If you look in the comments of BS's video on skyhub, he answers where the next 350 base is going to be (until the plan changes).

And that is...

Miami :D :cool:

DALPA hasn't authorized me to read those comments! What are doing on Skyhub unity buster?


So where?

LAX and then possibly ATL

Lol! Wish I had that crystal ball too!!!:D

You are more likely to get a bypass the older you are. The problem the company runs into is if there are a couple of younger guys amongst those requesting a bypass. The company cannot "pass over" the younger guys to bypass more junior, older pilots. So they either have to bypass the younger guys too or everyone junior to them goes to training.

At least that's my understanding. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Denny

I actually think that is something that should be changed. Bypass should strictly be based on how long you have til retirement. Seniority should have no bearing. In the end I think it would be better for pilots and the company.

This is an area I’d be willing to give the company a “concession” to help them, and help us at the same time.

If that was negotiated on an age basis then it would have to be guaranteed that one WOULD be awarded a bypass if requested.

Denny

It's not a contractual requirement as far as I can tell. The company made the conscious decision that it isn't fair to the senior pilot that requested pilot to bypass a pilot junior to them if the senior pilot requested it.

The company is permitted to go above and beyond the contract if they desire, although it still confuses me that they do in this case. I will add though that at this point it'd probably be considered status quo.

The record setting one that I saw was a 320A going to 350A.

He had around four years left. He's on the 320 and getting multiple GS at 350 pay. He was surprised he was bypassed and was prepared to go to training. I laugh every time I see him get a GS. His 3 and 4 day GS around the holiday were epic.

I'm senior to him, but a little bit younger. I'm still inside the 5 year window, but not near the 2 year window. I've read the contract about this. It's really tempting.

It was pointed out to me that if I didn't get the bypass, I could always bust training and go back to my original equipment. I'm not quite that Machiavellian.

Any more info on jan ae date?

Sometime in January :D

I'm gonna go with February...

Feb 30th is what I'm hearing.

New system...an AE every 29FEB.

With a 4 year conversion window...

Something is confusing me with this (not unusual). Just taking a quick glance at the award, the second 350 pilot who was not bypassed, but senior to a whole bunch who were bypassed, is within 5 years of retirement. Are you saying that he did not check the box for bypass and if he had he would have gotten it?

He was not alone. There were several that fall into that category. They all retire after the youngest pilot who did get a bypass though which makes sense per the PWA but not with this non-contractual company policy that is being referred to.

Apparently there is a pilot with almost 5 years left on one of the other AEs who DID get bypassed for this reason, but I haven't verified that myself.

And yes, he either would have gotten bypassed or the other guys who got it would not have by my understanding. In this case he probably would have gotten it. Since we can't see whether someone ASKED to get bypassed or not it's really hard to verify by the award though. With that amount of time left the chances of bypass drop considerably so I would expect most who have that amount left actually intend to fly the new equipment and don't automatically check the bypass box.

Jan 17th is the rumored date. Mega AE due to no March AE. SEA 220 and a new 350 base to open on a later bid this year

Exciting times

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

Not just a rumor. BS posted a video on Skynet.

Free beer tomorrow

And the reason why summer vacations were cut by 50% is because of the extra day of the year in Feb. Sure. That makes total sense.

Agreed. What a load of bull. I'd bet the reduced summer vacations were an input, not an output...

If he actually said that......it makes me question anything he says in the future. That's just ludicrous.

Denny

What would happen if no one bid the vacancies? Or didn’t bid the A vacancies?

Just watched the Crew Resources video. If I understood it, it sounded to me like they removed the vacation days in order to decrease the ALVs (by increasing the number of pilots available.) He did mention Feb as a 31 day bid month and therefore ALV was higher there too. It sounds like they are playing so close to the staffing margins that a Feb increased ALV may have impacted the summer ops slightly. (TLV impact maybe? but I’m not a expert in these black arts.)

Another great QOL improvement driven by our staffing shortages...

As word spreads (slowly) about IVDs, I suspect more and more folks will figure out how to make their own summer vacation. This is going to be a mess...

Blaming the lack of summer vacation on a leap year is insulting. The airline is not staffed properly.

I don't think I'd go that far. BS strikes me as a guy doing the best with the hand he is dealt, and trying to be a lot more open/transparent with the processes. I doubt the summer vacation reduction was his idea.

The bigger issue is "Status quo". I hope the union is on this. Somehow having more Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks available seems like a ploy to fix their summer staffing problem.

To be fair, he blamed it on the extra Feb day and wanting/needing to keep summer ALVs down. So it doesn’t take much to read between the lines and see S T A F F I N G.

So all 320B ALV’s in Feb are almost 82, which is higher than the target summer ALV of 81.5? Because, leap year.
I think it has to do with the Gumm staffing model we embraced prior to the 2019 summer, no?

No, I agree. But it’s not like they don’t know about a leap year in advance. My point was more that for him to even mention the leap year, is insulting.

Edited to add, I’ve been saying for months that we will be understaffed this summer. Recently one of the ADG asked me what evidence I had that were are or will be understaffed. Here you go. They could have started to hire earlier to prepare for a leap year, if it was truly going to have that much impact. I’ve been here 24 years. Never in that time have they mentioned a leap year affecting vacation, ALVs, or staffing.

let's see how this plays out compared to your last AE prediction which missed the mark by a few planets.

This is not a status quo violation. This has already been through the grievance process and our argument was “past practice” and we lost. As long as the company made at least a week available each of the 52, then they were good to go.

We do have some contractual language now (needs to be improved) over allotment, but unless they violated the contract or did something completely radical with the allotment and you could show it was trying to manipulate negotiations, it isn’t gonna fly.

^ This right here

Right! I couldn't care less about more vacation weeks during Thanksgiving and Christmas. They do nothing for me.

But an 80% reduction in summer vacation yields a 20% increase in holiday vacation. To quote BS “That’s great news!”

Yeah pretty great Bob. I sit near 20% in my category. Couldn’t hold a July week or Christmas off. I’m sure my family will enjoy their summer vacation without me. But hey, at least there are plenty of good weeks available in February for round two.

What did you hold?