The way I understand it, until training happens, you can bid elsewhere. I have known of guys who have done just that, but I haven't read our latest contract thru and thru. Training is what is supposed to trigger the freeze, not the award. The award doesn't cost the company a dime. If DBMS shows you with a freeze, call crew training and see what they can do for you. You should be able to jump ship. If you don't like their answer, call ALPA. That's what you are paying them for.

The second question is certainly a good one for your ALPA rep. Do some homework in the contract before you call them. Why you say? Sometimes reps can give you a bum answer from memory or from what he or she THINKS is how it works. I had this happen to me back in around 1994 and it ultimately cost me thousands of $. The company backpeddled out of a deal with the LCA. Then ALPA gave me some erroneous info. I could have grieved it along with the other LCA, but I was brainwashed into thinking like a company man. I won't go into boring details, but the bottom line is occasionally this can happen, so learn the answer before you call them, and things will often times happen your way.

Unless the contract has some little obscure LOA or nomenclature regarding new hires, I think you should be pay protected to the higher rate, but they didn't ask me for my opinion. :p

Agreed. And not putting in their employee # so they can't get their dime a leg LFA pay, etc just turns us into self fulfilling prophecies and adds to the spiral to the bottom.

Plus........NWA I mean Delta hires young, hot, bi-lingual with sunny disposition Asians too (for Asia):cool::D They just aren't EXACTLY the same height as Korean or Asiaiana.

JMHO
Ferd

Could not agree more. With that attitude you will be lucky if you get fed at all much less a P** break. They are not there to serve you. They are there for the safety of our customers and to provide a service to our HVC. Get over it.

That's the reason why drastic employee cuts almost never pay off for a company. It looks good "on paper" to the bean counters, but the reality is that it does more damage than good.

It's the difference in management mentality between viewing employees as a cost item and viewing them as one of the most important assets to the company. This is a management problem that I do not see getting fixed with the current mentality we have in the executive suites on Virginia Ave.

So true Scoop. You are 100% dead on accurate. We pilots are truly not front line employees. It is the FA's who have the biggest impact on customers. What we do in the front of the bus is just taken for granted and perfection from us is totally expected no matter what. I could probably write a boring book on this subject, but the hiring criteria for most majors for FA's is and always has been much higher than the LCC's. The relatively short term LCC FA's virtually have nothing vested. No college, no work experience, no long term employment, etc. Although much higher pay, no delusions of having a pension. Many of the LCC FA's don't view their jobs as long term. Many of the LCC FA's were not even born when most of our international FA's were hired. They have yet to go through disappoint after disappointment year after year like the majors. DId you know that the DAL FA's now have 6:30 minute sits without being able to ask for a room? Are you jackin me? I wonder if the DAL FA's will jump aboard the union train. Ya think? My DAL FA wife who is fit and trim was totally steamed when they removed the PC weight restrictions. I remember when the fat chicks returned to the line. THAT WAS A SAD DAY! Amplifying your point: I beleive Jap airlines require their FA's to retire by age 26.

question for you line holders:

I have always been a reserve guy (I live in base), but have been bidding a line recently for the extra money. Can someone in the know give me a quick and dirty on the Bank system.

I looked at my Time Card for July in I crew, and noticed 5 hours had been moved to my bank. After consulting the contract, i found in section 12 where they automatically take 5 hours from your check and put it in your bank when your credit exceeds 80 hours.

My question is: what is this Bank for? I saw in the contract about buying Vacation days, but is that all it's for? I'm asking because I picked up a trip because I need the extra money. Now, all that extra money has gone to my Bank. Last month i credited 97.5 hrs and they didn't take the 5 hours out, so I guess I'm confused on this whole thing. Do I have any way of getting that 5 hours of pay? Or did I add a trip onto my schedule for nothing?

Thanks very much for any info. I'll keep searching thru the contract but I can't find any info on the Bank other than what's mentioned in Section 12.

I think straight pay over 80 automatically goes to fill a negative bank.

For Ferd's sake, lets play the stereotype game. There seems to be a big difference between FA's between all of the bases because not only is it different bases but it is different airlines (Pan Am, Western). So throw out the stereotypes even though we all know there are exceptions to the rules both good and bad, heck, if you want to say you thought XYZ FA's would be bad but turned out good then you can post it... weenie.

It'd be good for us all, otherwise us DALS guys are going to look at all NWA FA's and assume their one group when in reality, you guys know that the differences.

We'll start with Waves, what do you think of FA's at your base? :D

What else are we going to do tonight?

Okay, putting out stereotypes are wrong, just like being a racist is wrong, unless you make it funny and end with a "its funny because its racist" like this SNL skit on the "The Office" from Japan:
Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Digital Short: The Japanese Office

Just trying.

So, I'm stuck in DTW, unable to commute home for my single X day tomorrow. Tomorrow about noon would be a great time for one of you guys to sick-out from a FRA trip, or any other sweet trip for that matter.

First, if you need the 5 hours now, go in to eCrew and request a 5 hour withdrawal out of your bank, you can draw it down to -30 hours anytime.

The reason that last month did not automatically put money in the bank may be that some of what you did may have been "pay no credit items." I have noticed that some things like IA's, or GS pay that way. You can check your time card page to see this, it will have a column for credit, and a column for pay.

Another thing to remember, is that your bank is in hours, and not dollars. If you draw out hours now you will be paid at your current rate, but if you change to a higher paying position you will be paying yourself back at a higher rate. Not sure what side of the merger brought you here, but this is a subtle difference from the fNWA bank system.