Reserve Question
 

I am also thinking about bidding reserve in December since I have training, vacation, and already put in for 3 days of MIL.

Here is my question - Is there any thing in the contract that requires a certain number or percentage of reserve Pilots to have a certain day off? In other words, can they schedule every single reserve pilot to be on call on Christmas and even deny the senior most reserve Pilot his request of "Prefer off 25 December?"

I guess you could remedy this with a "Else start next" and bid for a line, but I remember someone saying that not one LAX 73N FO had off on July 4th after the initial bid awards - can anyone verify this?

Also - How far up the food chain do yo have to be to be safe from unstacking?


Thanks Scoop :)

Interesting, if not already reported, Comair has shrunk to a size so small that starting in 2011 it is no longer required to report its statistics for on-time flights to the government. Which is good, Comair comes in last of 18 carriers with a 72% arrival performance.

Pinnacle will stop voluntarily reporting it's on-time statistics.

Scoop,

I'm not sure what the formula is, but ALPA requires that a certain number of reserves will get holidays off. That was one hangup with moving reserve bidding to PBS is that it would not award any holidays off for reserves unless it was forced to do so. With line bidding you could see exactly how many lines had the holiday off and bid to be one of those people or go to a line. You can do the same thing with PBS, you just don't know how many lines will end up with the holiday off, but a certain number must have the holidays off.

From what I've seen since we've moved to reserve bidding in PBS, the same number of people on reserve end up with holidays off as they did with the old system, you just can't see how many that will be. You just use an "else start next" line to make sure if you don't get it off on a reserve line that you go back to asking for a line.

A little tip for those bidding reserve to get holidays off.....bid to start a string of at least 5 days starting on the holiday. Ex. bid to work Dec 24-28. That way you will be able to move the 24th and 25th from the front of the block to somewhere else if coverage allows. If you don't do that, PBS will award you with reserve on 24-26 which will require you to move the entire block not just two days.

Passengers on some Delta Air Lines international flights might be able to buy a bit more legroom without paying business-class fares if the carrier launches a premium coach section to compete with some rivals.

Delta has reportedly posted information on an internal website about plans to launch premium economy class next year on planes that fly long international routes.

"We are always evaluating product offerings and look forward to improving the customer experience, but we have made no announcements at this time," said Delta spokesman Kent Landers.

The concept of offering a few rows of premium coach seating -- with more legroom, early boarding or other perks -- has kicked around the industry for years. One carrier currently offering it is United Airlines, which just surpassed Delta as the world's largest carrier after its merger with Continental Airlines.

United has a section called Economy Plus, for domestic as well as overseas flights, that offers about five inches more legroom than regular economy class seats. United allows its elite frequent fliers to sit in the section at regular coach fares, while other passengers can pay anywhere from $9 to $159 to upgrade, depending on the flight.

United also sells packages, such as its premiere package, which starts at $47 and includes an Economy Plus upgrade along with two checked bags, use of a premiere check-in area and security line where available and early boarding. .

If Delta adds a premium economy section, ""It's a smart move, it really is," said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst with Forrester Research. It "allows Delta to narrow the competitive gap."

Through its acquisition of Continental, United now has a massive hub in Newark that competes with Delta's Kennedy International hub for lucrative international passengers.

Premium economy seats would enable Delta to bring in more revenue and make customers more loyal, Harteveldt said. A number of international carriers also offer premium economy sections on long-haul flights, including Delta joint venture partners Air France and KLM.

"As Delta looks at the competitive landscape, they see United coming in," Harteveldt said. "They need to take this move as a way to defend their position," and as an offensive move to steal market share from other carriers such as American, he said.

I'd pay for economy plus.

Especially on CRJ-200s.

According to CMR's plan, CMR will go from 113 aircraft in 2008 to 44 by the end of 2012.

This has been discussed for a couple of days over at flyertalk. It appears many of the FF Medallions are looking forward to:

DL to add Y+ to INTL Fleet - FlyerTalk Forums

Carl;
I was under the impression that they were lowering our expectations already.

They sure are. I just want everyone to keep remembering how far down we are in so many categories when the "low expectations" folks post.

Carl

Scoop, in a holiday month they can unstack to 50% in category, and in every other month it is 60%.

What I have seen as of late is; Even with the reserve coverage well above min, they will unstack reserves, and assign them arbitrary days off even though they could have honored every off day request. It is totally legal, because the reserves that I am looking at fall below 50/60% of the category list, but it is a gotcha, so plan accordingly.