Those poor Airbus pilots...
 

All the T-tail drivers are shedding a tear for the suffering of the 320 crews. Saw this nugget in the crew resources update for the September bid period:

"We limited 320 FDPs to no more than 3 legs per day in most cases."

:D :rolleyes:

With 8.5 hours of block in 3 different airplanes. And probably a landing in your WOCL. Into a 12 hour layover.

I scored 9:12 block on one of those easy 3 leg days a few weeks ago.

An Atlantic crossing with 2 stops and no nap.

I wish I had a 12 hour layover...sounds relaxing

You get layovers?

If you are a 717A...I hear there is a bid coming out in Sept.....use some of that seniority and bid QOL....I know WB FO is pretty relaxing

I like the way you think! Some sr 88A’s should do the same!

Right! I start getting antsy when I see a layover that isn't at least 22 hours. :D

Well by layovers he means a 38 minute turn in ATL going from T-2 to F-10 with in the middle of a 5 leg day..


Cue the Four Yorkshiremen sketch: :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEIApUNVBKg

You fly out of a terminal?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160215000934

Let's not oversell it guys. Every flight is a redeye, you rarely get to fly the plane, half of the nights away from home are locked inside of an aluminum tube vs a hotel room and even an airport layover hotel provides better rest than the crew bunk.

BWYW WWYB

Ha granted DTW ain't the same as ATL. Atl 717 is doing trips I would have called a nightmare on a 50 seat RJ. I have yet to see 5 legs in DTW. This summer is does seem we're extra thin though.

“No more than 3 legs a day! I’m feeling fatigued just reading that sentence!

In most cases...:D

When the first two legs are MSP-LAS-MSP, it would be hard to fit a 4th leg in. It’s usually MSP-GRR or MKE to layover. The first and/or last day of a 4 day is usually brutal out of MSP on the airbus.

Especially on the wobbly manual seats that only go a third of the way up your back. At least there's no brake fans on those though.

Sorry, what? You’ll have to speak up, the air is WAY too loud on this old 320.

You have seats?

One of our esteemed 717As around here mentioned he still had his Embraer Brasilia 4 day trip pairing from his ASA days and it was the same exact city pairs as he had on 717. JAN, AGS, stuff.

And you guys wanted all that RJ flying back. This is what you get.

So true! That has been the mantra for a while, be careful what you wish for, I guess. Now we just need a fleet to put all those 5-7 leg days into the bid package. Oh wait, here you go 717 pilots.

When I look at 717 trips these days I tell myself I used to do this for 35k a year and no Auto Throttles.

Really miss the long legs(except red eyes) and very nice layovers on the 73.

That’s a good way to put it into perspective.

If the short range flying had never upguaged to mainline, I'd probably still be flying it anyways and waiting to get hired. I too had regional trips that look nearly identical to here on the Bus. Compared to a regional job with zero future life certainty,
I'll gladly fly those SLC-ABQ/BOI/BZN/PSC kinda routes with the DL contract & seniorty# while awaiting bigger n' better. Shoot, let's keep recapturing and grow this seniority list.

I think the vast majority would agree with you.


I does become interesting/entertaining though, when "the few" start complaining about how miserable their QOL is at Delta and all the "fixes" that Delta/ALPA need to make

Kind of like the eternal my category is understaffed and I can’t drop my trips verses my category is overstaffed and I can’t get Greenslips. The every Thursday joke has a lot of truth in it!

Wait. Wait. Hold up. You mean i have to work EVERY Thursday?

Jet engine v pilot at gate joke applies as well

Most of us are thankful to have it back. It has created more NB A positions and associated movement on the B side of the house. The WB A types that haven't seen movement from the recapture have benefited from the increased profits we share on the recaptured flying. Those who's seniority dictates they fly 5 leg days, would not be here without the recaptured NB growth.

We want even more of it back.

The real issue is that all the trips in all narrowbodies are starting to become like that, along with other QOL degrading features like early reports and late releases etc. There's no problem with an "RJ replacement which is really just a DC-9-10 replacement" doing "regional trips" per say. Most of the pain is how the trips are built and when the optimizer's only concern is one minute of credit at the price of maxed out everything and 2 plane changes a day all the time every time, that's what sucks.

Legs per day is a quick and lazy metric to use but I understand why becaue it does correlate. However Shuttle flying wasn't nearly as bad and was done by mainline for decades and was quite popular for many and that was 4-5 legs a day. So that's really not the fulcrum many act like. Also many schedules like that aren't really "regional" schedules anyway. Short ATL-FL hops were done in widebodies for quite a while and ATL-SAV/CHS and other markets were never a regional exclusive and regularly done by mainline.

The real issue is the duty days, plane changes and maxed out report/release times. When skeds actually brags about 1/4 of the trips in a certain category finally being commutable on one end, that's proof that the pain is by design and not a natural function of all "recaptured regional" flying.

I will take minor exception to this one small point. I don’t think the design was to inflict pain.....the design was to maximize profits by reducing credit and increase productivity. Granted,the end result may inflict pain....which is what pilots are concerned with....increasing profits is what the company cares about

Not trying to quibble with your overall post.....but the way it reads it sounds “nefarious” by management and, IMHO, not quite accurate

Obviously I don't think the "pain" was a design feature simply to create itself for its own virtues. But it was 100% intentional and done without any regard whatsoever for any downline consequences and whatever collateral damage was 100% pre justified.

IMO at this point its way, way beyond diminishing returns, but the only concern is how many pennies can we squeeze at any non monetary cost. When we talk about profits, its easy to conflate it as an all or nothing issue. Its great we're very profitable. But that doesn't hinge on piling one more penny on top regardless of what it takes to find that penny. There's a balance and at least for some fleets one side of the scale is in the dirt.

Everyone wants more PS and corresponding company success. But the recent MEC update really highlights how bad some things have gotten. IMO we could see measureable QOL gains for very, very, very little drop in profits.

I doubt we see things improve until EB is gone. Stick it to the pilots one last time on the way out the door with his millions. I hope his activist career is as lucrative

I don't mind 4-5 leg days, particularly on the bus.

What I do mind is being scheduled to 8:40 block and/or a 3 hour sit pushing us right against the edge of extending to start out.

Yup this is the issue...

737A now, but would gladly do those every day. As long as it’s delta metal, no matter how small. Bring it

100% agreed. Gimme all the flying!!

AMEN!! I just saw a trip with 8:49 scheduled on one of the days with 4 legs. Leg 3 ends in a location that is not a base for the aircraft and it's a :45 turn to leg 4. That's just begging for a yuuuge goat rope of a delay and angry/frustrated passengers for leg 4 if the first 3 legs get overblocked by as little as :04/leg. Not smart.