Subject: Clarification on IMAX, MMAX, and Credit Hour Limits
Dear Team,
Could someone please help clarify the following terms and policies?
• IMAX
• MMAX
I keep hearing that American Airlines only allows a maximum of 1,080 credited hours per year—is this correct? (I understand this does not include premium pay, reassignment, or sit pay.)
At Frontier, I averaged 1,600 credited hours annually, which included all pay categories such as vacation, premium, and ground school.
Additionally, I would appreciate clarification on these points:
• Does IMAX only allow us to credit 90 hours?
• Can the company limit voluntary flying to MALV + 7?
• For reserve, is it true that you can only pick up up to 85 total credit hours?
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Best regards,

 

You could average 90 hours of straight time per month and not have any IMAX issues but the way an IMAX person would use it is have a low month or two (typically while on reserve to get a normal paycheck) then get to a point where they credit a lot (typically in a FAR MAX month like July / August) which creates a negative or very low IMAX for that person which means they can solve PBS with a blank line / or reserve and be unassignable. Then the pilot can pick up premium which is pay, no credit or just enjoy your month(s) off.

Monthly MAX are usually between about 92 and 111 (and sometimes FAR MAX, ie. FAR 117 legal). You can pick up a posted trip someone wants to drop and go above your Monthly MAX if you're trying to compile credit in a MMAX limited month.

For reserve, you can pick up OG (pay no credit) as long as the trip touches an off day but it relatively few and far between. The company can't assign you a trip if it takes you above 85 hours that reserve month. The catch is if you have reserve days that cross bid months, you could get a trip on the last day if it doesn't credit much on day 1. (i.e. you could be at 82 hours and safe, but they get a trip that only has 1 two hour leg on day 1 and the rest of the trip is the following bid month).

 

You're not limited to 1080 hrs of pay. Yes, it's part of the IMAX formula. Converting pay into 'pay hours' (earnings divided by hourly rate) I always had about 1200+ hrs of 'pay' and my PR was 1500+. So for example a pay rate of $200/hr = $240K - $300K a year in salary.

That MIA 737 CA pay over 11 months that's been posted? Seems like it was 1200+ 'equivalent pay hours' which meant that he'd get over 1300 'pay hours' worth of pay this year. Not uncommon for the people hustling a bit. Sit SC rsv and don't do anything extra? You'll get around 900 pay hrs.

 

Welcome aboard!

The first year is going to be a slog unless you pick a very junior base. Junior reserves get worked but the pain stops at 85 hours. That's 16 days of minimum credit trips so try to get some that are higher credit (just need 1 hour cumulative, but that is harder than it sounds) then it will only be 15. Try to get some OG (extra flying on a day off) if you want but it's rarely offered and usually goes senior unless it's 0330 in the morning. Plan on 80 hours of regular pay plus about 10% for overrides, reassignments, etc. Anything more than that would be unexpected.

I finally started getting a tiny bit of OG just as I was senior enough to get a line (senior airplane, senior base). Once you get a line in a large bid status you will be able to trade and pick up and do all sorts of things. Plan on 95 hours in the slow months and 120 in the heavy months once you get a line but then IMAX will eventually get you.

Senior pilots drop all their trips and snag broken trips with high credit/low block. That's when you can really hustle but that will be a while unless you pick a junior base. Strategic use of vacation and sick time can result in 140+ months but you probably need 70% seniority to make it feasible.

For everyone reading this don't come here without a plan to live on 80 hours per month the first year and probably most of the second and you won't be stressed or disappointed. If you pick the 73 in a junior base you can probably do better than that. Pick the 320 in CLT or DFW and it's going to be a long slog.

 

IMAX looks forward 3 months (246 hours) and backwards 8 months (what you actually credited) to limit your credit to 1080 in any rolling 12 month period. With a few low months to start the IMAX run the formula will allow you to fly very high credit for a few months before the low credit months disappear from the rolling 1080. When the low credit months get removed from the 1080 formula you become limited for 1 to 4 months. During IMAX limited months you still get paid the bottom of the line construction window or reserve guarantee but actual flying is limited to your IMAX number. All premium and OG flying is uncredited and can still be done while IMAX limited.

From APA:
IMAX
IMAX is one of three limitations used to restrict monthly maximums for all pilots except those on Small Narrowbody aircraft (none currently in service at AA). Pilots are limited to the lower of IMAX, the limit on voluntary flying (VMAX), or FAR limits.
VMAX
VMAX is the maximum PROJ allowed by the company for a given month. If a pilot “Posted” trip makes it through the batch run without being picked up or dropped, pilots can pick up those trips, even if the pilot is at or above VMAX, in real time by using the shopping cart and accepting the pop-up that asks if a pilot is willing to pick up above VMAX.
PROJ
PROJ is the number of credited hours a pilot is projected to receive for a given month.
for an I
DAL has a block hour limit that is very much like our IMAX; our current IMAX was designed to mimic the DAL limiter.
SWA has a limiter known as the 365 Day Flight Time max that if exceeded does not pay the pilot via a sequence protection method. SWA hours are monitored, and a pilot's monthly flying is scaled back to prevent limits from being exceeded, and, if exceeded, a SWA pilot cannot bid a reserve line and collect the reserve guarantee.
UAL monthly bids have a limiter called the Personal Block Cap that gives a 90-hour cap each month.
Each airline has slight differences such as whether sick, vacation, training or displacements count toward their limits. All of these programs attempt to limit pilots to approximately 90 hours/month.

 

To the OP, if you go on the APA website look up compass docs there’s a wealth of info on bidding, payroll and decoding your HSS and HI1. The above poster quoted the compass doc on IMAX directly.

It takes awhile to get the hang of it here, but the APA website helps tremendously.