In the ATL 320B category it is a mess. It is not a matter of senior guys bidding reserve. It looks like a case of Garbage in, Garbage out with the combination of trip construction, bid package construction, and an ALV that should not have been set at 84.

June projected line count was 50 actual was 49
July projected line count was 53 actual was 53
August projected line count was 51 actual was 45

One of the reasons that they missed more than normal was that 304:51 was left in open time. Enough time to create at least 4 more regular lines if it was not all stacked up in the first 10 days of the month. Someone really let this month get screwed up...

Hopefully ALPA will attempt to hold them accountable for such lousy work, and not just help the company make exscuses for this.

 

Have you looked back to see what your passengers in First are wearing these days??? The wife and I non-revved in first down to the islands last month. I was wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a button down short sleeve shirt. Compared to the rest of the cabin I was grossly overdressed...

 

Haha! Zima's for chicks. I'm a metro pilot.

 

Nailed it brother, nailed it!!

For the noobs.....welcome aboard! You're going to love (at least most) the guys you fly with at Delta. That's the best aspect of the career!

 

This is why I asked. I'm happy to wear slacks if it means not ruffling feathers. BTW, when I reference slacks, I'm referring to the lower half of a suit (that type of fabric). I'm not one for khakis, which is what I'm guessing was referenced as available at Walmart for $15. I envision what I usually see in first, and would certainly look no worse than the avg. paying passenger.

Thanks for the comments. Seems slacks are the wise, albeit uncomfortable choice.

 

I'm missing? Crud, I better have someone come find me

 

lol there you go, finally a good sense of humor!

MWright, you remained steely-eyed and calm even though I was hoping someone would bite off on the goat-f*cker comment So as a lot of guys have pointed out, you can get by with neat/clean/casual. But it's indeed wise to be prepared and dressed for the jumpseat, I've been within 1 seat of needing it on every single flight I've hopped for months. We're almost always chock full now.

 

777-300's.

 

Aug Bid results-- I really do think the new top-down denial has had an effect. Like 80, this is the worst schedule I've gotten for years. Four day redeyes worth 16 hours, while guys below me are getting at least 21hr 4 day redeyes.

I went through with PBS desktop bidder and also the flightline software, and looked at what happened to my pool of available trips using the new top-down denial if (as happened) the new method denied "avoid redeyes" halfway down my bad-stuff list.

Using the old method, by the time it reached "avoid redeyes" and denied it to be able to build me a schedule, it would have ALSO denied "avoid saturdays" "avoid sundays", "avoid landings in Mexico", "avoid landings in Dominican Republic", etc. There would have been a pool of about 50 trips to choose from, and all my "award good trips based on credit/day" would have at least gotten me a decent paying redeye.

HOWEVER, now the algorithm starts out by saying "you MUST have a redeye to have a line, so I'll just remove this..." and it then allows all the other avoids... so when it finally gets to the very first AWARD attempt, well it has only about 10 redeyes in the pot and they are all the worst paying crappers in the package. Sure they don't land in Mex or SD and are on the weekday, but what I get on the first attempt is alllllll bad redeyes because that higher avoid was deleted, while the junior avoids remained, leaving ONLY bad redeyes in the available pot for the first completion attempt.

We're going to have to do some serious what-if rewriting of our bids due to this new methodology, I thought it was a good thing but further study of the results shows me it will take a LOT more bid lines to make it work correctly...

 

404 Atlanta unknown calls... just got two of them, no message left. Clearly a call from Delta as that's the only 404 calls I've ever received. What's that mean? I have a bunch of days off, so could be an IA, but there are reserves avail for tomorrow and only a few GS went out today. Maybe it was the goat comment?

unrelated good news:
The pilot union at American Eagle Airlines has rejected a plan to establish a so-called B scale for new hires at the airline that is trying to win new flying in the merger of its parent company AMR Corp. with US Airways Group, the Dallas Morning News reported.