Yes, exactly! Now I can see how that might be impossible for them on a last minute booking, one of the busiest days of the year, however.....they do this crap routinely. Book us over five hours on deadheads that include commuter flights, Frontier, and Southwest, with no first class section---when there are PLENTY of options available.

One time I randomly checked what first class flights were available from Memphis that would have been legal to my destination, and there were about 15 flights that they could have booked me on. There is no requirement to look for a flight where first class actually exists, so they look at where they can save the most money. How that one flies is beyond me. I understand if there is no other option, but sometimes it appears to be the first choice. Why the hell they didn't fix this loophole in the contract is beyond me. I wonder if they even tried.

 

If you bother to read the OP's scenario, you'd see there weren't any different flights.

He had a secondary and there were 5 days from official assignment of the trip to deadhead day, so it was going to be tight anyway. He failed to be proactive and at some point even closer to the day of travel, he "discovered" scheduling didn't buy the ticket yet (Global Travel buys tickets, not scheduling - but whatever).

So, when someone finally got around to actually buying a ticket to get this guy to ANC, there weren't ANY on the fights in the original pairing.
Hint: if you can't find a flight on which to deviate through the normal deviating process on PFC or going directly to the airlines, chances are Global Travel isn't going to have any better luck.

Now they had to revise the pairing to reflect whatever last minute flight they were able to find that actually had ANY seat - first class was a pipe dream at that point. Whatever requirements you want in the contract Busboy wouldn't have mattered in this situation.

The OP didn't help himself out and IMO seems inexperienced with deviation and FedEx airline travel in general. There was exactly ONE flight from ORD to ANC non-stop on his day of travel. 16 first class seats. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving. Showing up at the airport during the connection and trying to get an upgrade was laughable. No wonder the gate agent scoffed. His only chance was to start the process the week prior on Wednesday night when the VTOs were official. Even then it might have been tough, but the chances were way higher than asking for an upgrade at the gate. If he really wanted to deviate, he probably could have started even sooner since the VTOs usually get built a few days before that and you can see which trip you have early. He could have had a ticket in hand before Global Travel even started looking.

 

What's so hard about requiring The Company to book the seat when the trip is awarded?


Maybe next contract ...






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Good point, in a perfect world that would be enough. Even if it was written in blood, no one cares about your first class seat more than you. If this were you Tony, I doubt you're going to assume it's getting done and just hope everything works out. Chances are, no matter what the contract says, you would be on the lookout for the email from Global Travel and start making noise when things weren't happening on the proper timeline.

 

Proper timeline? I didn't know there was such an animal.


What I see happening more often is The Company waiting to book the ticket, hoping the pilot will deviate, because booking the ticket might be expensive, or even expose the fact that there are no seats of any class available on the scheduled flight. That would require revising the trip to use a flight sequence that can actually be purchased instead of using phantom seats that they hope won't be used.

Could the OP have been more proactive? Certainly. Should he HAVE to be?






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He didn't get booked in coach with a lay flat seat.

I just D/H'd CAN-ICN 1st class on KE. 3+10 block. Expedited screening, 1st class lounge. Sweet!





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.........+1

 

Are you typing this from your cubicle at the AOC or does a manager have his hand up your backside forcing you to type is piffle you azzz muppet!

 

In most cases, the proper timeline is ASAP, especially with a VTO. Lines are final Wednesday night and this DH was Monday. If I didn't see an email from GT by Thursday morning, I'd be on the phone. Actually, I would have already known I had the trip before that and had the deviation ticket in hand (if it was available).

So, if you're deviating, buy the ticket the second you know you have the trip. Under the new contract, when you actually deviate depends on more factors, but nothing stops you from buying the ticket you want. If you're taking the scheduled, either bug them until they buy it or just buy the same ticket like it's a deviation ticket. Then, if they have issues getting the proper ticket when they finally get around to it, you already have it.

Now you're opening up a whole different can of worms. We all know there aren't enough seats out of MEM on a Monday morning to accommodate the scheduled DHs and all of our deviations solve the problem. That's way beyond the scope of this particular situation encountered by the OP.

Theory vs. Reality He absolutely should not have to jump through hoops to get the proper ticket as defined in the CBA (if it's available). Everyone is welcome to fall on that sword to prove a point or they can take charge of their situation. The price of relying on the system to take care of you may be a middle seat in coach eating stale pretzels.

In this particular case, we'll probably never know if there ever was a first class seat available even if the OP jumped through every hoop, Global Travel was acting the second the trip was assigned and every option was considered. What Chainsaw and others seem to be ignoring is that by the time this trip was assigned and GT tried to book the ticket, there weren't any first class seats left. It's a VTO line with 5 days from trip assignment to DH over Thanksgiving weekend. It wasn't built the way it ended up. By the time the trip was assigned, the original DH it was built with didn't even have coach seats left, never mind first class. They had to revise the trip just to find a DH that had seats available.

 

No. Just someone who isn't all worked up about global travel screwing up and not thinking it is part of an evil plot. I also care about my travel and make it work. But I am someone who knows for the contract to work the pilots must be proactive to enforce it. I also called the company out on accepted fare likely before you were hired and got zero help from ALPA.