BoxFlyer

"The bids going forward, with or without you."


32% here.

JDriver

I hope there are more closet FDA folks than appeared on the practiced bids.

That way the bid closes. Those who want it get it. Those who dont....dont.

Haywood JB

As I was told on the crew bus(again), you have nothing to worry about, it's going to go senior.

Gunter

I love hearing these gems--

"I just wish the bid would close so I can upgrade"

"It will go senior so we have no leverage"

"I don't care about that I bid number xx"

"We had to get this LOA signed so Chinese pilot's wouldn't fly our freight"
(Yes, I heard this pearl of wisdom AGAIN this week)

"We should be glad we got something, the company could have opened the FDA's under the current contract"


This last one I can't even pretend to agree with and it is commonly said. How can you think that if you think it's important for someone to actually bid and fly these FDAs to make FedEx's plan work? Because without it you would have had some SIBA. Which is better than STV if you actually know what STV is. The only people this LOA helps are the folks bidding CDG CA who just want to enjoy Paris for a 2-3 year "vacation". They figure it's cheaper to do it this way and they can get back to making serious coin after they get back to the states. This LOA is what they needed to make it work for them.

JL wrote don't expect these FDA's to be a great windfall. This, of course, created an expectation bias that many found too hard to resist. These mind tricks do not work on some.

I'm not a rocket scientist, but even I get it. Sometimes I feel dumber getting off the crew bus hearing all the garbage that goes around.

LaidOffAgain

Why? Was the LOA that good of a deal? Are you bidding it?

skypine27

I hope there are even less FOs bidding the FDAs than appeared on the practice"d" bids. That way the company will be forced to cancel the bid, and negotations for a new, possibly decent LOA will begin.

Thanks for your support, pal.

Gunter

He (and the rest of us lower seniority bubbas) will eventually pay for our collective lack of vision.

JDriver

Why...so we can move on. I dont see any moves on either side hinting that the LOA is going to get a facelift. I dont think is a good deal. I am not bidding it. For the folks who are potential STV candidates, I hope they are not forced into something they dont want. Correct me if I am wrong, but if the FDAs are filled then the odds of STV go way down.

As much as many of us dont like the result of this LOA, it looks like we lost this round. I would like to see what many on this site want, but it does not look good. Therefore, if my assumptions are correct, and the slots are filled the FDA folks can do their thing and the potential STV folks may not be needed.

Additionally, assuming that we are not going to get any more sweetner added to the pot, an FDA would be a fianancial challenge for a new hire.

Daniel Larusso

Maybe I'm missing something here, but since there hasn't been a single peep from the company since DW's letter why would we expect this thing to be canceled or even delayed coming out? Seems to me that the last practice bid closed with plenty of time for the company to get a decent enough idea of who is and isn't going to change their bids, so if they wanted to make a move in response to that and DW's comment they could/would have done so. There is nothing contractually prohibiting them from awarding this bid, so why wouldn't they just award it before ALPA decides to stop being polite and start getting real? Then they can fill the other slots any way they wish: all new hires , SIBA, or some new hires and some additional existing pilots via a revised LOA and a future smaller FDA bid. The people who took the first bite of the apple and maybe some newhires would fill the training pipeline until the next FDA bid/training letter comes out.

The key for ALPA in the latter scenario is to manage how bad they would get hammered over this. Forget the 'I told you so,' or 'I thought this was the last best offer crowd.' They aren't likely to change their minds. They would have be to make sure that any revised LOA provisions or options are available to all of the pilots who bid an FDA on this bid or you're basically creating a B-scale. The other key would be how well they explain the likely fact that the current bid would not be canceled and re-done based on any revised LOA. While there appears to be plenty of room for potential FDA FO's to change their minds on future bids(expect any revised LOA to be slanted that way btw), there likely won't be much room for Captain's. I can see a bunch of po'd people saying that they would have bid FDA Captain based on a revised LOA, who now feel that their seniority has been abrogated and that junior people have 'taken' their slot because the bid wasn't canceled and re-done. Considering that they have already gone back on their words with the invol STV change, deposit assistance, and shipping allowance, I'd expect the company to try and get some of their face back in a revised LOA. Not re-opening the bid may do that because more people would be upset with ALPA over that than the company.

(P.S. before Jetjok hits me over the head, yes I am speculating!)

FDXLAG

I think the kids who claimed "we got no leverage" were smoking the good stuff .