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12-02-2015, 04:39 AM

#41

MEMFO4Ever

Bourgeoisie

Joined APC: Aug 2006

Position: 787 SO

Posts: 616

Sorry for the thread creep, but...

Why can't we book FC (or whatever uber class is available on a given day) all the time, on all flights? The company is never out the coin. If a pilot is over his bank for the month, the Co. gets the balance out of his check, so they never pay more than their imaginary accepted fare anyway. Airline restrictions? Austerity program? Jealousy?

Months that I fail bidding and have to DH (instead of drive) I frequently buy my own upgrades, after being ticketed, with my own credit card. I am typically over bank every month anyway and it makes dealing with the greyhound-esque nature of air travel just slightly more tolerable.

W.T.F?

I know it is a contract restriction; but does anyone know why?

12-02-2015, 04:55 AM

#42

Adlerdriver

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Jul 2007

Position: 767 Captain

Posts: 3,988

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEMFO4Ever

Sorry for the thread creep, but...

Why can't we book FC (or whatever uber class is available on a given day) all the time, on all flights? The company is never out the coin.

...so they never pay more than their imaginary accepted fare anyway.

But, when we deviate and end up with extra bank, they often pay far less than the accepted fare and end up out "less coin". Just because they planned to spend it doesn't mean they're not happy to keep it. Why would they give us a way to more easily spend the pre-allotted money they planned to spend that we let them put right back into their pocket at the end of each month?

At least now they only take back 50% of what's left.

12-02-2015, 05:54 AM

#43

Overnitefr8

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Apr 2006

Position: 767 CA

Posts: 1,876

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEMFO4Ever

I know it is a contract restriction; but does anyone know why?

Before our first contract, we could buy FC tickets if we had extra bank. We gave that up in the first contract. Not sure what we supposedly got for it. Probably the Scooby snacks.

12-02-2015, 09:04 AM

#44

MEMFO4Ever

Bourgeoisie

Joined APC: Aug 2006

Position: 787 SO

Posts: 616

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

But, when we deviate and end up with extra bank, they often pay far less than the accepted fare and end up out "less coin".

Definitely true, however I cannot tell you the last time I had any 'extra' since the fares are so absurdly low. In my case they pay every allocated dime, and then some if you include checked baggage fees.

Flying commercial is simply miserable.

12-02-2015, 10:28 AM

#45

Busboy

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Aug 2006

Position: leaning to the left

Posts: 4,184

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

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

Okay genius...If you bother to read the OP's scenario, or even the quote you posted, you'd see that when he looked at deviating, he found that "1st class options were virtually nil." That doesn't mean NO first class flights were available on ANY airline at ANY price out of MEM.

Bothering to read further...The OP went on to state that after he arrived in ORD, there were no seats available on the scheduled flight or other airlines. The key point is that he was now in ORD, and there were no 1st class seats available out of ORD. Perhaps he should have been booked through some other city.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

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.

All this talk about one of our pilots having to be proactive in making sure the company books him into the seats agreed to in our CBA, on a scheduled flight, is ludicrous. They scheduled it, they should be held responsible for making it happen. Or, revise the trip's deadhead, if that's what it takes. They certainly don't have a problem revising our trips after assignment, if it's to their advantage, do they?

Years ago, they could book flights in advance with a "dummy" pilot. I'm not referring to you in general, by that. But, the seat would be booked and held until they could put an actual name on it. Can they still do that? I don't know. But, I would think it would be negotiable in their airline contracts.

Of course, that might be more expensive. And, we know this company probably couldn't afford it.

12-02-2015, 10:33 AM

#46

Jetjok

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Sep 2006

Position: Retired

Posts: 3,717

Having no dog in this fight, but having read all 44 previous posts in this thread, the thing that I take away from this discussion is that: 1) the OP should have been a little more proactive in securing, or in making sure that his deadhead flight was secured, in the contractual class of service (if possible), or in any class of service, so that he could make his live scheduled trip; 2) the folks responsible for securing deadhead flights are not only, not doing their jobs each and every time, but that they are obviously not being held accountable for these lapses in service. This issue has, of course, been going on for at least the last 25 years, and shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Unfortunately, it does, from time to time.

To all at FedEx, have a healthy, prosperous and SAFE holiday season.

JJ

12-02-2015, 11:15 AM

#47

Wildmanny

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Feb 2007

Position: Unknown Rider

Posts: 533

I just got off the phone with Global Travel asking about this very thing. They say that there are so many changes happening on scheduling that they can't react quickly enough. Their norm is to have tickets booked 14 days in advance of any trip...so if your ticket for a future flight isn't booked yet, that is why (this is my issue, currently, and I called to inquire). They further said that they are working tickets right now for as far out as the 17th. Any last minute changes will likely result in no seats available in the required class.

12-02-2015, 12:23 PM

#48

busdriver12

Gets Weekends Off

Joined APC: Nov 2013

Posts: 2,756

Global travel usually gets it right, though occasionally I've heard they book it on the wrong day, or don't book at all. Mistakes happen. VTO's released on Wed evening, the day before many people have off. Trip trading, changes, the system overwhelmed. While it would be wonderful to have no errors made, ever, I doubt there will ever be perfection. It takes 5 seconds to check your company email to see if a ticket (and the right ticket) was issued, if you want to use it.