robthree

24 hour duty day extendable to 30 with CP approval. Unless there has been a recent change.

I love Southern DH stories.
Mine was my first trip off IOE. DH BOS-EWR-HKG. Sit for a few days. They decide they don't need to double crew the trip I'm supposed to operate, to LGG, and dispatch it as a heavy crew. An hour after the operating flight leaves, the hotel calls and kicks me out, since it is Chinese New Year, they're oversold and I don't have a reservation. The company can't find me a room in HK, so they DH me HKG-ZRH-BRU. I get to my hotel in Brussels for a 24 hour rest, lay down to sleep, and the phone rings. My cab is waiting to take me to LGG. That date line thing was just impossible for schedulers to figure out. I get to LGG, have a whole day off, and get a call to get in another cab go back to BRU to DH to JFK where I had a 10 hour break before finally operating a revenue leg. Which is how I made my first MileagePlus Elite status.

The one that torqued me off the most was when they paid $600 to DH me in coach from KUL to HKG, and there were open business seats on the same airplane for $400.

That's when I knew I was working for sadists.

starship

That's correct. Finally made myself go look it up.
I think I was thinking the US flight, four pilot crew which is 20 hours duty in any 24 hours. Which we never do here.

Birdstrikes

All of these horrific deadhead stories are true. However, we've done much less international deadhead recently under DHL than in the past (especially when the B747's were chasing ACMI contracts). SAI is engaged in a different type of flying currently. Most of the 777 pilots start and end in either CVG or LAX. International does still happen occasionally to HKG. I recently had a 3 leg deadhead to HKG in Economy and there is no other way to describe it other than it sucked!

Thankfully more established and powerful pilot groups in the industry have been able to negotiate 100% deadhead pay, Business or better, travel banks, etc that make deadhead at least tolerable. That was a goal when SAI's negotiating team put together our current, crappy CBA. Keep in mind this was over 9 years ago.

The VP of Ops that was on the other side of the negotiations at Southern (Mike H. formerly of Polar) was adamant that he was not going to give away Business Class or Better as he had during negotiations at Polar. We traded that for higher hourly and some work rules. As it was, Jim Neff (SAI owner at the time) canned Mike after the CBA was signed for giving away what he did. We got all we could at the time. Nobody envisioned we'd still be stuck under this dog in 2016.

The company follows the CBA when it comes to deadhead travel. Although we all wish they'd take mercy on us, we can't expect them to follow the CBA in some areas and not others. It is what it is until a new CBA is signed.

Birdstrikes

Southern operates the 777 under the very lax flight/duty time limits of either Flag or Supplemental contained in our OpSpecs. Most other pilot groups have been able to negotiate more humane limits. Because most pilot groups don't need to suffer under the CFR limits the FAA has been loathe to change them.

Mixing various crew compositions creates scheduling havoc due to Flag CFR 121.487 and its sister Supplemental CFR 121.525. You can't keep mixing 2 pilot, 3 pilot, and 4 pilot crews throughout the month. SAI's current 777 route structure includes legs that could be flown with 2 pilots (under 8 hours), 3 pilots (under 12 hours), and 4 pilots (no flight time limit just a 30 hour duty limit). Hence, most trips keep either a 3 pilot composition or 4 pilot even if its a 1:45 leg from Leipzig to East Midlands. It's a waste to have 4 pilots for a short leg, but it sure is nice having a voice activated coffee maker.

If anyone is to blame it's the lax rules governed by the FAA. The management of ACMI carriers simply exploit those limits and any loopholes in their respective CBA's. It's up to the pilot groups to negotiate tighter limits. If every airline's management could throw out their pilot group's CBA's we'd all be suffering under CFR limits as management exploited them to maximize "efficiency", i.e. profits!

gringo

"What be the Zulu time where you be at?"

A few were sadists, no doubt. But most were good people, if only clueless.

"Captain, I'm trying to find you a commercial flight home to Fort Lauderdale, but for some reason I just can't find any direct flights out of Miami! I found some flights with connections, though! Would you prefer to go through Atlanta or Mexico City?

CaptYoda

Now that's priceless.

longhauler

And now for your amalgamated contact, take half of the bad from one and half the bad from the other and bam! here is your new CBA to vote on!

sandrich

I've done CVG-BAH-HKG in the back. Straight through. Twice.... 22hr deadhead for 11hrs of pay.

Also love it when:
"Your leg cancelled, we'll bring you to base and you'll company deadhead from there"
--"am I pay protected?" (Stupid question)
"No but you'll make 50% of the deadhead"
--"okay, then buy me a ticket from home"
"Perfect."

**looks at itinerary**
Ticket cost 3x's the amount of the value of the cancelled leg... Spending dimes to save nickels.

Whaledriver

Email will be out soon on the meeting. Not good. Atlas/Polar all over again.

NightIP

Only if we let it be. Now is the time to show our solidarity.