Because auto-accept is a negotiated contractual benefit, not a job action. It’s still new enough that many pilots have only recently discovered its benefits and uses. For many, it solves the issue of batch sizes being gone.

 

Did someone actually just suggest using a contractually negotiated function of the coverage ladder as advocating for a job action?

 

Me personally? Oh I dunno, I think Id probably try to do the job the way its meant to be done within the legally binding framework agreed upon by the parties involved not to mention the precedent of having done it that way for the last however many years. But sure, let's all just press the easy button any time it suits us.

 

I was told it does matter if the schedulers run an option for IA#2,3,4 etc. If you have received #1 already, then you won’t get a call for #2 until the schedulers push that button.

If you are a reserve guy, the posted rest apparently matters, and seems to be weaponized against the reserves. Pre posted rest locks you out for the whole duration, not just the first 10 hours like on a GS. I am told you can ask for that to be removed if you are not due a 30 hour rest on reserve to open your possibility back up.

I am also told IAs treat conflict differently for a reserve person than a GS. In the past I could be preassigned a trip two days out, but a GS the next day could knock that out. A scheduler has told me with an IA, that is not the case-that would be considered IA with conflict and they don’t do that at the moment. Also, the preassigned rest for your next trip takes you off the board as mentioned earlier.

Lots of new rules to understand if you want to win the game. I am trying to learn them as I go, but I tend to get lucky if I can snag one a month.-usually at 3am for a 6am report.

My best chances are in the middle of the night, when people are less likely to call back for a super early report.

as others have said, the game favors the super senior for 23m7, the super local for middle of the night IAs, and unfortunately the dishonest.

 

No. I have lost an IA to someone getting IA 2 while I was on hold. I still haven’t gotten one yet. They literally don’t care. They blast everyone and it’s first come first serve. There really is no order hence pilots using tricks to jump the line and talk to a scheduler first.

 

Yes. Scheduling has the ability to filter out pilots from IA notifications if they have already received IA #1. Back in the day when IAs weren’t optional, this would make sense. Sounds like this is a technique some schedulers use, and isn’t guaranteed. What likely happened in your case, is the person who got the award saw a notification about an IA going out in a group chat, and beat you to the punch. Or led turn what they saw happening in open time and the daily trip coverage report and called CS. Once on the phone with them, if the IA call went out (filtered recipients or not), they probably don’t care who gets it as long as they have an interested pilot on the line. Obviously we can’t explain every situation and instance as there are too many unknown variables, but I’ve been able to snag a handful of IAs this past year by receiving a call, calling CS, holding, and eventually talking to a scheduler after 6-9 minutes. Sounds like you haven’t had that same experience, which I’m not justifying, but the IA notification/award system doesn’t appear to be failing across the board.

 

They are following the legally binding framework.

If you have 2 options to do the same job and one is easy, one is hard, which option is almost every human being going to choose? Especially when you have pilots making 10x as much as you yelling at you on the phone about a trip they didn't get (and who also don't know the contract just as much as the CS doesn't)

 

Only the 20 or so times I’ve tried to get a trip. Lol.

 

IA will continue to be a goat rope until Quickslips are programmed

 

Quick Slips will be a thing of the imagination unless it costs the company less to implement them than it does to not implement them. Enjoy the goat rope/"leverage" ... may the odds be ever in your favor.

A5S