gloopy

LOL no it did not. The massive assault on pairing construction (optimizer) devastated QOL for many narrow body (and ER) pilots. The summer was radically unsustainable and much of that was not MAX based but a relentless bonus monger driven crusade against every minute of credit over any and everything else.

Yes, obviously, no one expects full 365 overstaffing for absolute peak summer flying with generous margins resulting in a huge overstaff the rest of the year and reserve beards all around in every category, shaved only for bounces every 90.

But last summer was absolutely awful and the huge "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner hanging over the USS Flt Ops clearly shows agressive intent to emulate that model as much as possible. If the MAX return cools the demand a bit, we'll just reduce staffing to run the same absolute redline. No difference.

DWC CAP10 USAF

I wouldn’t say it was all “fantastic”.

After patting themselves on the back for going 690 days (author embellishment) without a cancellation, they full up cancelled lots of flights.

I watched rotations get offered as GS, then IA, then get full up NOOP’d with scheduling rotation remarks that stated “could not cover”.

Agreed that overage manning for 9 months isn’t smart, but relying on max GS (this summer) is also not the right answer...the middle ground is probably the right balance and that would require a ramp up in hiring between meow and summer 2020.

Denny Crane

They may be screaming about 65 hour months but, if the airline was manned properly, then swapping and dropping shouldn't be a problem. You cannot have it both ways ie 65 hour months and then no swapping/dropping.

Denny

notEnuf

I love how excited Ed and Glen get in the video about the revenue generation this summer. They even seal it with a high five. After they thanked us all for our hard work and promised to invest in making improvements for next summer. We shall see...

fishforfun

I hope they stick with the man for winter and just make it work for summer. Right now we aren’t even manned for winter.

sailingfun

Just a point. Trips marked could not cover does not mean the flights were cancelled. It means that they were returned to crew tracking for coverage via reroute or equipment substitution. I looked a few months ago at a 10 day stretch in July and saw 1 flight cancelled for crew.

sailingfun

When you are in a overmanned category from a practical standpoint swapping and dropping are severely restricted. Swaps are non existent because any trips showing up in open time get white slipped instantly. Drops are available but rarely used because pilots are reluctant to drop a trip knowing there might be nothing to pickup.

TED74

So which of our 76 categories fell into this category? My friends in DTW330B, that was supposedly 90 F/Os fat, have had no such complaints.

sailingfun

Read the past page and look at the context my post was written about.

TED74

I reread the whole page. I still don't get it. If carrying 90 extra FOs in a category of less than 300 isn't the definition of overmanned, then what is? If it IS the definition of overmanned, why are those (the few I know, anyway) not screaming about the issues you say they would be? And why didn't they leave in droves during the last several AEs when given the chance to go someplace less well manned with more green slips? Open time also happens to be quite plentiful.

Something doesn't add up, and I dare say I think many pilots are more than happy to be in a well-manned category. I know I prefer it myself. Given the chance, I'd like to be on a well-manned seniority list here at Delta... and I'd sacrifice a percent or two of profit sharing if that's the price we'd pay. Hire 2,000 or more in the next 14 months. The amount of cash wasted on the 350 SNAFU could fund most of the extras, as could whatever we're going to waste on our next IT meltdown.