Pushta Ailsouth

Apparently ARCOS takes a "snap shot" of who has in a GS request at the moment. Later, it will only call and offer the trip to those who had in their slip when the snap shot was taken. Here's what just happened a few days ago:

Pilot saw a trip in open time when he checked the board, early in the morning. He saw terrible coverage, and felt he would likely get that trip on a GS. He put in his slip request and waited for ARCOS to call.

As the next few hours went by, he kept checking open time. The trip was still there, and hadn't been awarded. The next time he checked, the trip had been awarded to someone junior to him. ARCOS had never called him!

He called crew scheduling and they told him he put in his slip request too late. When he said it had been in for several hours, they told him it was submitted after ARCOS took the snap shot.

They said that even if he had called them a couple hours earlier, and asked them to add his name to the list, they would have been unable.

It makes no sense that ARCOS "snapshot" limitation is our problem. The contract spells out who should get the slip calls. Seems to me that he should get paid for the trip, which was awarded out of seniority.

GucciBoy

With the way ARCOS works, there’s absolutely no reason to not have a blanket GS request in. The same thing used to happen with GS when scheduling would award them by phone. If your request wasn’t in when they pulled names, you didn’t get a call.

I agree he should be paid for this trip though.


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sailingfun

He needs to call the union. ARCOS is not allowed to alter the contract in any way. The contract allows the company to take a snapshot. They must at that point cover the trip within 30 minutes. If not they are required to take another snapshot and start the process over.

Rooster435

As Gucci boy said, this isn’t an ARCOS issue as the same thing happened under the old manual system.

Where does the 30 min timeline come from? I don’t recall ever reading that in the contract. In the old days it could sometimes take all day to cover a trip, I can’t imagine they were pulling a new list every 30 minutes all day while they called.

They are all proffers now so if you can stand the false alarms it might be worth your while to put in a blanket GS in the days you are available.

TED74

Since they are indeed all proffers and acknowledging is easier, I'd imagine more folks do or will put in blanket slips. That'll slow things back down significantly if the company adheres to the recently-stated batch size restrictions. So, the next steps to benefit pilots and management is to:

1. Give greater flexibility in setting GS (and WS and YS) parameters (ala PBS option list)

2. Allow users to set standing slip preferences instead of entering new ones every bid month...or at least roll over old ones.

3. Modernize parameter entry to make it more efficient so pilots will make the effort to make the request match only what they'd actually accept.

4. Provide an easy ON/OFF GS status and a "Snooze" function to temporarily take one's self out of the running indefinitely or for a user-defined duration (e.g. just started drinking, just got the runs, kiddo just went to the ER, etc.)

All of this will increase efficiency and reduce jobs, so we can add another week of vacation as quid pro quo.

crewdawg

Easy solution, put a blanket GS and GS w/ conflict for the entire month. But I agree, they should contact the union on this.

sailingfun

I looked up the exact wording in the contract. The process must commence within 30 minutes of pulling the coverage list.

GS and GSWC will be awarded under Section 23 N. or O., subject to Section 23 Q. 8.and the following:a. Open time awards will be based on the Trip Coverage Report (TC) generated for such awards no earlier than 30 minutes prior to the commencement of the award process.

marcal

I was passed for a GS that should have been awarded under my second GS preference. ARCOS only looked at my first preference. I’ve let ALPA know and scheduling supervisors told me there is a “stack” of missed GS that they owe money on but that it is going to “upper level management” before anything happens. Pretty unacceptable. I was told it could be a month until it is resolved.

Gunfighter

ARCOS' failure will amplify the problem it was invented to solve. It is driving a behavior of even more blanket GS rather than specific requests, resulting in even more calls and time required for coverage. Way to go.

hockeypilot44

But calls are going out 5-10 at the exact same time by a computer. You are right though about the blanket greenslip.