For sure. And it’s not even close.

 

I'm guessing the steady decline has started.

 

I think there will be plenty more new hires coming over to the 717. DTW717B alone has 35 vacancies.

 

Some of us got too much to do on our days off to ever pick up anything. But with the number of phone calls I get for GS and IA I assume somebody is flying that stuff! (I always have blanket GS in just so I can keep a tab on the trends)

 

Some of us are just plane nerds. I like the 757 cuz it powerful and I think it has beautiful aesthetics. It's mostly the aesthetics. It's been my favorite airliner since I was a kid. Also I grew up watching my dad and grandad flying it so I have a lot of nostalgia for it too. Just because it seemed like you were curious why someone would care about the make and model.

 

looking at ATL ERA (which some else referenced further down in the thread when talking retirements), on this last bid 7 bid out and 1 bypass. 3 went 765, the other 3 went AB WB. And the last was a junior pilot (10xxx number) going 320. So I don’t think AB is that much of a deterrent.

 

getting closer though, only a little over 500 numbers from a Jan 2014 hire.

 

Half of their problem is the total abandonment of the traditional Section 23 coverage ladders. They seem not to realize that many of their “reserves” were actually line holders picking up WS trips. As the month went on, those would become short-notice GS trips. If you don’t run WS coverage, a lot of pilots are sitting home because they simply aren’t being called.

Specifically regarding GS, to the extent they’d ever run that step regularly again, many actual reserves are ineligible for them due to this wildly stupid “pre-posted rest” program. They put cancelation codes in for flights that blame pilot staffing, while many reserves sit unused at home, with GS slips in, and are not even getting a call because they are “on rest,” having worked precisely 0 hours before the “rest” was assigned.

What we’re left with is a situation where people are happy earning just the reserve guarantee, or the minimum LCW on a regular line, and riding it out. We have discussed at length how ridiculous the 23M7/IA/CNO debacle has been, so there is no need to rehash why that is not a solution to this problem.

All of this speaks volumes about our leadership, or lack thereof. “But but but…Crew 360!…The Asterisk!…Auto-Accept!…Pods!…We’re Smart!” They yell all this while burning a rumored $100m a month on a clearly failed experiment. Even for a profitable company, that type of egregious decision making should mandate a significant shake up.

 

Staffing is the easy button. Hire more. (Which we are short) Make the reserves do what they say rather than investigate they why, that would take admitting failure. Typical air force type choice. Have to promote before we admit the plan failed, then the next guy can get promoted by fixing it.

 

For sure there will continue to be new hires going there, you have to keep the category decently staffed to the end. I think newhires were getting M88 awards until just shortly before we shut down that category. Not saying it's shutting down soon, but fewer awards make sense. Yesterday's AE was another -11 for the DTW717B. A side was -5, with the only award being a base transfer.