The companies view of this is that if you have issues with any of those 5 then you should pull your GS request so they don't call you. If you have in a GS request they expect that you have those 5 things taken care of. They will let you out of a trip for those reasons, but they usually press as hard as they can saying if you knew you couldn't make the trip why didn't you pull out your GS request or adjust the qualifiers so we don't waste our time calling you.

It's just way easier to not ever answer the phone. I have no clue why guys actually answer. You ALWAYS have the option to not take the trip if you don't answer your phone,.

FAR 117 requires me to not fly any trip if I'm "Not being adequately rested." GS or otherwise.

How is one supposed to adjust your GS request as to me adequately rest if I don't even know if I'm going to get a trip or what the trip is?

I may be rested for a quick flight to ATL with a DH back but not for a 5+ hour flight to the west coast. Hard to tell what childcare coverage I need to cover before I get a call for GS.

WS are easier to determine both for rest and child care because I have time to look at the whole picture before I put in for the WS.

Also, just because I have 14 hours to get childcare doesn't mean I can find it.

Why then, was there a 6+ week negotiation over it? You need to talk to your management, and find out exactly what happened. Do not go to a union source for this info, especially an XJ union source.

I agree 110%. That's why I said earlier it's almost impossible to adjust your qualifiers for trips you don't even know will show up, so just throw in a GS and don't answer your phone. If you DO answer your phone then they will hassle you when you tell them you would rather not do the 5+ hour flight. I don't think they should hassle you, but from my experience they will so I just don't ever answer the phone.

I do the same and have never had a issue. If you don't answer they have to wait 10 minutes before moving on.

I agree. They are attempting to use rules on both sides of the fence to their advantage.

And, I never answer my phone as SF does. A big issue is the 1980's style grease board manual trip coverage we are still using.

UAL and SWA both have apps/texting scheduling tools that help both the pilot group and the Co.

^^^^

We had better systems at the regional I worked for. You can figure out stuff here but it is a cumbersome, old, inefficient system.

This is spot on. I pay very close attention to the qualifiers I put in for a GS. If circumstances change for me, then I change the qualifier(s) or take the GS out. (Not that I ever get GS's anymore at my seniority...)

I can totally see how it would be very frustrating for a scheduler to waste his/her time calling people who have no intention of taking the trip. I think it's only fair that we limit our GS requests to something we are willing and able to fly.

True. Bottom line: if you don't want to fly, don't answer your phone.

If the company would invest in a viable scheduling interface, vs the current, onerous, and utterly worthless 80s-era system, replete with schedulers trained in puck-slinging and strong-arming, the company would save a ton of time calling folks who were unable to adequately identify their qualifiers.

How can you be expected to know about a trip that you didn't know existed until you knew about it? :rolleyes:

Yes you can put *some* qualifiers, but its completely unreasonable to expect any human being to constantly load iCrew with every single parameter in rolling real time as fast as life comes at them.

The whole "tag you're it!" is asinine anyway. Its a pre internet relic that has outserved its usefulness. CS wastes way more time now because of it. Every GS and IA assigned by phone should 100% be a proffer. That way people would actually answer their phone. A quick "no thanks" is way better for CS than the current song and dance, where the pilot has numerous get out of trip free cards they can play anyway. The complete ineffectiveness of this ancient mentality is occasionally masked by the adrenaline rush of actually finding a sucker that answers their phone (knowing full well who is calling lol) and convinving them to do it against their will without playing one of many get out of trip free cards. The emotional rush of that occasional big score masks the complete and udder ineffectiveness of a completely obsolete and counter productive system.