Herkflyr

While some of what you say has merit, and I've flown with "I'd fly every day if I could" sorts, you know too well by now that there's too much complexity in our contract to just make blanket insulting statements like that...even if they do apply to a large number of pilots.

Example. I flew three GS in August. I also bid reserve. Even though it is coded as a "G" on the daily trip coverage, a reserve GS functions more like a GSWC due to the payback day feature. Due to the PB days, I worked LESS than if I didn't put in for a GS at all, and made more money. Also, long after the bids closed I found out about an important day I really needed off, but was scheduled over an on call day. Thanks to the PB days, I ended up getting the day off after all, with a lot more money to boot. Sounds like a huge increase in "QOL" to me.

crewdawg

On the 330, I'd say about half of the Captains I fly with have gone/plan to go early. That said, many of them at least still have a decent, albeit frozen, pension. Isn't the average age of our retirees ~62.5?

I wouldn't say majority at all. Sure there are some that do everything they can to fly more GSs, but there are plenty more out there who rarely, if ever, fly them. Month after month, you tend to see the same names and GSs are flown by a relatively small percentage of the pilot group. Also how many of them are flown by reserves, who would likely have flown anyway, but now for more money and payback days? There is some serious QOL in that.

I'm all for more hiring to avoid the ridiculous GS mania we've seen this year. I'd actually like to see a max limit of the LCW to be dropped significantly...closer to 75-80.

Iceberg

I don’t think people are hating on the people flying GS. I wasn’t, I flew a couple this year when they worked out for me. I think the hating is directed more towards the staffing levels.

gopher3

Not to open old wounds...but ...i flew with a lot of North dudes after the merger and all I heard for years was how they got hosed and how the merger sucked blah blah blah. Fast forward to now and you know how many of those guys retired early?? Close to zero that i know of. But they are some of the biggest GS *****s and making more money than they ever dreamed of if they were still flying their Whale to the Orient.

Jaww

Where’s the Michael Jackson eating popcorn meme when you need it?

ChecklistMonkey

I'm not hating on them. Good for them for working so I don't have to. I'm just saying that management painted themselves in a corner this summer and we, as a whole, were more than happy to fly 40,000 GS days to help them out. Even though everyone is complaining about how short staffed we were, the real message we sent was "fine! I'll save your bacon for cash but I'm going to do it under public protest (but private elation). And I'll do it over and over." So even if management let out a collective sigh of relief in September over some very close calls in staffing, going forward they will always operate knowing "if we irresponsibly staff the airline, we can just throw money at it and the pilots will give up everything to fly."

Gunfighter

The swap board is a huge QOL improvement for those looking to drop trips. SWP is also a way to take hours out of the pot and therefore reduce the amount of reserves required and potentially turn black days into blue. Depending on the month, I've swapped above 100 or used the P2P board to drop down below 50. Its a good way to improve QOL across multiple months of flying.

Ixnay on the PB day. That info is way to useful to be on the interwebs.

Many 777 As have a similar plan. Some just scale back and coast through the last couple years by dropping trips.

Just flew with an A who is has been working the GS, PB combo for quite some time. He also has a plan to use the extra $$ to leave early.

Gunfighter

Management has been playing bumper bowling with the staffing levels for quite some time. A couple years ago we were a little fat, so they played around with longer layovers and trip credit to improve the reliability of the operation. As they crunched the data and played around with the optimizer they aimed for the middle of the lane, but hit the other bumper when the MAX was added to the mix.

hockeypilot44

On the 350, they were buying pilots' while lines for training. Just about every single one came into work for a greenslip on top of it. None of them actually stayed home with pay. The money was too great. Very few over 60 pilots are coasting. The mentality is make the money while they can.

Not insulting anyone. I respect their decisions. I'm just saying that you're wrong on this. It's a nice thought, but it's not what's happening.

Hank Kingsley

I don't believe the pilot that flew the most greenslips this year will also be nominated for the Chairman's Club basing on his/her altruism. It's a management tool that is detrimental to the many while rewarding the few. Opposite of what union membership is all about.

I don't care what the rest of you guys do, really. I prefer time off more than the money. But don't expect the company to change it's practices as long as the collective "we" grab the money. I flew with a DC9 captain in the late 80's making close to $500k. Or so he bragged. It's our culture.