Know a guy who a couple years ago, had a 1000 hours in his make-up bank. Said that was the equivalent of an extra year with his daughter. Depending on seat manning, you can drop trips into your make-up bank no sweat.

If you REALLY need a day off and the drop is denied multple times for "insufficient manning" your ACP can approve a Personal Emergency drop. Those hours can come out of your Vacation or Sick, or go into your Make-up bank. If you try to drop a trip multiple times then call in sick, expect a phone call.

On the other side of the coin, picking up extra flying at straight time, (If there are "Open Time" trips available) you can trip-trade ADD up to 12hrs a month and go into the hole up to 6hrs in your make-up bank. A negative balance in your makeup bank gets zero'd at the start of the month. So, a guy could goose his pay by 18hrs a month with a zero make-up balance.

 

If you live in domicile and bid domestic reserve you can plan on working about half of the 15 days of reserve every 28 day bid. The 727/DC-8 guys sometimes work only 3-4 days and the A300 crews work more.

I don't know anyone at UPS who has flown more than 400 hours in a year. Moving reserve days is usually not too hard as long as it's an even trade. The company won't let you trade weekdays for weekend days since we don;t fly much on the weekend.

We don't work nearly as much as the pax carrier pilots, but when we do work I think it takes more of a toll on your body since it is at night. Overall it's a great gig. I'm making well over 100K and am home nearly every night.

 

Viktorbravo wrote:

I would love to be able to nomally drop trips and forfeit the pay. If we could do that I figure I would just work every third month. I'm not being a smartass by saying that, but I live a very simple life where I dont need much money from UPS as I work at other sources. My ultimate goal is to be free of a paycheck from anyone other than myself. I may very well be a rare breed of the business in that respect. At SWA, I could do this trip drop thing as a normal way of life. Not sure about FDX. I cant blame the company for wanting me to work and not letting me drop trips though. Its just the way it is. Hey, if I hire a person, I want them to do the work of one employee so I dont have to hire an extra body just to do the work of one person. Hiring individuals costs money. I understand this. Although I think a little more flexibility would bring us up to industry standard. But, its all supply and demand and right now our professions are on the short end of the stick. However, for whatever reason, we did not negotiate this into our current contract.


Some insight from the "other" side:

Here at AWA we have a very flexible drop/pick-up system. I have dropped down to as low as 40 hours and picked-up as high as 99 hours. As someone else said, work hard, play hard !

BUT, BUT, BUT ... we pay dearly for our schedule flexibility with our bottom of the industry pay rates, among other things.

And furthermore, that schedule flexibility is based upon company staffing levels. Which means certain bases and seats have complete flexibility, while others have NONE. Our LAS base has been critically understaffed since it opened 2 years ago ... so their opinion of our system would be COMPLETELY different than mine.

Otherwise thanks for the informative post. One question, do you actually lose seniority while on PLOA ? I completely understand the longevity lose, but seniority seems odd ...

Later, CC

 

Ok, that's another difference. At FDX there's no difference between weekday and weekend but, moving r-days has gotten alot harder depending on your seat manning, if they're short in your seat expect your move request to be denied for "insufficent reserves."

 

I'm not 100% sure but I think it depends on the length of time you are on PLOA.

Hope this helps.

 

It's like any business out there; you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.

 

Viktorbravo...

Would you expect anything less (or more) from any other airline? I have found that the people I deal with are very nice and helpful in doing their jobs; no, they won't break the rules but sometimes they will bend them for you. It's about treating people the way you want to be treated.

Ups is a business. They take a lot of time (too much time!) negotiating our contract. My pay has always been there on time (more reliably even than the military!) and with the exception of one incompetent scheduler (we all know who she is) everyone I deal with on a regular basis is pleasant and agreeable. I show up, do my job and go home happy. What is it you want from ups? Not sure you would be happy at any other airline with the expectations and disappointments you seem to have with ups.

JMO

Pilot7576

 

Me either. Even on the workhorse 757 I have flown 200 hours in 6 months.

 

Sounds like we have the same views at least when it comes to this.

 

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