Post-Positive Space Issues?
 

Have there been any? I have been off but I really didn’t expect any. I know everyone is worried about the holidays but was wondering if there were any war stories yet.

we have 3000+ new pilots at DL since the LOA went into play allowing PS…there will definitely be issues. I’ve already had to explain what to do with 2 previous mentees off probation

I’ve heard they’re loading up on SC numbers compared to normal, possibly in anticipation of issues…wonder if they’ll hand out the limit of SC before Thanksgiving, when they really need it.

I have been looking at SC in my category (NYC320A) and they are handing out about 2x the normal SC, and this is with reserves thin already.

I mean at least they’ve got the 1 day guys starting SC at 0300 and 0500…

Yeah. I'm pretty sure the day I call in well, I'm getting SC 12:01 after my call. Because they are going to burn all the SCs up at this rate. I will be fairly high credit and probably in RAW bucket 2, but 0/6 for SC

It’s a medical certitude that frequent commuting in the tiny, cramped, highly competitive jumpseats will lead to a statistically measurable uptick in anal glaucoma.

It’s science. Sad but inevitable.

No issues that I’ve heard of (other than a couple guys I know not being able to commute home). But that’s pretty much the end of picking up any extra flying for a lot of pilots. And I’m sure there will be more short call. But with how thin we are on reserves I don’t know how long that’s sustainable. Flights seem more full now than I recall them being in 2019. We shall see.

It makes no sense . If we are good enough to get positive space second flight to work then we should be good enough to get positive space going home. At the very least how about an option to become an S1A as working crew to and from work and mainline would be an S1 .

That’s how it was done when I was at Alaska. Commuters going to and from work had non-rev priority above everyone. I don’t commute anymore, but I sure appreciated it and would support it here at Delta.

Sounds like a great idea . Maybe during major Holidays allow working crew to just list positive space to and from work . For example from November 1st to January 7th and times like spring break months etc, and non holidays if you are commuting to and from work one would be an S1 based on seniority. It just seems weird that they would sunset it in October 31st when we’ve had it the past 2 years . Seems like a strange random date . How about after the holidays ?

It was extended 2 times due to Cares Act 2 and 3. If Cares Act3 wouldn’t happened, then it would’ve sunset in April 30 of this year.

It hasn’t been 2 years because the company wanted, it was one of “we didn’t think the government would do that” kind of thing.

There’s nothing random about the date. It was tied to the agreement that Alpa made whenever the company took PPP money it would extend the PSC so many months. 6 or something like that. So it was supposed to expire end of April 2022. Then took more money… something like that.

The sunset date was set from when the government cheese ran out/was given to them to keep everyone on property in 2019 on the company payroll instead of on unemployment. Which delta got thousands to take leave apply for government unemployment and they (delta) still got to keep the government payroll money that should have been for the employee. Super shady, but lots of stuff was/still is super shady all in the name of covid... As to why they let is expire instead of just pushing it through the new year. Well that's just how much they think of you the front line employee. As long as they are getting their one time payment adjustments/stock option for NPS/ect... they don't care about you or I....

JB didn’t want to risk it and extended theirs till January. Problem is we are not a proactive airline, we are reactive. So nothing will be done until after the meltdown occurs and causes havoc to tens of thousands of people…like the holidays. It will be hard to pin point it to PSC or not. But either way, nothing is going to happen in terms of us seeing any changes until the meltdowns.

plus it’s been a Tuesday and Wednesday and people are asking about results. Let’s see a couple weekends go by or thanksgiving then draw some conclusions. Comical people think a Tuesday is evidence they were right about PSC being a nothing burger.

Oh and BTW they are also blocking the jumpseat on OE flights so beware. Been discussed numerous times on FB if you didn’t see.

Even if it does meltdown they will definitely find a reason other than PSC to blame it on.

It seems weird that not having positive space commuting is viewed as potentially causing huge problems even though it didn’t cause huge problems prior to covid. Am I missing something? Company will book you a seat on your second flight if you can’t get a seat right?

I commuted for several years and now live in base. Maybe something has changed that I don’t know about.

There are less flights now due to the regionals shrinking and flights are far more full than I can recall pre-Covid. And at a time when record green slips have been going out. Timing just seems ill-planned.

