One recent evening walking into the lounge as an ACP was leaving. We exchanged hellos and as he walked out he said “thank you for showing up.” Seems like that is very much the message being peddled.

 

Interesting take.

I disagree

 

how about moving up 100 seniority numbers for each year you don’t call in sick.

 

This is a horrible idea. Silver slips destroy any ability to swap with pot. They gridlock open time. And no reserves can fly them.

It wouldn't fix anything in understaffed categories because no one can pick them up.

 

Could you imagine? 🤣

I’d be willing to listen to such a proposal if it included premium pay for flying with a guy who was dealing with “just allergies.”

 

That is a really bad idea, and is actually already being put into practice in some categories. Just look at ATL 717B OT starting around the 16th. Nearly every single trip is soaking or already soaked and not picked up. I can guarantee that only a handful of the ones soaking will be picked up when their timer is up.

1. No one wants those trips. They are the garbage trips left over after the PBS awards + whatever people swap or IVD/APD out of.
2. With a high ALV REG pilots are already flying lots of those crappy bid packet trips. Jamming another crappy trip or two onto your schedule puts people past the point of exhaustion no matter how much the trip pays.
3. Premium trips (GS/QS and even IA) are so readily available that there is no point in working crappy bid packet trips for double pay when you can inevitably get a much, much easier trip for the same premium pay close in.
4. Taking a SS eats up your WS pickup limit. So you are both taking yourself out of the running for WS 23m7 and/or the opportunity to WS some of those easy broken trips (assuming they ever run the whole WS step).

Lastly, tagging every OT trip as SS permanently locks that trip out of the drop/swap/trade pool until the manual coverage window, so basically permanently. That greatly reduces REG pilot's ability to manipulate their schedule.

 

Well said. But I thought CS could un-designate silver slips any time they wanted? I was viewing it kind of like the line-holder version of pre-posted rest. But what you said makes more sense.

 

very cool you think that. I’ll gladly trade places with you. Instead of making money this summer I had the pleasure of making sure my will was updated before heading out the door, telling my kids that dad might not come home, flying in an active war zone and executing multiple 24 hour duty days due to a short notice activation. It sure is nice to know that my coworkers think I should be penalized for doing so

 

You would have to change federal law for MLOA, so.....

 

I'm not a mil guy, but I definitely don't feel that way.