It's already happening to a certain extent. Not sure about "most of our aircraft", but the 757 will replace many Airbus and MD10 routes. Which is why, in my minority opinion, a single pay rate is the way to go. Then you really "bid what you want to fly". Regardless, we are getting plenty of 76's as well, a very good thing.

 

That's they way I look at it, one pay rate and everyone really bid what they want to fly. No chasing $$$. These guys keep talking about a pay cut, but when most of the bus and md guys get pushed down to a 757 going from wide body to narrow body pay, that's when reality will kick in but it will be too late. They have to wait until their next negotiation and give something up for it. I just don't understand why most of you fellow pilot are against. They senior guys think they get a paycut and the junior guys are enjoying their false seniority and are scare a wide body guy will bump them out of the sit they've been enjoying. LMBO it's will be interesting to see or hear them complain a few years from now

 

The seniority a pilot attains by staying on a NB aircraft (..or in the right seat) is real -- very real

It determines their monthly schedules, city pairs, type of flying, recurrent training, vacation etc

Depending on where you live/how you commute, upgrading to another seat/aircraft could have a huge affect on your QOL

The current system allows one to choose

I've never interpreted "bid what you want to fly" as a mantra that merely refers to aircraft type

Rather, it refers to what you actually wanted to do --- aircraft and seat...and the associated schedule & pay...and QOL!

It was a warning to those who may be tempted to adjust their bid for other reasons --- Passover pay, bigger $$ --- but then upset when the results of those bids left them with a schedule/lifestyle they really didn't want....going to training again, long commute, sitting reserve again, etc

Now, I'll agree that we never should have agreed to the 757 paying "pure" narrow body rates --- no other airline does that/did that --- it always paid a little more

It carries more and is more efficient then the 727 it replaced

The 2006 contract, which provided higher A380 rates, stated both the 757 and 737 would pay narrow body rates regardless of which was selected to replace the 727 (..the company claimed in late Aug 06 it still hadn't made a decision)

At that time the 727 fleet had shrunk from a high of about 165 jets down to about 100 jets, and was on its way out within 10 years

The NB was viewed as a clear minority in a fleet of about 365 jets

Less than a week after the contract was signed & effective - Nov 1, 2006 - the company announced the selection of the 757 --- at the negotiated "pure" NB rates (...hmmm)

But hey, at least we secured higher rates for the A380, right??

...of course we all know what happened after that.

 

I personally would like to see the NB rates increased but not equal the WB rates. That'll give the junior group relative seniority and keep the senior guys off the Paducah lines. There's about 500 pilots on the NB list right now, considering LCA's, Flex's and Passover, we're probably talking in the 400 range of pilots on NB pay out of 4200 total. Not a big leap to give them a little pay boost, especially since it might help out a lot more, as you said it's a growing aircraft.

 

Cloud,
A 75 can't replace an MD10 or an airbus. In some cases a 76 might. Not sure what you're flying but the loads on the mds I've had lately, 76s couldn't haul either. A few things guys forget about our pay scale. Currently only about 13% of the crew force in on the 75. Of which at least 5% are getting Passover pay. So, approx 8% of the crew force is getting narrow body pay. The majority is by choice. Pay vs QOL. Also having 2 scales allows for a potentially earlier upgrade. A bud of mine at brown says most upgrade as soon as they can hold it because of the pay bump. If we had a single pay scale, we have 75 captains that wouldn't have been captains if we had it.

So while the grass is greener over the septic tank, I think it is currently workin here.

Just food for thought, what do you do if it were implemented? Have one giant system wide bid so that all would have equal opportunity in the seats since the pay is the same? Pretty sure some on the 75 might not want that.

 

5/13 = 38.5%...of 757 crew members are on Passover Pay ??

Are you confident in these numbers?

I understand many of the Flexes in the 757 are FOs, on Widebody FO Passover....but didn't the majority of the 757 LCAs actually bid & hold 767 Capt positions within the past 18 months

Regardless, that percentage seems high for the entire 500+ 757 crew force

 

It seems that as the FedEx Ground network matures, the 757 is able to replace the wide bodies on many domestic routes. From what I have seen on the 757 bidpack, and I don't spend tons of time evaluating past bidpacks, the 757 is replacing many domestic WB routes, mainly the Airbus. Most of CGN flying was once done by the Airbus as well. Now we have 80 guys at NB pay doing that flying.

I know that my view is in the minority, but seeing the numbers of 757's coming, and looking at the long term future of the domestic market, we might one day find ourselves in a 50/50 of NB/WB fleets. By then, negotiating a single pay scale would probably cost us too much.

If implemented, I would probably bid what would give me the best seniority and QOL, for the type of flying that would allow. I think we would really be bidding more purely by seniority in that case. But, in reality, I do like how it works for me now (as the majority seems to like it), I just think that in the long term it would probably be best to have a single pay scale.

 

I couldn't have said it better cloud. Today maybe 8% of the crew force are on narrow body pay but in 5yrs it could be 50% A lot of your pilots don't care too much because either they are not in that 8% or they don't want to get bumped out of their seat if a single pay rate was implemented. However I think you guys a creating a monster which will take a lot off man power and money to slay in the near future.

 

By they way if it's such a small number of guys on narrow body pay, what the big deal it just getting them all to one level. You guys need to stop thinking only of yourselves. Stop being typical pilots. "Me Me Me"

 

Yep, and it will be especially telling when Fred retires, what happens to his sacred cow, the airline. My bet is we will get a non-airline CEO who will want to mimmic UPS' method of putting freight on a FedEx aircraft if it's the ONLY way to make service. We will see a massive shift of volume to ground and will see 757s replacing widebodies throughout the system.

We better get a single pay rate now, before it's prohibitively expensive to do so.