Originally Posted by ancman

We all appreciate the work that you do. I’m all for doing as much as possible on our end to lessen your burden before filing an ACE.

However, aside from taking the company’s answer at face value, how are we supposed to verify that the proper pilots were paid in a 23M7, reroute, or batch violation scenario? Without having the same read-only access to DBMS that ALPA has, we have no way to verify proper payment of everyone involved in those cases.

I have notified CS of those issues occurring, but I also follow up with an ACE every time. I don’t trust that the company is competent or honest enough to pay the affected pilot(s) properly simply because I brought it to their attention.

Originally Posted by MrBojangles

what if I told you that these premium trips can actually make you work a lot less? But yes I agree all that other stuff you said is great but you’ll never find an excess of reserves lying around like we had in covid. It doesn’t make financial sense to the company

Originally Posted by Ar Pilot

As a scheduling committee member, we really prefer the pilot do as much as they can to advocate on their own behalf if they believe they have experienced a contractual violation before submitting an ACE Report.

Wait for your rotation to show closed on your time card. Contact crew scheduling and bring up how you were harmed and ask for a remedy. If unhappy with the answer, either politely end the call or escalate to a supervisor. If CS is unhelpful, your CPO if a great resource that has contacts they can reach out to at the company. PWA 18.B can be referenced with your CPO to start the formal grievance process yourself.

If all of that is unsuccessful, then submit an ACE report. Ideally, attaching any timeline information about your contact with the company.

ACE Report is the easy button, but ideally a pilot will take some initiative on their end.

In the 4000+ reports in the queue, there are countless simple issues a pilot could have fixed with a call to CS. (Rotation guarantee adjustment, PB day calculations, etc.)

Additionally, if CS and CPO received dozens or hundreds of calls every day about contractual violations, issues might get escalated and fixed quicker.

Originally Posted by dragon

OK, remind me who we all pay? ALPA

I know that SC work is not easy but in the recent past we were able to call and speak to a person in the bull pen who used to be a scheduling supervisor. They were a wealth of information and I learned so much from them, now we have no direct link to the people we pay except thru an APP.

They're a bunch of items in play here but have you tried to call CS recently? Just to call in sick or well (would be a nice place for an APP) can result in long waits on hold. Additionally, we are in a perpetual self-inflicted IROP which exasperates the wait times.

I agree we should all help ourselves, but how many times have you been blatantly lied to by CS either because of lousy training on the PWA or because they came from the regionals and are used to brow beating the pilots.

I end with ALPA takes our money so we should expect a bit more than what we are currently getting.

Originally Posted by dragon

OK, remind me who we all pay? ALPA

I know that SC work is not easy but in the recent past we were able to call and speak to a person in the bull pen who used to be a scheduling supervisor. They were a wealth of information and I learned so much from them, now we have no direct link to the people we pay except thru an APP.

They're a bunch of items in play here but have you tried to call CS recently? Just to call in sick or well (would be a nice place for an APP) can result in long waits on hold. Additionally, we are in a perpetual self-inflicted IROP which exasperates the wait times.

I agree we should all help ourselves, but how many times have you been blatantly lied to by CS either because of lousy training on the PWA or because they came from the regionals and are used to brow beating the pilots.

I end with ALPA takes our money so we should expect a bit more than what we are currently getting.

Originally Posted by ancman

This too. At the end of the day, ALPA is a business with paid employees. We pay plenty for ALPA’s services.

If the line to get into your restaurant consistently runs out the door and wraps around the block, you don’t tell your customers to try eating somewhere else first and come back only if you’re still hungry (especially when they’ve already paid). You expand and hire more staff as necessary.

Originally Posted by Ar Pilot

Like I said, ACE Report is the easy button and no one is stopping you from doing that.

Also, the phone lines are still open and you can call to speak with a scheduling committee member during normal business hours.

Originally Posted by gloopy

I agree, and IMO until and unless we have a robust system that quickly catches all the deny-deny-deny "errors" and pays them swiftly, we need to stop playing footsie with dues refunds and invest in the infratructure needed to handle the actual needs we have,

Getting a couple hundred dollar check is cool. Having incorrect assignments fixed/paid quickly is WAY cooler.

Originally Posted by ancman

This too. At the end of the day, ALPA is a business with paid employees. We pay plenty for ALPA’s services.

If the line to get into your restaurant consistently runs out the door and wraps around the block, you don’t tell your customers to try eating somewhere else first and come back only if you’re still hungry (especially when they’ve already paid). You expand and hire more staff as necessary.

Originally Posted by Ar Pilot

What you’re doing is perfectly fine and appreciated. There are obviously a lot of things that aren’t transparent to line pilots. A record of contact is very helpful given our response timeline and backlog. We understand pilots do not trust the company and we are the backstop for compliance.