Here's a scenario. You hold a line on the DC-9 (only other option being NYC). The company has said they will draw down the fleet end of summer so you keep your position and commute to a line (in lieu of 320 reserve). The bids are awarded and several months later, in June, the company draws 40 lines out of DTW well before they were going to park planes. Now you spend a summer on reserve on equipment you didn't anticipate whereas with the APA one could displace off DC9 line holder to reserve on something with better trips; essentially exercise seniority. Not with the APA system, stuck till you get your award 9 months later. Side note, called Crew Resources and Training and discovered that training within 210 days won't happen either due to backlog.

APA system= awarded, trained, paid and on with your life.
AE= Waiting to see if you get an MD before you convert to you last AE

Base moves can only happen if there is a vacancy and you were senior enough to hold it (I sat a few months in DTW, never able to get back to MSP because there were no openings that I could hold). I will say that you do have better odds at getting a base move earlier under the APA system but again, it is not a guarantee.

How is it easier to see which way the wind is blowing with the monthly APA?

The effects of missing a bid, I get, but under the AE system, it is pretty big news that there is a bid out so if you don't know about it, you are not paying attention (or reading the popup in ECrew when you sign in). Not sure how it minimizes the impact of screwing up a bid. If anything, I think that the AE systems helps with that in the fact that your seat lock starts when the bid is published and you may not convert for 9 months thus effectively giving you only a 15 month seat lock.

As for the movement of flying, again, it would be dependent on the company to provide openings for someone to bid to.

YES, temp bids were great.

I really don't care which way it is, in the grand scheme of things, the same thing is going to happen with the same people whether it is monthly or how our system is now. Maybe would be nice if the company would say that they will do X number of bids every year (maybe one per quarter) so that it can alleviate some of the pent up "when is the next bid coming out" feelings.

Don't forget though, we no longer have block and reserve, so you can't displace off the block (totally different topic) and I for one do not want to go back to having a block and reserve as separate categories. In your situation you would have been a blockholder without a block and could either sit your days of reserve at home for the minimum pay or sit them in base for the reserve guarantee. You still may not have been able to bid off the equipment because the company would most likely have kept you in your current position because the school house was already full and instructors were flying the summer schedule.

How about we keep the AE's but require them to be done monthly.

There, everyone is happy, we still have AE's, but monthly.

:D

Thanks, I will be kicked off the computer here shortly.

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My thoughts on AE vs APA, I prefer the APA because everyone - even regionals who have it - prefer it over big bids. I've always had big bids, would prefer to have monthly bids. If someone wants to wait to pull the trigger let them, big bids don't allow for that. Say they open A320 ATL, do you bid it or not?!? If you don't bid it, you might not get into it for a long time because AE's are frankly rare and have been since I was hired, and if guys all bid into it and it fills up then only senior people will get into it the years ahead on AEs. But if you do bid it what happens if it sucks? What happens if your 60% or better really made you 85%?

APA. I'm in. Like I said, change the contract, require AE's monthly.

I heard that too. It seems way complicated. If it software that the union picked then ***? I think they should run them, check them later, and if a discrepancy exist, pay the pilot the difference. Is it just me or does it seem like they run a bunch, then nothing happens for days.

OK, end of ***** session.

BD

Well, they have to be out by the 17th per the contract and they almost always are. If the company wanted to change that they could just whip out another LOA with the MEC, but if you want it changed you will have to give something back and wait until the ammendable date. See how this works?

Woah, Bill. What's up with all the bravado on upgrades today? Grow a pair? :rolleyes:

More like just dropped.

BA-ZING!

Thanks to those that clarified the seat-lock issue earlier. If there's a problem, by all means: let's have it fixed.

Taxi reimbursement
 

I had a downtown Chicago layover with a 0425 pickup. The limo never shows. We call them and they tell us to wait. And then at 0500 the dispatcher calls us and says that they're not coming - we should take a cab to MDW.

***** Limo service sucks! They are never on time for the Chicago *********(downtown) layover.

Anyway, now that I'm out $35 of MY OWN money, what is the procedure for getting reimbursement?

Yeah, yeah ... I know ... "It's on Deltanet!"

But WHERE??

Thanks!