract.

If AA gets identical language it won’t move the staffing needle nearly as much due to 4 fleets. It’s actually possible we would need even less reserves if we went 100% LC and paid conversions per block of days.

 

so, I have never said our contract wasn’t deficient. However, I voted yes. So I don’t complain about it. I do feel anybody who voted no on the contract, and has been here less than three years at that time, should’ve gone somewhere else if they were worried about quality of life and getting a better contract. Anyone who voted yes on the contract should not be complaining about the contract. That is just my opinion. So yes, I think you’re a hypocrite if either of those categories fit you. And no, my. tattoos are not cool. They look like a bunch of scratchers done by a 12-year-old.

 

Absolutely 100% wrong, AA cut way too much during COVID that when demand rocketed back up afterwards they were caught with their pants down along with most other airlines when it came to staffing. We were not hiring 2000 plus a year just to cover retirements and the few aircraft orders we had plus the few that were in the desert. We were hiring that much because AA cut way too much staffing during COVID. Then AA took advantage of APA, like they always do, to make the reserve system much worse for the pilot group and better for them causing them to reduce the manning per aircraft even more.