Certainly we have some bad schedulers. We also have some very good ones. Some have a bias and some don't. If you are ever in training and have some spare time go over to scheduling and ask to be shown around. If it's a bad weather day you might find it a eye opening experience. Listen to how some pilots treat the schedulers. The road runs both ways.

Holiday Pay, just like the other employees get, would solve all of Scheduling's coverage problems. There would be zero open time left to cover after the first PBS run, and there'd be guys lined up 5 deep to white slip anything that did come open over the holiday.

Every other employee group piggy backs on us when we get raises, I've never understood why that's only a one-way street, but it is.

Ok, then how about let's start with this. Double pay for trips that TOUCH a holiday, 150% for anything over 78 hours EVERY month. IMO the top 3 in Flight Ops Management are way out of touch and should have been gone a long time ago. They have been in their positions way longer than those that preceded them, except maybe Harry and Snake. Snake was a keeper, Harry should have never gotten the job in the first place.

Timbo, how do you explain the other employee groups not having costs at the top of the industry like the pilots?
There are always some things one group has that another does not. Overall however we do better then most of the other employees. As a example I don't know of any employees getting double pay for overtime.

Sort of. There is a percentage of pilots that might abuse schedulers, and a percentage of schedulers that might abuse pilots. I was always amazed at how schedulers kept it very professional, however. Professionalism was institutionalized. Guys like Watson lost sleep over every minute of sick time, but the schedulers were professional.

At some time after the merger, I don't know if it was RA/SD/Big Data/new schedulers/NW Schedulers/changes in management/potential abuse/the post-BK era, somehow the green light was given to an entirely different stance, and sarcasm and doubt were institutionalized. Many schedulers are still pros, some are not.

Then again, it's pretty normal for people to act a little frustrated when given impossible tasks. If they're not given enough pilots for the flying...

I tend to think this is the key.

Flight attendants?

Thanks
 

Thanks Clamp...that is exactly what I was looking for. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Another point that gets lost in the shuffle of staffing is our profitability. I think management is running the company like we are on the verge of bankruptcy. I appreciate a cost conscious management style but now it is affecting the operation and it will not be long before it affects our bottom line in loss of revenue. We do not need to spend money like drunken sailors but we need to adequately fund the operation to be able to deal with contingincies. I see it the same as upgrading jfk or adding lie flat seats to our planes. we must spend the money to upgrade the operation. We will never have this opportunity again in our lifetime where all three of our major competitors are merging. we should not spoil it by ****ing away our lead because we did not invest in our airline.
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My three cents:

A) I bet every scheduler and 4th floor type could fly sick. I mean I could type on this computer all day long and be an ass on the internet even with the flu. In fact, I can take this computer to the bathroom if need be.

B) And I bet every pilot here could fly with the flu too. But just because you can doesn't mean it's smart, wise, safe or the responsible thing to do. And if there is an incident and you were flying sick...

C) if you do a 12 or 14 leg trip, you have the opportunity to get 1 other pilot, multiple flight attendants and possibly the 12 or 14 other pilots who flew after you to be sick.

D) Earlier in the year I called in sick, I know the scheduler didn't believe me. I got better. Two weeks later I flew completely fine, clear sinuses and everything but nearly busted an ear drum on landing. It hit out of the blue and it hurt so bad. Took 3 weeks to get hearing back. I ended up going to the doctor and he was surprised it wasn't worse.

E) The tolerance for our mistakes is low, our tolerance to fly even slightly sick should be just as low.

F) We could be offered a chance to win a Ford Explorer with a perfect attendance record (Continental Airlines) but all you do is encourage people to fly sick. You could require verification for every sick call but you're encouraging people to fly sick. There needs to be a better way.

I don't want to post it on the internet but look up Daily Operational Summary in the search window of Deltanet.

I have a question though, how many pilots are offline because of the 717 or other training? I held this week off but I am not qualified on the 717 yet and I'm not the only one I'm sure. I wonder how many? It had to be what killed the MD88 and why I'm starting to think they're not concerned that staffing is improper. :mad: