I'd love the option to bid for either a longcall or shortcall only month. Perhaps a higher credit to the shortcall (guys that live in base) and a lower credit to those that would prefer the long call (more commutable gig). This might be a wash to the company but give us more control.

No thanks.

They can make any argument they'd like. Anecdotally, the data would seem to show that it didn't use to be so much a part of the job. More and more pilots are (I believe) hitting 7 SCs a month.

Fact is, retirements increase significantly over the next two contracts and we have the leverage (should we choose to use it smartly).

I have personally noticed this also - in 18 years I never maxed out on SC ever until this May. Now every single day on reserve that I am not assigned a trip the day prior it is automatic SC.

It would seem that scheduling has changed their SC assignment philosophy since some of our guys were (pick one) accused/caught of not being in position for SC. So a few guys go rouge and 13K + Pilots pay the price. :cool:

Scoop

Have you personally ever been assigned flying into the ALV +15 window?

But....remember our old (pre-PBS) system where you were on "short-call" twice a day.

Yep - I am reminded of it every single day that I am on reserve since every day is now a 12hr SC. :eek: OBTW - that went away before PBS - didn't it?

Scoop

That would just barely be industry standard. American gets 30 min above guarantee for every conversion to short call. United gets 1 hour above guarantee for every short call they're not used.

The company is out of control with their short call usage. It's now up to our negotiators to get us something that will deter the company from doing such things. Sure they won't WANT to give us that....see below.

I did not know that about AA and UA contract. That detail changes my mind.

This is exactly the type of detail comparison we should be doing prior to exchanging openers next year. Anything that ANY carrier has that is better than our current book should be in our opener. Negotiation strategy 101 says that you ask (within reason) above what you expect to end up getting. If other carriers have something in their book, I'd say it is within reason to ask for the same or a little bit more.

Of course, once negotiations start, the NC needs to focus on the polling data and the voice of the membership for the end result, but in this negotiations/economic/retirement environment we should shoot for the moon as every contract negotiation following ours will try (and possibly succeed) to one-up us.

Other items I've heard of:
Extra pay for middle-seat deadheads.
FC deadheads for flights over X-hours
Crew meals (more realistic rules)

What else are others getting that we are not?

This is not meant to be a whining post, I'm just trying to get us all thinking of how much better it COULD be.