You are probably right...... But on an even bigger picture if there was no GS, ability to pick up 15 over ALV, ability to fly extra in vacation months, swap with pot to go even higher than ALV + 15, how many additional positions do you think we would need?

Personally I would like to see a cap on pay of 80 hours per month with anything above 80 going into the bank but even then the max monthly would be 85. Over 85 hours and something would have to be dropped.

What was he supposed to do?

I have a 12+59 scheduled for May. Now I believe that is contract duty day and FDP is 12+29. That sound right? That means I have only 31 minutes of slack in my day, right?

And from that Aviation Week article: " In terms of hours and cycles remaining in the design life, Delta could theoretically operate the MD-90s for another 50 years, based on the current dispatch profile."
OH BOY!

You are doing the right thing by contacting ALPA a lot. If it were me, I'd have the Contract Admin. guys on speed dial and call them every time Screw Scheds put anything on my line, and get a screen shot too, for verifiable proof when it comes down to them giving you a PD day.

So.... I have a carry out trip that goes the 1-3 of May.

There is a day trip on the first and a 2-day on the 2nd and 3rd that I'd prefer to swap that with.... but it's not letting me since the second trip (that i have to have for the drop portion due to rsv coverage) is in the May bid period. Am I hosed and stuck with the trip?

I'm not the expert so you may want to call DALPA tomorrow, but I think because you are basically trying to swap one trip that spans two bid periods, for two that are in two different bid periods, (May 1 is in Apr, May 2 is in May) you are screwed.

No way can Delta's Lack of Technology handle such a transaction!:rolleyes:

Here is the issue, and complication. The letter of the contract also allows you to acknowledge 12, 15, or even 18 hours out (assuming that is how far in advance scheduling contacted you)--just as it allows you to acknowledge as little as three hours prior.

If scheduling calls you 15 hours out, and you answer the phone and immediately acknowledge, you are following "the letter of the contract" just as much as if you waited until three hours prior.

I was going to argue with, but I realized that my argument was based on greed and selfishness. So, I actually agree with you.

But, that is not the system we have

We used to have that at pre-BK DAL. It was called "max projection" and was a somewhat complex formula based on your longest trip of the month, how many trips were remaining, the cap/ALV, etc. But the idea was the same. You could only swap or WS so much, and if due to reroute, bad weather etc, you actually exceeded the max projection while flying a trip, the shortest trip still remaining on your line was dropped, thus bringing you well under the max projection.

I believe it went like this. The pilots engaged in a large scale grass-roots sickout. Mgmt got an injuction issued by the judge. The pilots (at the line pilot level, never "officially") sicked out at an even greater rate after the injuction was issued. That enraged the judge--never a good idea--and he then issued the fine, holding the top two leaders of the APA personally culpable. That stopped the sickout.

That sickout was really really stupid. There is a right way and a wrong way to hammer mgmt when appropriate, but that was the wrong way.