I remember it being established long ago, on a forum far, far away, that seeing what people bid, or having practice bids (I think FedEx does it) simply gives one more opportunity to game the system, by witholding their bid to the last minute. As such, it didn't work well, I'm told. What was your experience?

I agree that the preferences we see now are too vague to derive a clear picture of who might be bidding a category, but it's a necessary evil because it protects what I consider to be private info. I don't wan't people to see how I bid. I only want the pilots to have access to it after the fact, to make sure noone was cheated. Beyond that, it's not of anyone else's business, how I bid, or what I want. I look at it as proprietary info: if I spend hours sweating my PBS bid, I own it. Same for the AE.

I do feel, however, that the comapny has too much freedom with the AE system, and that it needs to be more transparent. I don't like the fact they can choose to backfill or not backfill certain categories druing the award, or that they can selectively not enforce every displacement, or that they can withdraw bids. In my mind, they say what positions are up for bid, and the slots are filled automatically, each vacated position being available to a lower seniority bidder, etc. I was told your APA required backfilling of positions, and I think that's an improvement we should seek.

30% was historical, but I believe the post-BK target is 15%. So 75% - 80% should actually be conservative for a bottom lineholder. The problem is that they're not running normal staffing until they know exactly what airplane goes where.

Hey Gramps! Where are you trying to go? :D

Right now ATL-MEM has about 11 flights a day in a variety of sizes of aircraft. Loads are pretty high, but usually a few seats.

Crashpad situation in MEM, very few choices, all of which I believe that you will need a car to use.

Commuter hotel situation is pretty pathetic. Most run $50.00 plus and very few in close to the airport are places that you would actually want to stay at.

Sorry not to have better news...

Thanks for the insiders view. Maybe I'll hang out in DTW a while longer. It's just tempting to go down to MEM after seeing the last flight home from DTW to ATL is at 7:30pm (Last MSP-ATL is even worse, 6:30 I believe - Yuck :eek: ) FedEx would be nice to make just about everything commutable.

Factually, you are correct. After Delta expanded to Europe, the ATL and NYC categories had very sweet flying. Almost all three day trips, pilots could decide to summer in Paris and winter in Nice, lots of great destinations, all three man crews. That is the "ER" flying that those guys were used to. Now, that flying has been broken up to other jets, other bases, and (gasp) even to pilots from that "other" airline. Instead of losing their jobs, they have had that lost time filled in with domestic flying.

So, yes, NWA did "ER" flying, just not as much and not as concentrated in two groups of pilots. The funny part is that fNWA pilots look at "Narita" flying in much the same nostalgic way. When fDAL pilots show up in their flying club, we sometimes get dirty looks. At some point, it will all be accepted as the new norm, but pilots hate change, it takes a while.

so much for giving up the forum huh? ;) :D

Like Memguy said, mem isnt very commuter friendly as far as crashpads go, you'll likely need a car and the hotels arent cheap like dtw. theres alot of RJ's in Mem which has made my commute get progressively worse with the cut in capacity. I'm thinking about switching out of mem because of that. Plus memphis is pretty senior so it'll be a while to hold a line there for me so it may be time for me to switch bases.

Its a great base though and i'd love to stay there but i'm sticking with the bid for QOL idea. fwiw

I typed out some really long response to the second paragraph, but the responses might take 1000 posts so I will shorten it.

ALPA, IFALPA and an association of MEC's is very important. Look at what RJET is trying to do with the Star Alliance. You will never see another ALPA group welcome that. Getting rid of National will be like opening up Pandora's Box.

Global Market places needs a global association, and ALPA and IFALPA are it. We just need to fix its issues. Starting over will result in to many opportunities to take pot shots at this profession.

Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... just forget it.

I have no seniority now in the current category I am in. Downside is that if I leave I will never get back.. well not for a long time anyway.. and believe it or not I am not complaining. Anyway, I'm not arguing the merits of a monthly bid.. I just don't want the split block/reserve thingy.