Can anybody say 'Home Basing'?

The best idea here yet, in two words.

Please get on the NC appDude.;)

Or, virtual basing, awarded by seniority. There will always be a need for MEM based crews, but virtual basing would allow those who can hold double DH's, single departure lines, etc…, to create their "scheduled" DH from their home town. I believe that several fractionals (CitationShares, NetJets…), and maybe even Southwest, do this. It works great for the company, it works great for the pilots.

:confused: I know we're just tossing around pipe-dreams but why make this complicated. Those who can hold DHs would be able to "virtually base" themselves where they live by definition (if we fix the DH issue). Why would we have to declare certain pilots MEM based and certain ones "virtually based"? I see no upside to that.
Coming up with a solution that allows the lucky pilot who gets a double DH on a secondary or trip trade to take advantage of the benefit along with those who hold them all the time seems like an easy, less contentious option.

Yeah, tossing around pipe-dreams is right. I put about 30 seconds of thought into my post. :)

Although, a sound plan which would benefit both us and the company, could be implemented to solve the issue of decreasing seats available out of MEM. I don't know the details and specifics of virtual basing at other carriers, but I do know that it makes life for commuters much better (about 70% of our pilots commute right?).

So, I agree, since we are in negotiations, this would be a good time to address DH's in a mutually beneficial manner.

I have never understood why we don't have other pilot domiciles. Like IND, EWR and OAK, to name a few possibilities. The answer I always get is "FedEx wants control". I don't see how having domiciles at the smaller hubs would be giving up control, specially when there would be some great efficiencies to gain. And speaking of pipe-dreams, add DEN to the list of domiciles please.

The only problem with this is the trip starts when you show at the airport if it's in your hometown instead of 12-24 hrs prior, like most of our dh's. Also, from the companies I know that do this, their dh rules are atrocious. Why not go with status quo because it will cause for longer layovers for some trips since they won't have the availability to DH us home. Back up plans will be a definite factor. I'm all about getting paid to sit in a hotel and not work. This will also make the trip longer meaning for less utilization of each pilot... so overall means more pilots to do the same job. Just my humble opinion.
Pakage

Yes, the devil is in the details. The company would never go for something that was actually good for us commuters.
Just gonna have to figure out how to live in the new world of commuting.

Gotta love the cities that used to have MD10s are now crew rest MD11s. Nothing like the mad dash for the ironing board.....

Ask some ATLAS guys how that worked out...DHs getting included in your salary and taxable....depends on many details, but that even effects alimony payments...some major issues and in my opinion, not worth some of the major implications.

I gotta agree with the above sediments, home basing (under the terms the company would agree to :rolleyes: ) will be a bad idea. A better plan would be to continue to press for the improvements in deviation bank usage with emphasis on flexibility on when and how these funds can be used. Maybe even allow the cost of flying your Grumman Tiger to work. :D Still need to fix accepted fares. Maybe the Delta pull back can give us some leverage to get this issue front and center, one can only hope!

Sediments? You've gotta be kidding me! I hope there's a pun in there, somewhere, that I'm missing.