Deleted.... quoted properly below

 

Yes both of those were under the FAR 117 side letter. These two related provisions improved DAL pilots QOL more than anything else in the nearly 25 years I've been here (until LOA 20-04 which was equally as good for different reasons).

And it was all done under Mike Donatelli's leadership. He gets bashed for pushing TA1 (and that is warranted) but I wonder how many guys even remember he was at the helm when we significantly improved our work rules with that SLOA?

 

Mike Donatelli: “Peee Eeeee Beeeee!” Whatever good he did was completely undone, and then some, when he screamed at us that if we didn’t accept the garbage TA1, that was where we were headed.

 

Yep, and I remember 3 day trips that paid as little as 11. LAX to Mexico or LAX-Hawaii. The open time for LAX was filled with those.

People poo-poo scheduling rule improvements but I think they are key. They are hard to explain to Wall Street (they don't grab headlines like a "8% pay increase!") and FAs don't seem to care about scheduling improvements.

When I talk with my SWA buddy, his hourly rate isn't much lower than mine, we're both on the 737 but he grosses about 25% more... because of better pay for scheduling issues like reroutes.

 

Could the 25% higher SWA pay also be attributed be to higher utilization rate?.....when they are at work they grind out more hours per day? I know that was the case for my brother...it was both of those....not just the work rules(ie reroute pay).

But, you hit the nail on the head re Wall Street and costing out soft contract improvements....% increases on pay punches them in the head with an easily computable "cost". Other thing like better vacay hours, vacay accrual metrics and increased week(s) are tougher to cost out but can just as lucrative for the pilots.

 

take a look at SWA’s trip extension and reserve rules. Would you trade for them?

 

Of course cherry picking from a contract doesn't work. I was just remarking that they have some good pay when they get rerouted. For us, it seems like there is less ability to reroute, esp prior to the first leg. But as we've seen lately, scheduling does what they want and then seems to try and avoid paying us. At SWA, they reroute a fair bit it seems, but they get serious $$ when they do. I'm willing to help the company out of a jam, but pay me.

My friend is working about the same days, and the trips aren't onerous. He's getting north of 110 hours some months (converted from TFP) and not working too hard for it. He doesn't play the open time either. It's just things like, his plane arrives at outstation late for his deadhead back to base, so they put him on the next one that goes RDU-MCO-ATL (to get to ATL) and he gets the new deadhead at premium pay (because of a change in his schedule). But he's able to hustle down the terminal and make the original deadhead. So instead of the 1.2 pay for the deadhead, he's making 6 hours. Just things like that are ways the paycheck gets larger without working harder.

 

It was worse than that. IIRC in LAX we had 4 day red eyes that paid 17 hours plus when I was helping out on the RCC. Also don't forget the 3 day 10.5 hr trips. Yes Folks - them were some dark days.

Scoop

 

Ran into the the same issue. Just flew the most fatiguing trip since flying for Delta on 757. And I flew the 88 for 10 years. Had to call in fatigued on last day. Only good thing is that it’s an easy process and received no pushback. Probably when they saw the pairing they wondered why I didn’t do it earlier😯

 

Boy, ain't that the truth.....Definitely out of context for his persona......He was getting too used to featherbedding his mgmt nest