Good on you Timbo. I fly alot less in the fall so I can coach youth football. Sure, it costs me $ but I enjoy it and the kids are so coachable at that age its worth it.

 

No.... It's not fair. But I guess those junior guys should just shut up and be happy they have a job.

 

I've also been screaming about it for years, but some guys will brag about all the time they picked up off the swap board and then a minute later, cry about being a 20yr. F/O! For an intelligent bunch, they seem to have dificulty with simple math!

 

No truer words.

Just to add a little salt to the wound...last trip, my Capt was a 757A at 12 years with the co. Doesn't that sound like an unbelievable lie today?

 

I did that for many years when my kids were younger, great fun. You cannot go back and recover those memories for any price, I call them 'expensive but worth it' days. Given the choice between time off, or more money I almost always choose time off.

BUT...if everyone chose time off, like we did prior to the 42% pay cuts of bankruptcy and loss of retirement, they would all move up a seat or two, and have both, more time off, and more money!

Obviously the closer to the top you are, the less you can move up, and the less time you have to save something for retirement, which is why we see senior guys flying 120 a month now. I have flown with many senior F/O's who could be flying Capt. or were flying Capt., but now intend to retire as senior F/O's, flying 120/month as often as possible.

 

I see it the way Timbo does.

Since vacation only shows as pay once the month starts, you can still fly a full month of credit on top of the vacation pay.

So every time 4 pilots in a category senior to you fly one month with a week of vacation with a "regular" months' worth of flying it eliminates the need for another pilot in that category for a month.

If ONLY 4 guys do that every month that is a seat the conpany does not have to fill. every WB captain gets 5 weeks of vacation a year, so it only takes 2.4 captains to pick up 1 trip extra on their vacation months to eliminate a WB CA slot.

THAT is why vacation sellback and provisions that emulate sellback are bad for pilot progression.

We have 2584 WB CA's. If they all fly an extra trip during vacation(they don't all do I'm sure).

Together they have 12,920 months of vacation.
Divide that by 4 to equal a "month of flying".
Divide that by 11 to get a "year of flying" (not 12 because the new pilot gets his 5 weeks of vacation).

When ONLY the WB CA's fly full months during vacation as allowed by the PWA, it can* allow the company to staff:

294 LESS WB CA's

That is a lot of seats, and why the ability to fly extra during vacation is bad for all of us.... The funny part is if the NC brought forth a TA that prohibited picking up on vacation there would be guys *****ing about it.... I still hope that we are trying to eliminate that practice in the future.

 

I'm taking my skills to MSP.
Forgot to bid you can move up a resv #.

 

Timbo, I agree with what you say in theory but I see a different reality. AA has just what you described very much like our contract used to be. They also have the highest pilot cost in the industry and get paid a lot less and they are in bankruptcy. The real truth in this hyper-competitive industry is we are all copying the SW model for productivity, you can have high pay and high productivity but you can't have high pay and low productivity, at least not for long. How many more routes would Delta pull out of if we were carrying. 1600 more pilots and how many junior pilots would DL put on the streets ?
I also miss the good ole days but I don't see us returning to them unless there is a return to regulation.

 

Good on you Timbo! I'm sure your daughter was happy you were there. I'm all about financial responsibility, and it's obvious you're just that. Otherwise you wouldn't be able drop those trips.

I don't think I'll ever understand why some want to work so hard. There are obviously exceptions, such as people with sick children or parents. But some are just money hungry. It's no wonder there's little unity in our profession.

 

Exactly! Thanks for doing the math for us. There is one other problem I see which is much more insideous...that is the 'perception' that you are making a ton of extra dough by flying all that extra time.

So when it comes time to renegotiate new pay rates, instead of looking for a MUCH HIGHER PAY RATE, you start looking for more loopholes, where you can FLY MORE! So instead of demanding larger pay restorations, we demand to be allowed to pick up more time! Just look at our last T/A, 4,8,3,3...and in 2015 we will still be wayyy behind our 2004 pay rates.

Oh, but we'll raise the ALV so you can pick up more time.

Brilliant!

And DALPA is more than happy to have -you- fly more hours per month, because their pay is based on how much extra YOU fly!