I began to shed a tear for the company but then remembered the union scheduling guys are weeks/months backlogged trying to correct improper pay from the company over re-routes and such this summer.

I do have to say I hope whoever agreed to let us use payback days wherever we want vs the old way of “all PB days available” is still sitting in the negotiating chair for the company. Just that probably raised the value of PB days by double.

I also hope that person is sitting right next to the one who gave us back OE drops in exchange for a 1 year new hire seat lock like 6 months before a 2 decade hiring spree.

Excellent points. Let's not forget the outstanding LOA 20-04 which gave us PS commuting and permanent reductions in the TLV and GS trigger. There's a bright spot to having a clueless sort like JL leading Flight Ops.

That just means they can run the category a little hotter and cheaper.

The company would rather you not be able to use your PB days and they turn into 3:30 SUPP vacation days. How dare you drop a trip for 5:15 per day minimum. The PB day is not the problem. They should just agree to assign a value to them to cash them in. Mine usually net me 7+ hours. I'd take 7.5 and leave the board and open time alone if they like. The excessively short staffing that creates payback days is the problem. If people are netting 400 hours a month that means they did a lot of flying on off days. If the average pay back day is worth 5.5, then somebody had 60ish PBs they wanted to cash in. if they were as good as me they might only have 40ish. That's a lot of understaffing to create that kind of reserve usage. Instead of "what's a SIL" "what's a blue day" Color coding has returned to this screen, um OK... ya sure about that.

PB days are worth 15 hours for A350.

Got any banked? I was thinking that if I bid the A350, I'd have to get the bid in June or July work the summer to roll, and then get a training date in September to be on line with 4-5 months to plus them up. Just like maxing the full service bank before upgrading.

there are folks on the 330 with 40+ banked.

with the new redemption rules that’s a half a year off while you put out your green slip line.

The original speculation is that it isn't the use of PB days that is viewed as the main problem, it's that the company loses the manpower to cover other trips, even when the PB days are auto applied to the remainder of the month. In the companies view, it would actually be a better deal to just pay all GS's at 2x pay over guarantee and keep the reserves responsible for future coverage.

Which is why they can pound sand. Along with all sorts of other collateral damage that company greed and incompetence has yielded, the word is out on how to benefit from PB days. This pilot group is slowly getting better at working less for more, and not just working more for more.