dlnet-pilot scheduling and resources-advance entitlement results

 

Not putting words in your mouth, but would it then be correct to say that the history of reserve at Delta has always been that it is a "junior issue", something little capital was expanded on?[/quote]


I would not say that. First reserve is not a junior issue. Reserve pilots run from almost the top of the list to the bottom. You can be on reserve at almost any stage in your career. As I mentioned lots of capital has been extended over the years on the reserve system. Compare 19 days on call with a 2 hour report 24 hours a day and you can see the improvements. Under the 01 contract pilots could manage to hardly ever work by knowing the tricks of the system. The new system is designed to do one thing and that is get each reserve pilot as close to 70 hours as possible. As you mention pilots could hide under the old system. Not very efficient from a company standpoint but great if your a pilot.
The best quality of life I have enjoyed at the airline was living in base on reserve. Most of my career I have commuted so it was not a option. The majority of complaints I hear about the reserve system come from pilots who choose to commute on reserve. Not to long ago there was a pilot in the lounge screaming about how bad the reserve system was. As he was talking I pulled his schedule. Over the 7 months I could look back and see his schedule he had average working only 8 days a month. When I pointed that out he said, yea but I have another business and don't have time to work that many days for Delta. To translate that it means he wants you to subsidize his other business and he still wants a full paycheck from Delta.

 

By guarantee do you mean ALV? If you flew 72 hours and that put you at or above the ALV for the month, then in fact you are done. They cannot assign you a trip that takes you above ALV unless you have a yellow slip in. They could put you on short call if they want (I guess), but they cannot use you at all so its kind of pointless. Of course the ALV can change each month - so one month you may time out at 72 hours, the next, it may take 82. The few times that I have gone over ALV (I had a yellow slip in, then pulled it after I was assigned the trip) I have not even been on the reserve availability list for my remaining on call days. Reserve guarantee is 70 hours, but that has nothing to do with how they can assign you trips.

 

OK, thanks.

My perspective on this current reserve system comes from a period when I was not commuting. I dismiss some of the whining you allude to. If that other business is so important, do that other business. Or get a hard line, and drop a trip or two on occasion.

I'm more specifically focused on the fact that you're almost invariably on short call or flying (rarely long-call), AND you can't control what trips you get, AND the raw score differential of 15 does very little to put you to the front or back of the pack. The 96 system, when I worked under it, was the best I had ever seen. The LOA 46 system is only marginally better than the worse I have had, and only because of Whitlow.

Speaking of Whitlow, I'm sure you're you're factoring that it into the history of reserves, not just at Delta, but everywhere. The main reason reserves improved in the last decade was the elimination (on the domestic side only) of the 24-hour reserve system, with no scheduled breaks. So I would certainly maintain reserve is not something we ever expended much negotiating capital on.

 

Because the Express guys started complaining about "C" scale, wanting "mainline pay for mainline work", but with no system rebid. It was a really interesting exercise. Many of the early Express guys were returning furloughees from the '93 class and lobbied hard for the creation of the MCO operation (Sunshine). Once they got there the past and current reps (Martin, Renkel, et. al.) forgot their history and lobbied hard for huge payraises and work rule changes, but wanted special protections for the guys in category. They forgot those 737's were the future mainline Captain seats for a lot of guys still flying FO when they were moved to Orlando. They overpromised and underdelivered to the Express pilots. While C2K got them big payraises, almost immediately the drawdown of the category began.

There was an awful lot of whining when the category was finally closed completely in 2003.

Another example of be careful what you wish for...

 

Is the award date the day a pilot starts getting the new pay? I'm guessing the conversion window is when you have to go to training. My conversion window is like 6 months. Is this normal? Seems like a pretty big window. If a new AE comes out before I am converted, can I rebid to different equipment or am I stuck with the seat lock? If it's a return from displacement does my seat lock restart or is it two years from when I first flew the equipment? This AE stuff confuses me.

 

That is a typical conversion.

It depends on if you bid a AE, or VD. Those have the seat lock. The MD does not.

You do not get paid until the conversion date.

 

Lest we forget history, indeed there WAS rebid of the category--and it went almost exactly as junior as it was. A few captains got displaced, and it remained the junior category of the airline. Much like Song, several attempts were made to keep a dedicated operation SE-NE. I would disagree that the reps "forgot" their history, but were trying to rid the airline of the "C" scale once it was put in place and the airline was hiring again.

Overpromising and underdelivering was indeed the case to a certain extent, but I can speak for one captain who happily went back to the right seat, of the ER, and got a $22/hr raise. I believe that the complaining was due to the fact that the retro pay was based on raises which were stepped down in order to provide less of a retro check for the Express pilots. No doubt part of the politics of the deal to keep the non-Express pilots from complaining--which most did anyway. Always plenty of complaining to go around. I wasn't one of them.

Just a slightly different perspective from someone who was there.

 

There was never a rebid of the Express Category, I have no idea where you got that information.

 

My recollection is that it was everyone but the Express pilots that wanted to get rid of Express, but I was looking at it from a junior F/O perspective. Junior at Delta, snior enough at Express, that is. I often snickered (inside) when they described the operation as a "cancer".

No cancer ever felt so good.

However, I don't doubt Martin's oratory got a little... lofty, and I can't describe the power within the MEC at the time. The complaining on the C2K raise, I do recall, so I'll yield on the history there.

So I think you're right: people wanted the highest rates attainable, but I don't think that means, in any way shape or form, that they wanted to dismantle the operation. Remember, we were discussing Express in the context of having distinct swimming pools, for junior people to play in, not payrates.