In reality, (unless they have tightened it up even more) you likely have bought your own ticket with your CC that gives you ‘airline miles’ -and you end up ‘eating’ the $50 at the end of the month. . you don’t owe the Co. anything. If, you can’t get anything cheaper than the ‘scheduled’ ticket value for both ends of the D/H. . you eat $100 . . or what ever the RT difference.

The last few years I pretty much did all the deviating via Limo -and saved the Bean Counters THOUSANDS, in the course of making my quality of life exceptionally better than riding a D/H someplace.

OR. . you can forget about racking up ‘airline miles’ on your personal CC and order your tickets from Corporate Travel in MEM. THAT’S when you end up having to write the Company a check. . if you have them make your deviant reservations.

THEN . . . there is the issue that they stuck to us with the last contract, which I REALLY hated & was the main reason I voted against the contract.

I have thankfully forgotten the gory details . .someone more current can fill you in. . but it has to do with being no more than 100 miles away from the departure airport at a set time before the live departure of your revenue trip. Apparently we had some folks who were not adults and failed to show after deviating . . and they screwed it up for the rest of us who were responsible enough to know we had to be there at a certain time.

In my case, when I had LAX or ONT or OAK departures and live in No County SAN, the computer said I was outside the 100 mi radius and I had to insure I was in there MANY hours before I would otherwise plan to be there. It made it a REAL PITA, since there were SO many ways to get to the Ramp for show time, but you had to ‘check in’ from inside the 100 mi radius. Glad to be not doing it anymore

 

tiptip,

If you trip starts out of Mem then there will not be a d/h to Mem. You have to get there on your own.

I don't work for FDX but I can't imagine it any other way.

 

Yeah. .sure. . the Union worked that one out as a primary ‘need’


If your trips start and end in MEM and there is no D/H built into the Pairing, you are on your own recognizance to get to your Show Time.

We were talking about pairings that start (on paper) in MEM and D/H to the field city, where the A/C is parked and the live revenue portion of the trip starts and ends at the end of the week. The end of the trip is a D/H back to MEM .. after appropriate crew rest.

Again. . .. if your Pairing is MEM/ATW/MEM. . you must present yourself at the ID scanner at Show Time . . by whatever means you choose to insure you get there.

 

True........When you Deviate you now have to preform 2 check-ins via phone or computer. The first is your intital check-in just like you would check in at Air ops at the begining.......but you can check in early if you want.........................The Bad part is the second check-in which must be preformed no later than 8 hours prior to 1st revenue leg if it is a domestic flight.........or 12 hours prior to 1st revenue leg if it is a international leg.
This is where you have to SAY "I am within 100 miles of Revenue Departure City" That is what we lost with our current contract as we did not have to do that under the FCH (old Fake contract).

Drew another change , Technically all Deviation reservations (contractually) must be made using the Fedex corporate travel office............unless you can get a cheaper fare on your own. You now must use the Fedex corp charge card tp purchase reservation tickets made by yourself, so you can't get your FF miles on your personal visa or mastercard...... The only good deal is we are now allowed to get Frequent flyer miles on Northwest. Why we can't get them on everyone else is beyond me but those are the rules..........

 

Gawd . . I just HATED that change! I really screwed up a good thing. Say you had a 2000 OAK departure and there is a SAN/OAK flight every 45 minutes all day long on SWA or UAL. It REALLY pi**ed me off to have to be in the damn hotel at noon! Instead of maybe 1600-1700 with a couple of ‘back ups’ .

Is that because the travel agency which runs CT is owned by Ferd’s cousin or girlfriend of something
Those FF miles sure made life good, flying the wife and kids up on long weekends in BOI or YVR or SEA!!

 

captain drew,


Are any of these things being addressed in negotiations? I understand that you most likely can't talk about any negotiations in an open forum. I haven't followed FDX negotiations over the last 2 years, not sure if you all have voted down a TA. If you have though then these sort of things in the TA are public knowledge. If you havn't voted down a TA then I understand why you can't comment.

 

okay, so I understand pilots who commute to where their trip orginates are to be big boys and get there on their own but surely all those commuters (who arent in driving distance) arent buying airline tickets are they? are you able to ride for free on other airlines to get to where your trip starts??

 

Take the same example of a front-end deadhead to OAK on American Airlines. It's 2 legs, with a stop in DFW. Let's say you live in Dallas, and deviate. Rather than fly both legs, you plan to fly only the second leg. That should save the Company some money, right?


Your buddy on the same trip takes the scheduled deadhead from MEM, and you're both sitting in the terminal at the gate in DFW when American announces that the flight to OAK has been cancelled due to a mechanical issue. Your non-deviating buddy relaxes and calls control center scheduling and lays the problem in their lap. YOU, on the other hand, commence to panic to find another way to OAK because it is YOUR responsibility to get to OAK on time. Never mind that the both of you are stranded in DFW for the very same reason, because YOU have deviated from the scheduled pairing, YOU get no relief. Your buddy might wind up with a revised pairing that involves travel on the following day, or a live leg that begins in DFW or AFW, or even a deadhead back to MEM - - who knows. You, on the other hand, wind up missing your deviation check-in, missing the report time for your live leg out of OAK, you'll probably lose the pay for the trip, and you'll get to speak to your assistant chief pilot.

Perhaps you both get on a flight that gets to OAK just in time to get minimum rest for the scheduled live leg. You're still not off the hook because you missed the deviation check-in within 100 miles of the airport. You still get to talk to the ACP.


Deviating on front-end deadheads can certainly make commuting easier, but it's not without drawbacks and its own brand of stress.


One of these days, we should all try to take the scheduled deadheads out of Memphis, and see just how many of us actually can get seats.








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No, they're not. I live away from Memphis and I have to off-line jumpseat on a NW flight the day prior to my trip or reserve start. There are three flights a day from VPS to MEM, 0730, 1120, 1640. If my trip leaves MEM at 2200, I need to get one of those flights. I usually try the 1120 first so I have the 1640 as a backup. If I don't make it on one of those flights, I'm screwed. It really sucks, because you lose a day at home on the front end and the backend. If my trip or reserve ends in MEM, then I can't get home until the next day.

If you live in a city that FDX services, then you're eligible for company jumpseats. The big difference here is that if you have a RESERVED jumpseat (yes, there is competition for them in some cities) and the flight cancels, that's a get out of jail free card b/c you are considered to be "staging" from there. So, if your trip leaves MEM at 0300, you can catch the 2200 flight out of DFW, arrive MEM around 2400 or so and have plenty of time to make your trip. On the backend, if your trip ends in MEM at around midnight, you can catch the 0300 flight from MEM to DFW, be home in bed by 0600. All things considered, if you don't have a compelling reason to live somewhere other than MEM, like a guard/reserve job, it's your hometown, the wife loves it, etc etc, then you should strongly consider moving to MEM. Some guys hate it, others love it. I've done plenty of househunting in G'town and C'ville and they seem like great places. You can be home every single night. I'm going to move myself, as soon as I'm done with my reserve job. Whenever that is.

 

Did you get hired before they instituted the psychological evaluation with the Co. Shrink?

Or is this problem something that has started manifesting itself recently