Haha, oh, you don't say? You'd rather get paid something rather than nothing?! Why didn't the company think of that?

I'm just joking around with you, I'm not sure what the furlough costs are and I imagine they are quite variable. Good luck to all of us.

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I think traditionally companies offer voluntary furloughs as well?

 

The first person triggering an actual cost post 10/1 is one who is qualified and must be replaced. If you have a seniority number, you made the list and ALPA and the pilot group are with you.... but for costing to the company? The first qualified pilot that must be replaced (the A220B in NYC, realistically) is the first “point of cost” in the cost equation. Anything over that, is currently pure expense to the bean counters based on latest comms. As it stands the first person they “need” drops into the furlough language costing a lot of money in changes at the RJ level. Realistically, it appears the company is looking at everyone hired in 2017 and later as “excess”. How that all gets drawn down is likely headed to a grievance situation as the bottom guys are NYC 220B, which also are on the bottom of the seniority list, and the company is using UNA above. That’s going to get expensive in this FUD campaign, with any future AE- evidently looking at base seniority- which isn’t existent, CARES ACT, or reality that the company will put more senior pilots into a lower paying UNA position above junior pilots. Hold on to your hat kids, the show will start soon.

 

The part that is tripping me up is how exactly a senior pilot (anyone who is far from furlough range) can get UNA category. The whole idea is essentially to set aside the “ soon to be furloughed” group out of the way while also acting as a buffer in case they need to call up a few. How is putting a senior CA into the mix actually work? And not that it matters much to me, I’m an early 2017 hire so I’m most likely a UNA regardless of how I bid, just curious how the gears of this apparatus works.

 

The ONLY way I see the company putting a senior pilot in UNA is if that pilot will retire in a few months, say by the end of the year, AND said pilot does not have enough MD bids in. Here is what the Contract says about a pilot with insufficient MD bids in:

"A pilot whose standing bid does not contain sufficient MD preferences as of the closing date and time of the posting and is displaced will be assigned the next lower position at his base. If such pilot lacks sufficient seniority to hold a lower position at his base, he will, at Company option, be assigned into any position at another base that his seniority would permit him to hold."

Now the big question is, with the above contract parameters, is a UNA position in base considered a lower position at the pilots base to be awarded before any position at another base?

Denny

 

The word "position" actually has a definition, which is aircraft + seat. UNA is neither.

 

Couldn’t “unassigned” be considered a seat?

Denny

 

I think in a time where you are paying instructors a full month but they don’t have a full months worth of work, and the simulators aren’t being utilized and they’re paying pilots full pay on the line but they’re not flying making the company money, hotels already paid for maybe, then it probably is like a fixed cost.

But they’re saying training will be slammed, surely that increases costs.

 

Was a head count every posted by the company for Summer of 2022? I only saw 3Q 2021.

 

Does anyone know how unassigned pilots were handled previously? A few people on the FB groups posted their assignment history which included 727 with seat “U.” Were they at a base? Was that base something besides ATL, which is basically a default for new hires too?