I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. GFBs are a great thing now. Super easy to get a note on teldoc and none of the time you’re out counts towards the 120 look back. I’ve never been GFB’d and I’m bummed every time I don’t get it.

What in god’s name does your GFB discussion have to do with AEs? Asking for some friends.

Are you new here?

Correct.

Viewed properly, GFBs work in pilots' favor. Why we'd want to negotiate this away using our leverage is harming us x2. Just makes no sense to me.

This is the view of my reps as well.

You are an extreme outlier and you have to know that. I'd be shocked if more than 1% of the pilot group has more than 1 or maybe 2 GFBs, and a vast majority probably have never had one and never will. You seem to have more interactions with the company than the rest of this board combined.

Although once I hit my current GFB doctor visit high score over $4k, no more GFBs.

I did notice the company says they "will reimburse a reasonable expense."

So these $10,000 full body MRIs at the hospital to track down your pinched nerve probably will just get denied.

Mine wasn't.

My ER visit was reimbursed but you're correct, and that's a prime example of the kind of language we need to eliminate from the PWA. Many places for them to interpret and weasel around to our detriment

I was referring to the proverbial "you," not you specifically, CX. But there has been a lot of talk on this forum as of late of "sticking it to those nasty GFB's" by racking up a big expensive hospital bill to get your note. While I understand the sentiment, I don't think it will fly considering they clearly state they only reimburse a reasonable expense.

I don't know what that means. But if they want a note from me, and they're fine with Galileo...I'll just do that. It's the least amount of headache for me and, well, you gotta look out for #1 sometimes. Especially when you're already under the weather.

Obviously your situation(s) are different because you are a crazy person with cool hobbies and I am a lame nobody.

Within 4 hrs used to be the auto GFB plus heavy scrutiny if a commuter. I guess they are expanding their envelope.

Just me, but if my hobbies were starting to jeopardize my job I’d probably rethink what I’m doing.

One data point. I got gfb’d recently for calling out 20 hours before a shortcall. Cpo called and i kind if read him the riot act. I called out at 10pm the night prior burning a sickday so as to specifically give them >18 hours notice. He said it’s considered an assignment. I was ****ed. He did not make me get a note.

but the whole point of having a job is to pay for the hobbies!

and this is why you should not be thinking about the company or doing them favors when you call in sick. Simply put, my responsibility is to call sick when I am sick and to call well when I am well, and that’s what I do. If that causes coverage problems for them, they should hire more pilots. If they want to good faith basis me, pay for a doctors visit, and waive all my lookback for however long I’m out sick for, all the better,

I was told “the system” flagged me for a GFB for calling in sick during an IROP. Now its the mysterious “system”
identifying you, not an actual human ACP/CP. At least make sure they tell you the reason, per the PWA.

Funny how marvelously their IT works when it comes to screwing with us (PB automation, SC assignment automation…). Then when something is incorrect and you try to get it fixed…”sorry, nothing I can do, the system is automated.”

You sound like the CPO.

That's why I have LTD coverage. How many pilots have been out long term for Skiing injuries or falling off ladders? Those are statistically way worse than what I do, but "Bob fell off a ladder" doesn't sound as dramatic as "CX broke his collarbone racing in the national championship for his class". Even though I was back way faster.

I was told by a union rep, a regional director has asked CPs to start investigating SC sick calls. Apparently, when you call sick prior to SC, crew scheduling automatically refers it to your CPO for verification.

Thats why I dropped basketball and soccer for golf, tennis, kayaking etc. Seen too many ACL and Achilles tears from people trying to relive the younger days

Talking to some of the Drs I know, the biggest injury category in people over 40 is pickleball…..

This is comical, as one is assigned a SC usually by lunch time the day prior. So now the expectation is to call out sick two days prior every time?

Most folks I am assuming call out the evening prior to a REG trip, why should short call be any different.

To me it looks even more questionable of if one calls out of a reserve block too early before they even start.

As Whoops said, don't forget the healthcare bonanza known as pickleball! 😁 I know more than a handful of pilots who have gone out through short-term disability (used all their sick time) for that activity alone...

At least for me, I’m using starting to feel sick overnight/in the morning when I wake up, not before I go to bed.

I am not sure why the company thinks this is nefarious.

