The Propel students by the time they reach a DCI carrier will have already taken the full Delta mainline interview. That’s something that no DCI pilot can say they’ve done. With that in mind, that shuts down any talk of them being in a flow program.

I know the numbers they are targeting for the Propel program and no I won’t post it here or anywhere. If they meet those numbers it will further undercut any demand you may see for a 9E flow from 9E pilots.

I admire your continued push for a flow, but you truly don’t have any idea how against the flow Delta is. It’s institutionalized at every level.

 

Hate to tell you this, but a flow isn’t happening here again.

 

That's a fact Jack. Compass blew that one.

 

I don't have a supercomputer at my disposal to optimize such a scenario, but I was recently rerouted into somebody else's 30 hour layover and the company just DH'd us out as soon as we had our legal rest and we continued on our merry way, likely the other crew DH'd in to resume their layover but I don't know for certain.

There's probably an intelligent way to change this, but the company isn't incentivized to try since the current way works with the 5:15 ADG. I'm not sure how a min day vs. min ADG would affect commutability, but if we were able to change a portion of the bid package, see how pilots like them and adjust from there it would be better than current. Heck, look at the categories where they have 1 day trips that are 7-8 hours and they are the 1st trips gone, 73n is an excellent example. Pilots generally prefer to work fewer days for identical pay, it's not a radical concept.

 

Exactly. I don't mind working when I'm at work, but this whole 4 day with a 30hr layover, but still flying 20.5 hrs of block for 21hrs of pay is really brutal because you're basically getting paid per diem for sitting in a hotel for an entire day away from home. And then working your butt off for the rest of the days of the trip. This is why I've always wanted a min day, and I understand the pushback on this from the company side but something has to be done. If min day were only 5 hours, a trip like the one mentioned above would pay 25.5 hours instead of 21. I know people who enjoy 30 hour layovers will be against a min day because it disincentivizes the company to schedule 30hr layovers, but would you rather spend 30 hrs away from home for free, or make more money?

 

What about the EtD guys here that did the full Delta interview, and have the flow? There aren't many of those, but they are here. If the Propel program is the full Delta selection process, it will be no different than the EtD, which was exactly the same program. The EtD had about 1 out of 40 success rate. The people in the early stages of their career were not ready for a full Delta interview. Delta targeted 50/mo with the EtD, but realized that they needed to interview close to 1000 pilots to get that, so the program was cancelled.

You can't staff DCI with full interviewed Delta pilots, that's a fact, it's been tried.

 

The thing I like about the 30 hour layovers is that it builds me some highly commutable trips.

 

True. But they're getting less and less commutable with all the penalty laps tagged on to the end.

 

It may not be the case today but the company has always had a very open policy to rotation construction. The union had full access to Carmine and free reign to produce better results within cost constraints. We almost never could better the companies rotation construction without a large increase in credit time.

 

Increase from what baseline though? 20- and 30-year pilots haven't been flying a career full of the optimized trips we have seen in NB categories of late. Some of the late-50s/early 60s commuting captains I fly with are pretty worn out; they say way more than even a year ago.

I honestly don't think the ultra-efficient trips and rotation construction (45 day vs 30 day optimizing) are yielding career-sustainable trip quality. Any gains the company thinks they have made / are making could quickly be eaten up by increased sick and fatigued usage.