Back in the time before time, we had a 75 hour cap. You might fly over 75 hours, but you would only be paid 75 hours. The extra time would be put into a 'bow wave' towards your next month's total time. The ONLY way you could be paid more than 75 hours was if you flew 'Overtime' i.e. a green slip.

BUT, before any green slip pay kicked in, you first had to reach the 75 hours, that was the trigger for overtime pay.

Now, with PBS and variable ALV's every month, they decided to tie GS pay to the ALV as the trigger. You first have to fly to the ALV before GS pay kicks in.

I wish we would go back to the old 75hr. Cap and bow wave, and trips touching for vacation, and free health care, and and and...
But the company is only making $4.5 Billion per year, there's just no way they can afford that with oil at 10 year lows...

 

I never really understand how the bow wave worked. When would the extra accumulated timed be paid out? Or was it just credited out as extra vacation time when a pilot had it scheduled?

Personally, I think GS should be paid out at straight a 200% premium without any trigger, or keep the trigger in place and pay out 200% premium for anytime picked up above it (WS or whatever).

I'd prefer the latter, and would really like to see that in 2015. I doubt it would really add much cost to the contract as most guys are determined to hit the trigger when they've picked up a GS. I'm sure it'd help the open time from getting picked up earlier as well.

The current system unfairly favors individuals who either live in base or have a lot of flexibility in picking up last minute GS, and this is coming from someone who lives in base.

 

Removing the GS trigger theoretically would allow us to drop down to zero time and then just build a schedule from greenies which would pay double. Or for us QOL chasers, drop to zero, fly 40 hours in 6-7 days, and get paid 80.

Now, that's theoretical but unlikely to be possible with the requirement for reserve levels to drop a trip. But… it would encourage more pilots to bid min scheds, which would in turn reduce reserve levels as more lines were available from the time not picked up by senior pilots, which would in turn increase open time for possible GS.

I'm cool with either option because both are good for me and Rule 1a is that it's all about me anyhow, but I think it's a hard sell to the bean counters who don't understand Rule 1a.

 

As I understand it, the "bow wave" went into a bank, then in another month when you flew under 75, it would boost up your time to reach 75. Or when you retired. So there was little incentive to fly above 75 unless you wanted part of another month off.

 

Hey all. With MetLife dental is your id# your 6-digit emp number or 9-digit number? Thanks!

 

Not quite. Bow wave and Bank were two different things.

Bow Wave automatically went towards you filling up in the next month, ie. if you had a 3hr. bow wave, and your line next month was 72, the 3 hour bow wave would spill forward to fill you up.

Bank was if you wanted to 'save' that 3 hours for a rainy day some months into the future. But you had to elect to deposit it into your bank, which I think maxed out at +60 hours. Anything above that had to continue as a bow wave.

You could also go negative bank. If you wanted to fill up say a 68hr. month (to 75) you could borrow (up to 20 hours) from the bank to fill up. If in later months you developed a bow wave, the first 5 hours of it was automatically used to pay back your negative bank.

There was also a 'spill back' provision, where if you had a short month, you could take some time out of your next month's line and spill it back to fill up (to 75) the previous month.

OR...you could take some time out of your positive bank and use that to fill up.

The typical strategy was to fill your bank up before you bid up to a higher paying seat, then take some out every month to fill up, at the higher rates.

The bow wave strategy was used to push time forward into the choice summer months, drop your trips and stay home, while your bow wave got you paid. Between 60 hour banks, huge bow waves, and dropping any trips that touched your vacation months, you could go all summer without flying a trip, if you worked it right, and many did.

When I was hired in 1985, they had not hired since 1981, so most of the flight engineers had huge bow waves (200 hours), but the company was short of pilots so they 'froze' their bow waves, ie. they wouldn't let them use them to drop trips!

They were in contract negotiations when I interviewed, one of the big sticking points was the B Scale. American Airlines had just started that nonsense in 1984, so in typical "Me Too" fashion, all the other airlines wanted to have one... "To Compete with American"

Of course everyone you spoke with at the interview had to ask you how you would feel if you were put on a B Scale. They even had pay charts they showed us, "Here's what your pay rates might be, are you OK with that?"

 

Timbo,

To clarify, the GS trigger is ALV or 75 hours, whichever is lower. That means that the GS trigger (which is always listed in your time card) is always in a range of 72-75 hours. Also, as you no doubt know, all training, vacation, etc applies to the GS trigger. This is all an improvement resulting from a side letter a few years ago.

 

The Bow Wave just kept building, and going into your next month's time, you never got paid more than 75, unless you flew a GS. Remember, we were bidding off of company produced line of time bid sheets. There were many lines that were only worth 67-73 hours. If you picked up a lot of time, you could have a huge bow wave going into say June, and personal drop all your trips, cover the pay with your bow wave.

Most 'good' lines (on the 727) were either three 4 day trips, or four 3 day trips, same trip, going out on the same day, all month. Either way, you were only flying 12 days a month and getting 75 hours.

BUT, you could still pick up from open time, up to 75+ the value of your shortest trip prior to the 20th or something like that. That's usually how you got some bow wave going, which you used to push time into your next 68hr. month, or you borrowed from the bank to fill up, or you just lived on 68hrs. and enjoyed your time off.

Thus the old joke about, "You mean I have to fly to Rome EVERY Tuesday??!"

And many guys would whine if the lines weren't "Pure". Pure was; same trip, same days, every week.

That's how you could tell who was senior. The guys you'd see signing in on Friday all month were the most junior of course, working every weekend, all month, and the guys who signed in on Tuesday for a 3 day were most senior. Flying 3 on, 4 off, on Tuesday, was what we all aspired to. And with one week of vacation, you were smart to bid a line where it would be placed between two 4 day trips, touching each, you could drop 8 days of flying, and get 3 weeks off for one week of vacation.

 

That would be spun by some as a paycut. Talk amongst yourselves.

 

I'm interested in this ground pay concept.

I need to look more at what DALPA put out on it (so this has nothing to do with that) but IF it is what I think it is and it only pays if you're working then it might be a win win for the airline and pilots who work normal schedules.