It's a few who have ruined it for all. I know plenty of folks who use all their sick time every year (As they should, since they earned it and it was negotiated into the PWA) and never get a GFB or a call period. Now, the folks who nonrev us KCM and or post pictures of their vacation on social media while actively on a sick call, they deserve to be harassed, or the guys/gals who wait for a RES SC assignment and then call out sick. It's simple: if you are sick, call out sick. Don't go to work sick (IMSAFE). If you feel you don't fall under the IMSAFE, then you are sick! Having said all that, I do agree GFB should go away.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, being assigned short call is what keeps the body's immune system in top shape preventing illness. It's better than diet, exercise, and supplements with the added bonus that Delta provides them free of charge so you don't have to use their amazing healthcare insurance. :rolleyes:

Also when questioned about my activities while out sick (with ALPA present) they also don't seem to understand there's a lot of things that make me "unable to exercise the privileges of my first class medical" that makes me not legal to fly but perfectly fine.

Example. Couple years ago. Delta discontinued coverage for a medication my SI requires, and had me switch to another allowed medication. FAA requires 2 weeks no fly when changing medication and 72h when changing dose of current medication.

I was asked why I was at a mountain bike race while out sick. One of the ACPs saw me at the race (his kid races). We had to explain that while I was fine medically, FAA protocol required me to not fly for two weeks, and oh, by the way the med change was required because Delta changed the formulary again.

For the record I got 3rd in the 45+ Clydesdale (over 200#) group. on an ancient hardtail Trek 4500

Just because my medical isn't valid (temporarily) doesn't mean I'm laid up on the couch on an IV and ventilator. In a lot of cases its I'm running out the clock on FAA mandatory waits on dose changes, medication changes etc.

Or, I have a prescription for a very heavy duty muscle relaxer. I might have to take it 1-2 times a year. 8 days mandatory no fly even though I'm OK for all but flying the next day. (Day of, I'm in la-la land)

Nothing wrong with hardtails.
Signed, non Clydesdale 45++ Salsa Timberjack

I have a ProCaliber 6.7 which is the flex tail. That's actually great for taking the shock out of my back.

TREK xcaliber8 (2015 gary fisher edition) I'm old so the bike matches the rider.

They think pilots are sitting LC while sick hoping to not be called. The problem with that is that it isn't any sort of basis for a call. They have to have a "good faith basis" to think you've called in sick when you aren't actually sick. If they think you were sick on LC and not calling in until you got an assignment, they believe you were sick. You claim to be sick. There's no reason to get a doctor's note when everyone agrees you were sick. It's purely for harassment.

Simple fix for that…get AA’s ”sick if needed” reserve provision

Oh baby I want that provision so bad.

It's a great provision when you don't get up to four months worth of sick leave that resets every year. You could blow up a 4 day block of reserve 9-10 months every year and still not need a note. Why not just call in sick? I came from AAL and thought it was a nice provision as well. But that was because we accrued sick at suck a slow rate that, based on my sick history, I'd constantly be O
on the cusp of not having enough sick for a four day or two. That's not really an issue here.

why would we need sick if needed? We get an allotment several times what AA pilots get each year. AA only gets 60 hours of sick leave a year

now if we transition to an accrual system like they have I would agree it needs to come with that provision, but with our current allotment sick if needed shouldn’t be necessary.

From the AA side, the nice thing about sick if needed is that I can use it as much as I want without being hassled. If I'm sitting SC and get invited to go boating and have a couple beers, I'll bang in sick-if-needed and then clear sick when I'm ready to go again. Maybe my wife and I suddenly decide to head into the city for a show and I don't want to stress about getting back. As a widebody guy that doesn't get used much, I can do that three or four times in a month and not generally worry about using my sick time.

You guys get a ton of sick each year, but it sounds like your chiefs would take a dim view of banging in this much, especially for stuff not related to actually being sick. AA doesn't treat sick-if-needed as a sick call unless you actually get tagged. Of course that's a cultural thing and is always subject to change, but it's definitely a nice perk to have in your back pocket.

this is a bit apples to oranges since AA has sort call reserve lines, and all the reserve lines at DL are long call.

Ah, I had *no* idea. Then yeah, that's much different.

Try that for a year and report back here on how many notes you end up needing.

(Not that it isn’t incredibly easy to get a GFB note.)