It’s almost as if different people have different experiences

We made it thru Memorial Day unscathed but the first weekend in June is looking like a bloodbath. The fun starts June 3rd. Especially in NYC. Might get some GSWC this weekend

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All I got is NQAT

Basically that. I've been negative for 6+ months while making 90-100 hrs but always at 70ish of straight pay so haven't been able to repay it. I was just wondering why they care how it's repaid (GS vs straight pay). Honestly other than a potential upgrade I see no reason to hurry to pay it back other than to have 5 hours to take me to the trigger, but with the lowered trigger even that's not as important.

Uhh, can you expand on this drop multiple trips with a critical pickup?! :cool: That sounds very interesting!

You should tell us how you execute this.

Play your cards right?

Yeah, BS, 90% of the time coverage will deny your drop. Prove me wrong. I am speaking directly to the NYC bases. May be different for you cats in ATL.

Keep an eye on close-in reserve coverage. If a day (s) gets really negative and the rest of your trips are only fairly negative, you can drop multiple trips with that single swap.

I've moved entire weeks of capped coverage reserve days by swapping into a day that is -15 when the rest of the days were -2.

At my last shop this idea was called a "bad day/worse day" trade. You could always drop a day that was below coverage (ie bad) as long as you were picking up over days that had worse coverage. Really helped me out of a jam a few times.

Multiple posters giving you their experience doesn’t count for anything? Coverage doesn’t deny swaps or Q drops. Prove me wrong.

We work for different airlines. It’s ok. You just don’t have any standing in this discussion when such a small percentage fall where you are. You can put as much as you want on any board. It’s not going anywhere when reserves are half (at best) on the 19th of the month and then after IVDs and APDs process we are now at 1/4 required vs available coverage and the ALV is 84. There is no dropping of trips. It’s literally the first day of the bid period tomorrow. Arguably the best reserve coverage is the first 5 days of the month. We have 0-1 for the next 5 days. Only goes downhill from there. So the the other 95% of us, no (or very reduced) GS trigger would make more sense. On the off chance I get to drop a trip on the first day I can, I’m now below the stupid trigger. So, I turn my phone off for the rest of the month. A sub 65 hour trigger would at least incentivize some to work when workers are needed. It’s a win win.

Whoa! That’s a lot of open trips with essentially no one available on reserve.

So let's say you have two 3-days and the total coverage is -18 (-3x6) and you swap that for a single 3 day close-in that has a total of -21 (-7x3) it will go through?

Right now coverage is so bad everyday (more like -10 to -15 in my category) I don't think it'd work but that is pretty slick. Thanks for the info. :cool:

No worries everyone. I bid reserve for June because of Vacation credit. MY reserve days are all blue so instead of chillin' on the boat sitting LC, I'm sure I'll be outta base reserved to NYC. I'll be the one with the superman cape and repeatedly saying "Here I am to save the day!" :cool: :mad::mad:

That's a really good idea.

I'm in the same situation. Looking like its gonna be a long month. And perfect timing! Just got my double breasted cape back from the dry cleaner.

It's a gamble. Not something to bank on. I've heard of this before. And it only will work if you're sitting in base.

Again, as suspected it is one of those tactics that apply to perhaps 6-9% of the group if that. Not all of us sit around and monitor short term coverage.

Are you more referring to moving reserve on call days or swapping around trips? Its not clear.

I'm curious how PCS lets you do this as it is clearly stated drops are not permitted within xx% of coverage. Swaps, sometimes, yes. Those are again, more of a crap shoot.

Glad you have the time and can get lucky.

When? Who? and what after I asked the question? Breezy answered it.

Man you are one angry dude.

Lighten up, life is short.

I don’t mean to be rude but I believe you’re quoting Mighty Mouse...

Oh yeah, he's bad now. My apologies to all offended.

Black faced chauvinist rodent, what was I thinking... :confused::eek:

Uneducated guess, but I think because it's a 'swap' PCS looks at it differently than if you were trying to do a straight drop of one trip. Maybe Cbrezzy can elaborate.

This. It rarely works out for a shorter trip because the -xx is cumulative. 5 day with -15 total can't be traded for a 4 day with -14 total even though a single day may be -10. SRH under PCS/Swapping Trips/X-Day Move Formula.

Correct. Drum is incorrect.

