When our trip rig at FDX goes from 4:1 to 3.75:1, I wonder if that will benefit the entire pilot group in the form of a raise or just the TAFB trip fliers. I looked at the contract rules fairly closely. As it is written, in January, when the rig changes, so does the spread between high and low paying lines...from 11hour spread to 13 hours. That should allow lines to be constructed with the new trip rig and keep the lower paying domestic type lines as is (or close to it).
I wonder if any scheduling gurus out there can give us an indication what the BLGs will look like. I would think if the average blg goes up, then that rising tide will raise up the RLGs at least. However, if the optimizing software works around it, it may only benefit those who can hold TAFB trips. Anyone got any ideas?

 

Any of the 'T' credit hour trips should pay more, until, as you noted, they get optimized.

 

They are being optomized by being shorter. Used to be you would have this 12 day Asia tour w/a 72 hr L/O in Subic, HKG or NRT. Then somtime after your legal rest period during the 72, you would get tagged w/1 or 2 extra legs which would wash out within TAFB. I.E. more work, same pay. Now in order to gain back that efficiency the trips are more numerous, but shorter. Thus gaining back the 72 hr downtime and avoiding the Grid penalties. All this being said....if they need you to move the freight all the GPE's and overage in the world is a drop in the bucket compared to the margin on a MD full of P1. If they need you they will revise (and pay) you.

 

Do not make the mistake of looking at a trip constructed under the current 1:4 rig and simply apply the 1:375.

That gives you the false impression that an INTL 12 trip will simply pay 4 or so hours more than it currently does.

It will if the company simply continues to construct the trip the exact same way.
But They won't. They will optimize cost savings when the rig changes in January 08. Many of the longer trips will be shortened (reduced TAFB)and optimized within (more Block time flown, fewer decent layovers of 36 or greater.)

Have you Noticed an increase of Same Duty DH's within trips?
Have you noticed the very shortened layovers on trips with front or backend DH's?

The domestic TAFB trips that turn thru IND, EWR, AFW and OAK will in my opinion change radically.

 

And that's why we need to support the SIG. Trips aren't going to be getting any better with the new rig, and the company will be tweaking the optimizer to get more work out of us for the same pay, as Redeye says. Support the SIG by not flying DP's, then when trips get really crappy, the company can't say the SIG is crying wolf by claiming disputing pairings, when everyone is picking them up(well, not everyone, a select few spineless one-way *****s) If you haven't noticed what Redeye said is happening, you need to start looking closer at the bidpacks, then imagine what your QOL will be after the new year. Not a pretty picture, in my opinion.

ps. Remember, the SIG guys just write the lines, they don't construct the pairings, the company does that. Think the company is going to do us any favors when the rig changes?

 

Will this have much of an effect in pay for those who sit reserve?? Not all of us are senior, and I don't see how this new trip/duty rig will help the RLG. On a 4-week bid month, the RLG is typically 69-70 hours. BLG around 72 hours.

So because of the sodomizer, the new rig may only look good on paper?? Tell me it ain't so.

 

The new Trip Rig will not only apply to International Trips, but to Domestice Trips as well.

It has long irritated me that trips that take two days pay less than 12 CH, or three days pay less than 18CH, and so on. For example, take a look at June's Trip 182 in the Boeing Trip 182 MEM 27 28MAY07

It's scheduled for 43+02 TAFB, 14+54 Duty, and 3+03 Block. A pilot operating 2 PM Out & Backs in the same footprint would earn 12:00 CH, but this pilot earns Trip Rig of 10:46. Change the Trip Rig to 3.75 to 1, and the CH goes to 11:29. That still falls short of the 12:00 I think we should get, but it's a step in the right direction.


Take a look through your bid pack and I think you'll find more TAFB trips than you might imagine.




.

 

RLG is a function of AVG line BLG and is not tied to TRip Rig.

When the Lines pay more........AVG BLG is higher and thus RLG is higher.


As for Trip RIG being a Savior.......

RIGS can get very complicated. There are many types of RIGS which all each designed to protect the Pilot. They are all symbiotic in nature and are usually designed to work in concert with each other.

Changing only 1 (such as us with Trip RIG) doesn't usually help attain the desired result, as in our case.

 

That is correct...today. As redeye said, this will change. On the international side they will be moving towards hard time trips that are shorter in duration. If you take a look at ANC you can see what they are doing. The pairings are being built in the 25-30 CH range. This does a couple things other than ruin commuting. Many of the trips in the 12-40 hour range pay hard time and they are in effect giving you your longer layover in base off the clock. MEM is heading this way to, all you need to look at is the way trips are changing.

Unfortunately MEM has not seen what they can do to affect the Domestic flights to avoid 3.75:1. Again, Redeye is correct, saying the current form of pairing design for week long hub turns will be changed. Why should they pay 41 minutes extra per day on a IND hub turn trip vs. the guy hub turning MEM ? This is what they are thinking and will start to devour those trips by attacking city purity. I would guess you will see stuff like this:

Day 1 MEM-OAK
day 2 OAK-IND-ORD
day 3 ORD-IND-DTW
day 3 DTW-MEM

hub turn out of MEM into another similar trip to reset the trip rig clock.

I did not do the actual calculation of what this would pay, this is just a hypothetical idea of what I think they will do to avoid TAFB domestically.

There are going to be international and domestic trips that pay more, especially ones that are affected by block capture over 8 hours. We have not seen the new designs to affect this, it might make some very senior trips, MEM-NRT d/h KIX(SHORT layovers) KIX-MEM and pay hard time like the RFO trips we see now. That way all the longer intl trips through Asia will come through ANC and avoid flights over 8 hours.

Bottom line is we need to start paying attention to more than disputed pairings because for every disputed pairing we see there are at least 10 others just as bad that make it into the bid lines. The DP process is not a pure process and is extremely tainted by the Company. If you are flying something that smells bad it probably is, make the right call when necessary.

Sorry for the long post.

 

Would just like to add the increased spread in max and min paying lines will probably wash away any increase in RLG caused by the trip rig change. Yes some trips will pay more but a lot of week long pairings will be optimized down.