The irony. Management wants trips covered quicker. Enter arcos. Pilots complain about being woken up. Alpa negotiated batch sizes. Pilots still woken up just in smaller groups at a time. Still takes too long to cover trips. Our OWN MEC prez literally gives it away. Pilots immediately blame the company and begin auto accept out of spite to slow process down bc they are mad AT THEIR OWN union for giving it away. Result is destroyed trip coverage process, trips given out in with seniority thrown out the window, and all the blame is shoved on management?

This is the disconnect. Our own prez gave away batches. Who are we blaming?

And while we’re at it, now everyone gets woken up with IAs in the middle of the night.

if this group could literally just take a little bit of ownership over if they have slips in in the middle of the night or if they don’t want to be woken up, we would have zero issues that we have right now.

I haven’t answered a GS in the middle of the night in years. It’s not affecting me in the least. We’re are our own worst enemies.

what I don’t understand is that the speed in which trips get covered benefits everybody, us and the company. Slowing the process down hurts the company, hurts us, hurts pax, etc.

I don’t even understand what people what management to do?

 

Taking a step back, I can't help but read this post and hear the MEC/pilot group telling the management "I TOLD YOU SO!"

And here we are. Start again from the top. Except we have the leverage now during contract negotiation.

 

Its not PWA compliant. Nor is deal making. I guess my opinion doesn’t align with ALPAs. If you have #2 and the rest of the category 0, then you should not have the trip and it’s up to each individual what level of known illegal assignments you are willing to do. I won’t take #2. That’s not really an issue for me because there are pilots in my category that get multiple assignments so none of the rest get any. They don’t even bother calling anyone anymore. Just randomly check the trip coverage and there’s more than 1 all over the seniority spread. Those ARE the deal makers.

 

I can appreciate your principal on this subject. How much homework are you doing to ensure you're never senior to someone otherwise eligible on IA #1, for your IA#1?

It's the same thing. The same list ever-repeating.

 

I’ll let you know when I get an IA, or even a call for one. The limited inverse dialer never gets to me. Probably because the deal is already done and the company doesn’t exclude people already awarded an IA.



from my edit above while you were responding…

That’s not really an issue for me because there are pilots in my category that get multiple assignments so none of the rest get any. They don’t even bother calling anyone anymore. Just randomly check the trip coverage and there’s more than 1 all over the seniority spread. Those ARE the deal makers.

 

I 100% blame the union for giving away batch sizes. Didn't we remove many of the union leaders from that time? So we've acknowledged that, now what?

What management could do is make it easier to adjust slips. Lots of people just leave them in becuase it's such a PITA to delete then remake them every day. This alone could potentially solve lots of problems. Aside form that, they could build better trips rather than crap trips that end up in open time because noone wants to fly them. Build trips with better buffers so that single cell rolling over ATL doesn't require massive reroutes/open time. Maybe just run an airline that doesn't require the number of GS we're seeing just to keep it afloat? Just a few ideas as I wait for my coffee to finish.

 

Oh, how generous of us to hand out batch sizes with absolutely nothing in return! (Eye roll) What a brilliant strategy...

 

Somehow they covered trips before ARCOS. Let's ditch ARCOS and go back to that system. The Co has SS and VAS, they could use those more/at all.

Also, let's not rewrite history here. When there were batch sizes the Co was routinely violating them and calling many more pilots than permitted (or necessary) in the middle of the night. After we gave away batch sizes (yes, I blame DALPA for that) Auto Accept was not very widely for quite some time. Saying it was done immediately out of spite is YOUR opinion and attempting to blame shift to pilots for using something the Co agreed to.

I started using Auto Accept because while I'm prepared to sacrifice my day(s) off and come fly I don't enjoy being woken up at 0300 when I'm #80 on the list for a rotation that signs in at 1500!

And as crewdog mentioned, make it easier to adjust slips. Maybe have a radio button in MiCrew to turn GSs off and on...

 

If only we could put on our slips, “do no call between these times.” If only we could select settings that gives us trips without a phone call. The tools were there. I’ve learned anytime the company gives out free money for doing nothing, people will sign up. Examples are the batch sizes and now 23.M.7.

I blame company also. For example, a 2 day out of and back from MSP-FAR or ATL-HSV is going to go extremely senior. No need to blast the category. The first or second pilot is going to take it. A less desireable trip will go deeper. Some discretion from scheduling could have gone a long way.

Anyhow, it is what it is. It will be changed in section 6 and will be considered a concession and 23.M.7 payments for every trip will be going away. That much I know.

 

Before ARCOS, did senior have the luxury of having a blanket GS in and cherry picking each and every rotation? Did a scheduler call you and said: "hello, you're elegible for all these rotations" and took the time to walk you through each one? (Serious question, by the way)

Because if we take a step further back from batch sizes, it seems to me the root cause is senior wanting their cake and eating it too. Putting in a blanket GS to get first dibs at every single trip and then getting mad that they're getting called for every single trip. What did y'all expect?