One of the biggest factors is that there are a lot of city pairs that are still down 2-3 or even more flights per day from the pre-pandemic schedule. So not only are there fewer jumpseats overall, but fewer flights means having to come in even earlier than you used to on your primary flight and sit longer before ever starting your trip. And the flights we do have are going to be much fuller overall, especially over the busiest holiday travel season this company has ever had.

Unfortunate on the timing, not ill planned. Not defending the company not extending it, but it was put in place when we really had no options during the massive Covid pull down. LOA 20-04 set a timeline for it and it was extended each time a cares act was passed.

This is true, less frequency with bigger planes (mostly). Which means less jumpseats and less opportunity to make the flights.

Less frequency, higher load factors and more domestic travelers than pre-Covid. That also isn’t even talking about how our operation now is hanging on by a thread of 12-15,000 GS a month, double what you could expect in 2019. You essentially now are playing with fire that this doesn’t cause big problems when just 1 thing minorly goes wrong.

but as said above they will never admit or allow it to be blamed on PSC.

Less frequency, higher load factors and more domestic travelers than pre-Covid. That also isn’t even talking about how our operation now is hanging on by a thread of 12-15,000 GS a month, double what you could expect in 2019. You essentially now are playing with fire that this doesn’t cause big problems when just 1 thing minorly goes wrong.

but as said above they will never admit or allow it to be blamed on PSC.

Don't forget that Delta now has a free "standby on an earlier flight" policy.

ah, that makes sense. I didn’t realize. One thing that also seems to have changed is that there are really really early departures and arrivals at the out stations. Like 0540 departures. I don’t remember so many of those before covid. Maybe they are trying to stretch out the planes we have.

That's wgat is wrecking nonrev and commuting. Same day standby needs to go.

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Including also that most planes only have 1 JS, except the 319/20/21 and some ERs

I like how you named 3 types of airbus and then used a bid category. Most if not all 767-300s now probably have 2 jumpseats, only the TWA 757s do.

I always get PS First Class seat 1A. Well it costs me about $200 RT to fly my Mooney to work but it saves 1/2 day or more on each end of a trip.
BD

Wouldn’t that be seat 0A?

It's the one with the lose nut behind the controls.

SOCAL FTW
DTW/NYC/MSP/SEA/SLC nope, ATL PTC direct only.

Id probably end up killing my self in a Mooney and add to their statistics. Cool that you can do it though.

That's why Flight Pulse says I use the Mooney AP 99.9% of the time.

My wife’s side of the family all live on airport communities with planes. None are IFR rated but have thousands of hours over decades. I’m always humbled when I fly with my dad in law VFR. He knows his small airplane poo poo and it shows. It’s a different world.

Are you able to park without breaking the bank at LAX? I looked into what it would cost to park at LGA or JFK.. Lets just say the ramp fees plus parking, plus fuel just made that a non starter for the GA commute for me. (was semi seriously looking at buying a friends M20)

Unusually good weather across the U.S. I imagine with an irop or weather, and Thanksgiving approaching, the PSC loss will rear its ugly head.

Most guys I know who fly their planes to work based in socal either fly to Hawthorne and Uber to LAX or try to do Ontario trips.

Hawthorne airport, KHHR. It's a block and half from the green line train, one stop and a quick bus ride, you're at LAX terminal. It's $30/night to park ($15 for airline crew members) and they waive the ramp fee if you buy 10 gal of gas. It's not cheap but very convenient. I used to have a tiedown at HHR and park my airport car on the tiedown, but it turns out to be way cheaper and faster to use the FBO.

It takes me north of 5hrs to drive to LAX with light traffic and just over an hour to fly my plane. I can drive to the closest airport that serves LAX (no Delta or connection service) but I think they’re down to 2 flights a day; there were like 10 or more when we moved here.

Expensive, yes, but I much prefer to suck on my cup of coffee for an hour on autopilot than deal with the idiots on the road for 5 or more hours each way.

I don’t think ED would mind if I flew my Chinook in to ATL for my commute and parked it on the ramp next to headquarters and the museum, blowing crap all over the place , shut down , secure and then get an Uber or take the Delta Employee shuttle to the terminal would he ?😂