Hmmmm....wonder why that is?

 

Sailing isn't a rep. I don't really begrudge anyone for voting how they did. The reserve rules weren't even why I voted no. But I have to admit, it's turning out to be a bigger factor that I would have thought. I personally think the vote was rushed, the time factor was artificially imposed by the company, and for some reason, our union bought into that concept. I've often found from experience that when something is presented as time limited and all or nothing, it's often done as a strategy to get the buyer to "buy" without due diligence. I just hate to see the quality of life stuff given up for any price. Many people are at a point in their career where much of what's sacrificed won't affect them personally. Having a union with a cohesive strategy should alleviate the tendency to sell something that "won't affect me" for straight cash. You have to just know that the goal of the company is to get it's pilots to work as much as possible, whenever needed, for as little as possible. Lowering that bar is not something that any agreement should allow without exhaustive consideration.

 

is it really the flavor of the month or just life post contract

A transition period if you will

 

Ha. The landscape of the industry definately is changing. I think what we're seeing though is a massive fantasy bubble, propped up by governments as always, with many foreign airlines that are making this new era paradigm possible. I don't think its sustainable though, and I know it can't last. In the meantime though, the legacies absolutely have to do something about it.

Some may think (not saying you do) that the new era "nationals" (yeah I know, everyone is a major these days including most regionals, yadda yadda) like AS and JB can just network the world and help the foreign airlines poach a dozen or three pax off of each flight while getting free revenue can continue. This isn't 2001 anymore and the days of free fire poaching appear to be over, even in the capacity dicipline world. After taking a ton of broadside fire and direct hit after direct hit, DL is finally firing warning shots back. Hopefully the others will follow.

 

It's definitely not just the flavor of the month word considering them tossing the word around at least 6 times each monthly update for as long as I can remember.

 

Yeah how is your jet overstaffed too?

 

Maybe. Only time will tell.

 

We should all get together and have someone read communiqué to the group while we play "buzzword bingo". Capacity dicipline. Waiting to hear from network. Displacements. "Funding" categories with other categories. Over staffed. Any answer to "how come the trips suck" that implies that they don't really suck and/or are going to get better real super soon, etc.

Although to be fair, overstaffed should probably be the pre-colored in center square for every game piece.

We'd have to make it Bingo. No way could we have a drinking game that required shots everytime someone says overstaffed or we'd all be standing knee high in empty minis and completely unable to green slip anything that starts with "how soon can you get here?"

 

Guys,


ALV + 15 is a negative for the Pilot group. The question is how big a negative? I guess I am a contrarian on this issue because I don't think it will be that bad. Here are my reasons:


Most will never see ALV +15. Guys are done above the ALV unless they want to fly more. For every unlucky guy that gets nailed with the 16 hour trip at ALV-1 another will get the 11 hour trip at ALV-10.



So basically a guy has just as much of a chance to be done at ALV+1 as ALV +15. Lets just assume the average guy that is forced to fly over ALV will end up around ALV + 7.5 (law of averages).


ALV + 15 only helps toward the months end. As I have said before the constraints for reserves are usually Holidays, Weekends, and IROP events. ALV + 15 does nothing for these for at least the first three weeks of the months.


So if the company tries to significantly cut back on reserves assigned there will be less reserves for the weekends, holidays, and IROPs. This will result in more white-slips, green-slips, or cancellations.


Don't get me wrong - there will be a few guys who get hosed by ALV + 15 and will probably end up with ALV + 14:55 and get ridden hard and put away wet, so to speak. But that happens to guys randomly every summer. Maybe a few more guys will get abused, hell probably a few more guys, but for the reasons I listed above I don't think it will significantly affect the majority of guys on reserve.


I have been on and off reserve for 13+ years and this is how I see it. I am interested in hearing the opinions of the guys who think the ALV +15 will really kill us. Not just "we will all be abused on reserve" but specifically how it will go down and how ALV + 15 will contribute to more that a few guys getting abused.


Finally, you can argue that even one guy getting abused by ALV + 15 is one guy too many. This is a different argument and one that I don't necessarily disagree with, but that is a whole different issue - I want to know how the ALV + 15 issue will be as overwhelmingly negative for the whole Pilot group as some on here seem to think.


Scoop

 

The flexibility that gives the computer modeling is the biggest "give back" even if a single pilot never actually hits that max value. Just the fact that pilots can go to ALV+15, especially during the peaks (which is the only time they would anyway) is enough to drive staffing decisions to a significant degree.

Now some will say that "full at guarantee" offsets that. I haven't ciphered that as hard as I should have yet, but I'm definately not convinced that makes it even Stephen. It still looks like a net loss. Summer 2013 will reveal a lot about it though, as will the (lack of?) hiring in the *next* AE.


its always the next AE...