It’ll be interesting because once they start a step, they have to finish it if I’m reading everything correctly. So the M7 payments will be concentrated even more senior because some junior guy who just happened to be up when they started skipping will not get it anymore.
Good thing is QS will have a counter, so no more IA7 to some rando deal maker/ somehow extremely lucky person.

They can't skip QS except for emergency trip coverage, and that is a very specific circumstance. That's when someone breaks their arm on a layover, and is in the hospital, and there's one departure out of a one-flight-per-day station where they just happen to have someone who lives there. It's not for routine trip filling out of a crew base. Even if they have that circumstance, then they're paying the original M7 pilot, plus the pilot who would have received the QS.

That’s incorrect. They can (and will) continue to stop coverage mid-step, even after all elements of MOU 25-05 are fully implemented.

What they can’t do anymore is skip pilots within a step, which was taking place frequently before MOU 25-05 was signed. Scheduling would often skip directly to pilots who had manually accepted a WS/GS, knowing that they were more likely to acknowledge the trip than an auto-accept. In other cases, dealmakers would call CS directly and request a trip at the WS/GS step without waiting their turn.

The company can still stop coverage mid-step, pay the affected M7 pilot whose turn it was when they stopped coverage, and skip to a later step of coverage (such as QS).

I don't see how QS is a disincentive for the farmers to stop intentionally slowing trip coverage. And, yes, I will humbly eat crow when QS comes to fruition.

A5S

It is not a disincentive for the farmers. It does however restore seniority to the process of actually assigning the trip to the pilot who actually flies it.

It seems like there's a lot of pilots who've never actually read 23 M 7. Maybe, you have, and I'm misunderstanding what you're getting at, but for those that think skipping ahead in the process is a contract violation. Read it. It just says "deviate from the sequences." That's pretty broad language. Where there's contract violations is when the affected pilot hasn't been paid. If they just skip WS and award it via GS, that's just as valid as skipping to IA unless there's some additional language somewhere that I haven't seen.

A Crew Scheduler may deviate from the sequences under Section 23 N. or O. when, in
their judgment, it is necessary to do so in order to maintain schedule integrity. In such
event, the pilot who would otherwise have been awarded/assigned the rotation will
receive pay and credit (or if applicable, single pay, no credit) for the scheduled value of
the rotation.

I think the distinction being made by ancman is whether the company can use 23M7 to skip pilots WITHIN THE SAME STEP. For example, 20 pilots with a WS, and 23M7 is used to award the assignment to pilot #15 without even calling #'s 1-14.

The comms in MOU 25-05 included the following:

"The MOU also codifies the Company may not concurrently run multiple steps of coverage or use M7 within a step of trip coverage."

"Within a step of trip coverage." So, it WOULD be a violation to do what I described above (skipping within a step.) Even IF the harmed pilot got paid.

Correct. But pilots need to read both 23.M.7 and MOU 25-05, as the MOU amends much of the 23.M.7 language.

Skipping from WS to cover a trip using GS has always been, and still is, legal under 23.M.7 (as long as an affected pilot is paid).

Skipping pilots within a step (e.g. stopping coverage during WS pilot #5’s award window to award the trip to WS pilot #100) was formerly legal under 23.M.7, but no longer is following 25-05. This is what I was describing above.

Stopping coverage before a step is fully completed and using 23.M.7 to award a trip using a later step has always been, and still is legal.

What if you had just one slip, the trip you always wanted, would you auto acknowledge it, or let it slip?

Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,.
There's a slip in iCrew, loaded and ready.
Nervous, but on the surface, looks calm and ready
To drop trips, but keeps on forgetting
The days are black, the whole category is under attack.
He clicked submit but the trip's not his.