They are operating some jets (2, I think) that exceed our max weight limit for affiliates. Don't know the type.

 

I'll simply vote "No" if it fails to meet expectations, and I'd expect the majority of others to do the same. Some councils have put forward some pretty strong language regarding this. I think the DPA threat has DALPA concerned...just my opinion, everyone has one.

Two guys in my new hire class of 28 have left for SWA by the way. If Delta wants to attract and retain the best pilots, compensation will need to follow.

 

JH,

Not sure that would solve the problem. I will explain trip parking as I see it ( I am no expert on this and am sure some kind soul will tactfully point out any errors). I think trip parking is total BS and should be stopped.

Pilot Hosebag has a line with the following trips on it:

Trip AA - 25 Hours credit
Trip BB - 25 Hours credit
Trip CC - 25 Hours credit

Hosebag has a 75 month and we will assume his max pick-up is 15 hours or a limit of 90 hours of credit.

Hosebag sees a 20 hour trip in Open time (Trip - FU) that would fit nicely in his schedule. He would like to pick it up via a white-slip. Alas, poor Hosebag is limited by his 15 hour pickup (due to contractual ALV limits) and his attempted white-slip is denied.

Hosebag, being quite resourceful, is not to be denied. Hosebag gives Trip AA to his buddy, lets call him Douche, via the Swap with Friends board. This is the important part and will come to play shortly - The Swap with friends board has no Max pickup or ALV limit.

Now Hosebag has a 50 hour month and successful picks up Trip - FU via a white slip.

Now Hosebag has a 70 hour month consisting of Trips BB, CC, and FU.

Now for the pièce de résistance - Douch gives Trip AA back to Hosebag via the Swap with Friends Board. Note- Although this contractually this exceeds his maximum credit of 90 hours (he now has a 95 hour month) and was previously prevented by the max pick-up limit as a straight White-slip, it is now successfully processed due to a loop-hole in the Swap with friends board has now gone through.

Now lets consider a few things. Did Hosebag do anything wrong? No, he simply used the contract to his advantage. Fine, although I think its wrong, I do not begrudge this to him, but lets close the loophole. It is quite simple and can be done one of either two ways:

1. Make Max pick-up applies to Swap with friends also.
2. Once you give up a Trip with the Swap with Friends board you can not take back the same trip. Make it a one way operation.

So back to JH's original post. Hosebag did not trade anything from the WS board. The trip he picked up via WS he has kept. It was a trip originally on his line that he "parked."

Scoop

 

Well said Carl.

I sincerely hope folks remember Freedom isn't Free!

Please take a moment today to remember the fallen and to honor the Nation and ideals they fell for.

 

There are quite a few bigger "loopholes" that are costing much more money to everyone that I would prefer we work on right now.

 

Gee.....ya THINK? LOL!

 

Not exactly - I got $8000 profit sharing (before the Feds and CA took their cut) at DAL but I agree with the basic point, pay at Southwest is much better than DAL. Although a 3 year 757 FO at DAL pays 104 which is what year 3 pays at Southwest. Realize however, that we are currently under a BK induced contract and remember 10 years ago it was exactly the opposite. What will it be 10 years form now?

Scoop

 

I see we have had one more trip down the conspiracy theory route in regards to a major airline holding company buying a regional carrier and the merger supposedly stopped by either:

1. The evil ALPA National
2. The prejudiced mainline pilot group

This has been covered here many times, yet the same people seem to come up with the same wrong answers no matter how many times they have been corrected. So let's get it straight again.

1. Companies merge with other companies
2. Pilots integrate their lists AFTER the companies decide to merge

There is no such thing as a pilot initiated merger. In the case of Delta, after Delta bought ASA and Comair, Delta management decided that they wanted to operate them as separate carriers. They didn't even want to merge ASA and Comair. Since the companies weren't merging, it was sheer lunacy for pilots to start talking about merging their seniority lists.

This lunacy was portrayed as some black helicopter conspiracy to keep the regional pilots down or (insert your own conspiracy theory here). The fact is, if Delta was not going to merge with Comair, then what good does it do to try to merge the seniority lists? You could merge the seniority lists by date of hire, staple, shoe size, height, or any other factor you want to use, but in the end if the company doesn't merge then the Comair pilots are not employees of Delta, they don't have a Delta ID card, they haven't gone through Delta training. Delta management retains all the rights to determine those.

When Delta bought Northwest through the stock swap, there is only one reason why Delta had to merge the two seniority lists. It was required in both the DAL and NWA pilot contracts. Without that clause, Delta could have operated the two as separate carriers forever. Look at Skywest and ASA to see how that is done.

So could we please stop the lunatic conspiracy theories about PID's being squashed. Say it again over and over until it sinks in:

Management merges companies, pilots do not.

 

Thanks for the clarificaiton; I did not understand all the possibiilties. I think #2 would be the most effective way to end the practice.

Disagree. This is a "no cost" item to fix. The trip pays the same to whomever flies it, so the company is not out one penny. How much negotiating capital is expended fixing no cost items? I would hope none.

The obstacle is the number of guys who benefit from this system. My sense is there are quite a few, or this would not be an issue. I'm not against guys making money, but it should be done in a less devious way. Another very simple answer is to remove the pickup cap. If it's legal and you are senior enough to WS it and get a 150 month, more power to you. NWA had a system similar to this; they didn't care how much time you picked up, but if a trip put you past 80 hrs the guys who were below 80 had first shot. The same logic could be applied to the cap.

 

The problem with that would be "more flying done by fewer pilots" -- furloughs for the bottom guys and stagnation for everybody else.