The anti imaxers are hilarious, the fact that even a jr lineholder can get a 3 month paid vacation and still pick up PM (if they wish) at a legacy airline was unthinkable not long ago. I will be imaxing every year for the rest of my career if we aren’t stupid enough to give it away.

 

Exactly. Don't be anti-IMAX. I dont do it, but Im glad we have it as a QoL tool. We shouldn't be looking to get rid of it. We should keep it AND gain other things to enhance schedules, sick, RAS, etc; not trade away a great thing to choose to do or not that every other legacy wishes they had.

 

I did it last year. It was a LOT of work, but it was absolutely worth it. It also teaches you a ton about the contract, which was useful as a new-ish guy.

 

A decade? If you can hold a line, you can IMAX. I did have to wait 2 years after upgrading (sitting reserve), but IMAX’d easily right when I started to hold a line…and I commute, which I’ve been told it’s not possible to IMAX as a commuter🤣.

 

Same here. I don't understand where this IMAX is for senior pilots comes from. You only have to be senior enough to hold a line consistently... and even an occasional reserve month in the right spot wont kill an IMAX run... sooooo....

 

Yeah, it is pretty easy for a commuter when you pay a service 5 grand a year and you're in one of the ultra-huge bid statuses. What a great contract benefit that is absolutely crippling 60% of the pilot group.

 

I don't have an issue with iMAX in itself. But this seems to be a common thing people people love to do because items become perception whether it benefits senior or junior pilots and senior or junior pilots are evil and idiots trying to take everything for themselves( all depending on perspective of whether you're senior or junior). Saw it in the Age 67 debate where anti-67 people wanted to nuke LTD benefits just to screw the Age 67 people even though if they ever needed to be on LTD, they would be screwing themselves one day. You see it now with IMAX. IMAX has become synonymous with senior pilots and junior pilots see IMAX as screwing them to benefit the seniors and they are evil.


My only issue with IMAX is the methods. Playing trip hopscotch? fine. But using sick as part of their plan is partly why the company refuses to change the rules and give us more accrual. So here I get to enjoy burning over half my annual sick time on 2 sick calls and I only needed a day for both....... But I am not willing to nuke IMAX because of that.....

 

Everyone pointing out that the contract is full of provisions designed to prevent IMAX games are not anti-IMAX or necessarily want it abolished. Those provisions hurt everyone and need to be dealt with. Perhaps we can have our cake and eat it too.

I'm not anti-IMAX but I want a realistic appraisal of its benefits vs costs. APA is not a trustworthy source. These are the same people who claimed the buckets would act as a leveling system for reserves. Everyone who's been junior on reserve the past year knows that isn't true.

Sick time is a major issue for junior lineholders. Pairing construction limits are a major issue for reserves (they get the trash nobody else wants). OG is very rare which caps reserve income flexibility.

As I stated before this retirement wave is slowing down. New hires today will experience less movement and retire far more junior than those hired closer to the beginning of the wave. That doesn't mean don't come here or it isn't still a good job, but it absolutely means that the 'you'll be senior someday' zeitgeist will come to an end. QoL needs to be increased for all.

 

No Pilot’s QOL is being hurt by imax, we can gain QOL items in the next contract without giving away the best QOL enhancer the industry has. In fact many jr pilots are able to hold lines they normally wouldn’t have because there are sr pilots imaxed or bidding reserve for their imax strategy. Every single captain or WB FO could have stayed a NB FO and imaxed if they so chose but decided the extra money was worth it. It really is disingenuous to claim that the single digit percent of pilots imaxing are hurting the entire group’s QOL. Why would you upgrade and become so jr if you are so concerned about QOL?

 

Where do you come up with this?