You can't swap later than 7am PCS run for the next day so sitting in base gets you nothing. If you are swapping into, say Friday on the 73N on a 3 day trip. Current reserve is -29, -40, -38. You can literally drop any 3 or 4 day trip later in the month on that fleet. You could probably even pick up a 4 day and drop 6 on the right days.

The entire reason it’s a Q drop is because the staffing level is negative. So without the staffing levels changing or someone picking it up, the poor staffing does in fact prevent the drop from going through.

if staffing didn’t prevent the drop, it would already be off your schedule and not showing a “Q” in open time.

Thanks for explaining that. I don't have to repeat it now.

Breezy your tactic is limited in its use. If you want to bank on it 100% happening, well then like I said, good luck to you. I'm sure you ninja it all the time.

My experience with this tactic is it rarely works and the juice is not worth the squeeze. Again, if you enjoy daily logins to the the iCrew to sniper the trips, good on you. Most of us don't.

Fact remains is for most of us out here when we are not blue in coverage your ability to drop trips is severely limited. I don't want to swap for another; most of us that do this want them gone. Your tactic doesn't work for this.

If yer not cheatn, yer not tryn. Well, cheating is subjective, working within the PWA but some what unconventionally is a better way to describe it. Learn the maneuvering and increase your QOL and/or your pay. The summer series DALPA put out if full of good intel.

Ok, here you go.





What makes you think I’m angry?

True.

I should have used clearer language. The Q trip could be grabbed by another pilot if it doesn’t end up dropping on its own. Coverage doesn’t affect the other pilot grabbing it.

Some here are playing checkers, while the rest of us play chess.

Good intel, thanks for the explanation.

As Drum said, not all of us want to be haunting iCrew constantly working the system, BUT if you really need a trip dropped later in the month and don't have/want to use an ADP it's a good tool to have on hand.

I know.

I'm talking strictly being able to drop trips. Period.

I don't want to fly anything.

Breezy's tactic is a swap. Means you are still going to fly.

if you want to straight drop, coverage kills. That was the point of this little distraction. Although I certainly appreciate his deft execution of the tactic.

Well, there is an illness called Covid-19 going around. And if you're not vaccinated... Doh. I just said that out loud, didn't I. ;)

737 in Atlanta looks like a bloodbath this weekend. Cancelations due to no pilots incoming.

Does this work moving reserve X days?

Yes. I moved an entire week of reserve once by taking an x day off a super negative day..the rest were only a little negative. There are other rules you have to be aware of though.

I finished a trip on the 4th. My phone started ringing at 0403 saturday morning (today). I was called no less than 7 times from 0403 to 1102 today by the IA bot. This is NYC though, not the ATL.

Yeah right there are no staffing issues <sarc> nothing to see here....oh yeah, it's the vax - dang pilots.....

we still have a huge backlog of UNAs that are in IQ training. Add to them a bunch of the UNAs that need requal. This summer is going to get really interesting.

I know you are on a mission to change the system, but at some point it's better for your sanity to just embrace the system and bid what works. Delta Domestic Air Lines is an entirely different operation than Delta International Air Lines. The QOL gap has grown even wider in recent years thanks to the optimizer.

If your seniority is <9,500, NYC 330B RES is fantastic QOL and flexibility for a FL commuter. When you factor in the pay raise from 7ER, you start the month 2 days ahead. Everyone responds differently to the ocean crossings, but I've found an alternating schedule of Line/RES works well. I'll fly two or three trips in line months then 2-3 SC and one trip average in RES months. Better than 90% of the fly months involve at least one drop or swap. I don't spend my days hawking open time. Once the schedules are released in iCrew, I post my drops in iCrew and P2P, then load my swaps via EasySwap. For res months, the 4 digit seniority should yield a M-F schedule where you get SC on Monday or Tuesday.

I appreciate your resolve to battle the system that makes NB flying such a huge QOL drain.

Wrt ER (under)staffing, I would’ve thought ‘they’d’ snag every ocean crossing trip possible. There are a few CDG trips out of ATL in June and I was looking forward to them reducing the TOE backlog. But for at least the one that started today, it doesn’t look like it.

I guess it’s more complicated than just buying off a trip?

Thanks for the information.

Looking over the battlespace I am seriously looking at that.

Well a bunch of C rotations were awarded in the ATL today on the 73NB.

I’m sure glad we got ahead of the training curve!!!