Scoop

Pilot Frog,

You are correct in that we are "paying" for the 5:15 guarantee but remember we are also getting "paid" for the 5:15 guarantee.

There are a lot of factors that are leading to the 5 day trips. Most are coincident with good times: Hiring, more block hours, pilot retirements etc. Also, many commuters want them. I think that there is some affect from the 5:15 but it is not the main driver of the 5 day trips.

I don't think you would rather go back to the days of 5:15 per duty period - in other words the three day 10:30 trips- would you? Just looking at pay hours (not pay-rates) those trips recently increased from:

10:30 (5:15 duty period average)
13:30 (4:30 ADG)
15:45 ( current 5:15 ADG)

That is huge! Finally I will say all of these changes affect each category differently. If you already had good trips - maybe your trip mix has in fact deteriorated.

Or in the case of LAX 73N, proudly known to have had the worst bid package in the system with tons of the former 3 day 10:30 trips and plenty of former 4 day 17-19 hour trips we are pretty happy with the 5:15.

At one time our bid package was 33% 4 day red-eyes that paid 17-20 hours.

We had one trip that was in open time almost every single day in October and now you only see it occasionally. That is because of the 5:15.

Scoop - just my 2 cents.

RockyBoy

^^^^^

This is the best use of the bank IMO. I try to keep a balance of 10-15 hours in the bank to offset drops. If you are a Greenslipper you can also use any PB days you bank to offset some drops. You can strategically drop days to really control how much you work. I usually drop at least 2 days a month when I bid reserve. That way I end up with 4 blocks of reserve days that are no longer than 4 days.

I've dropped as far down to 3 reserve days one month. That is enough to pay for your benefits. I'm not sure what they do with your benefits if you drop down to 0. I've never tried that yet. On 7 year 320 pay it costs about $500 per day that you drop on reserve.

RockyBoy

I agree with Scoop. I don't think all the 5-days are a result of the 5:15 although it is a factor. I think they are just short staffed and have no other way to cover flying except to tell the computer to minimize credit which results in longer trips.

The 320 in SLC has gotten better......unless you like high time 1-day trips. I love the 15:45 3-days. Open time used to be full of 13 hour 3 days....now it's full of 27 hour 5-days.

MikeF16

This is exactly what I meant. I wouldn't use the story because 1) it is a downer and 2) it isn't representative of what I expect to be the norm

Believe me, of guys who have asked my opinion 100% of the time my answer has been come work here ASAP.

Yup, you get 1 year from your retirement date for a free move and I will be moving 6-7 months afterwards. I can't wait!

Agree, in my case though it won't cost much at all. Since I'm on basic pilot salary for 2/3 of the month I assume my reserve guarantee for the remainder of the month will be cut down to 1/3 of what it normally would be. 1st year pay of $68 * 72 hours * .333 * 1/17 = I lose about $95 for PD'ing the lone day of reserve. Good deal IMO .

Carl Spackler

I don't doubt you were a member Dorfman. I said you were never a supporter and I stand by that. I only remember lock step support for ALPA and criticism for DPA from you.

Carl

Purple Drank

In the interests of "the time value of money," has anyone run the numbers on what percentage of our pay we would have received this year if we hadn't "monetized" it for 4833?

Denny Crane

If you are talking about the profit sharing, it's 2 percent of the 8 percent. The 2 percent is not cumulative year to year.

Denny

80ktsClamp

What amount of profit did that assume, though?

Purple Drank

Um, what?
That made zero sense. Are you trying to muddy the waters?

boog123

ALV next month is 75. Im at 70 and my line shows max pick up 5. Is that correct? I thought we could go ALV plus 15.

Am I missing something?