New,

I'm not familiar with your (former NWA) bidding system, but my perception of Delta's PBS is that quality of life for a bottom regular line holder is less than optimal, to put it mildly.

Basically you get what's left over; which amounts to a line of the worst trips.

Unless there is a significant change for the better to PBS, I will NEVER bid to be near the bottom of the regular line holders in a category.

When ALPA agreed to PBS I don't think many of us realized how bad it would be for the junior guys. Now, if you're really senior you probably love it....

Buzz & Wasach,

I'm sure our systems are more alike than I am making them out to be. There are probably some things I just have to get used to. Like the company publishing a list of projected positions a year out make no sense when it most certainly will be different then. Basically, when the summer AE come out, you can throw this list out so you can look at the new one for summer '10 that won't be accurate either.

Sorry for complainig, but I get this way when I can't figure things out. You should have seen me with the Rubics cube and when Soduku first came out. :D

New K Now

Can anyone with contract knowledge help me out on a question? I’m a soon to be former SLC guy who got MD’d to New York. The way I’m reading the contract is that I need to actually move to within 125 miles of JFK to get the company to pay for it. Is this true? I plan on moving closer to JFK from SLC but am not planning on moving that close. So I’m reading that I will actually have to pay for my own move as a result of my MD.
Say it aint so.

I believe you are correct about the paid move. I would however call 1 800 USA ALPA tomorrow and ask for a benefit specialist. They will give you the correct answer.

New, yeah the list for 2010 is a snapshot in time and really not worth all that much. At best, it provides those of us who just went through the recent "old DAL" displacement a sort of "how it went" with what we bid. For example, I can see quite clearly what I lost in terms of numbers for my equipment and my base. Its a barometer, thats all. Most of this stuff is best guess anyway.

Heyas,

Just to tack onto what NewKnow said:

With the NWA monthly system, it is VERY easy to see which way the wind is blowing. The company publishes a "pref-up" report for each category that shows who is bidding for what, which was effective before the award.

Of course, our good buddy at EZOPENBOARD does one better, and takes the pref up report and highlights people who got a bid that month, so you can delete them from the list, and you get an even better idea of if you're on a chute or a ladder.

As I said, there's stuff in the JPWA I like, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, the DAL system is just plain goofy. Let's have 2 HUGE bids a year, with people going every which way, with no committment to actually follow through, be subject to a gigantic meltdown and turmoil if conditions change, and then publish information that is essentially worthless on the date it was printed.

If you make big waves in the bathtub, you make a big mess. If you keep the splashing to minimum so as to only make a few ripples, even if it's more often, you save a lot of cleaning up.

Anyone with kids knows this, and if anything, the more you treat pilots like children, the better off you'll be.

Nu

I'm very junior on the 88 and float between a reserve line and a regular line. I actually have a much better schedule when I get a line even if it is the bad trips because I almost always end up with at least 15 days off and some months 17 days off vs. 12 or 13 on reserve. On reserve you usually get worse trips because everyone dumps the really crappy trips into open time and nobody will touch them. Reserves end up getting all of those. I also typically make more with a line than I do on reserve. I also usually get the days off I request as long as they are not unrealistic such as holidays and every weekend. So far, for me I like the PBS system and would much rather have a junior line than a reserve line, but that is just me.

NuGuy, I don't think you understand the Delta system. In the end it does the same thing as the NWA system. Normally there are not two large bids a year. The norm is one bid per quarter with a small cleanup bid in between. This often means up to 8 bids a year. This is a unusual year with the merger but it still looks like 4 or 5 bids for the year. I did not understand the no committment part of your post. If you get a bid it is almost always followed through with. There is a process where the company can cancel a bid however it comes with penalties to the company and the AE holder can essentially then go where ever his seniority allows him to go on any bids posted over the conversion period. Even though this bid has a 1 year conversion window it is anticipated that all training will be done by July and all pilots converted by then. When all is said and done both systems simply put pilots into seats. You get to the same seat in the same time.

I want to see the post SOC projected staffing. ;)

Obviously we all have a lot to learn. From an NWA guys perspective, it is really nice to know that each month you get the news (awards or displacements) on the same day, and that it's written into the contract that way. None of this business of spending two months asking dudes on APC when the bid is coming out. It's much easier to plan your life under that system.