FWIW
NYC M88 has alot of those 4 leg days, a.k.a. The Atlanta Shutle.
(Actually did 5 legs in one day during last rotation)

Things change often though on month to month basis.

Well, as a MEM guy I have a bidding question: Since I'm obviously getting MD'd, how do I request to be at a certain percentage in my new category? If i want to make sure i'm in the top 70% do I bid it as 70% in category or 30%? I'm guessing 70, but i'm not really thinking straight, sort of blindsided by the sudden close of MEM. I think we all knew it was coming, just not all at once.

Thanks for any help.

RIP MEM! Is was fun while it lasted

..........

Put the 70 in the percent column and don't even both with filling out the AE portion, unless you want a seat lock in whatever you pick up. By getting MD'd you will get to go anywhere you're senior enough to get into and you'll get no seat lock in case something you really want opens up in the future.

Good Luck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by volav8r1 (Post 1082579)

Well, as a MEM guy I have a bidding question: Since I'm obviously getting MD'd, how do I request to be at a certain percentage in my new category? If i want to make sure i'm in the top 70% do I bid it as 70% in category or 30%? I'm guessing 70, but i'm not really thinking straight, sort of blindsided by the sudden close of MEM. I think we all knew it was coming, just not all at once.

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Vol:

The way I understand it, the system assumes you want to be #1 in catagory, or a percentage FROM the top. (100 pilots in the catagory, 30 reserves and you want to be a 'Line-holder,' 70% is the bid you place.)

Check on DeltaNet; Crew Resources and there should besome bidding guidance there; center of the page, towards the bottom. The 'other' forum should have a bidding guide too.

Good Luck!

Problem with the commute in NYC is that very few trips are commutable...

In all seriousness. I know we are going into contract negotiations but:

What the heck is going on?

ACL and to the people who know or can guess, why is DAL not being proactive in the Future pilot shortage? Are we actually going to be virtual and shrink? What is funny is that British Airways is actually placing PILOT HIRING advertisement in different publications/magazines.

Training new pilots will be taxing, so why has DAL not started preparing?

Confused, about the future:D:eek:Good thing I have a sugar mamma!!!!! and a side biz :) RESTORATION at all costs<---easy for me to say. Start preparing boys and girls......

TYG

I think this bid and subsequent ones present the company and ALPA with a unique opportunity to help all us line pilots out who commute. I plan on asking JG tomorrow to form a committee to deal with commuting issues. I know its my choice to commute blah blah blah but some of us cannot live in base. For example military people, kids issues, babysitting issues, medical issues, cost issues all are reasons why guys cannot commute. So this is a time for the company, alpa, marketing, and scheduling to get together so show they care about the pilots.
Some ideas I have
1. survey the pilots again and the top bases with the most commuters make the lines 50% commutable.
2. provide free hotel rooms a night for pilots
3. find out where the most pilots commute to from that base and assign overnights in those cities to that base. ie a lot of ATL commuters will be from MEM so assign 320 trips with MEM overnights.
I know this will never happen but i believe it is in the best interest of the company to make commuting as painless as possible.
Dont forget just in time for summer the company is pulling seats out to put in econo comfort.
I for one am getting tired of hearing marketing drives this airline. There is no reason they cannot make our lives easier by swapping out fleets. in most of our cities we can interchange a 737, m88/90 and an airbus and we need to start doing that so our commuters are taken care of.
I

TYG;
Think of the reasons why.

Possible reasons we can delay hiring:
-Shrinking
-Merger or Acquisition
-FT/DT will allow less pilots
-Productivity changes will make us more efficient
-Trip Parking, and yes, it is on the rise esp in the WB categories.
-No one retiring
-By not hiring, when they need to hire they will be able to claim duress and beg for scope relief. (We can't hire that many, we must outsource jobs to keep the network intact)

Just naming possibilities.

My guess? The company isn't sure about the economy. Although there are lots of issues right now (just check out the debate to hear a few), I think the price of oil is a biggy for airlines. Everytime there is a hint of the economy is doing better or we're getting out of the recession, oil jumps 20%. That makes air travel more expensive, airlines raise prices, less people travel. Rinse, repeat.

But you are correct, now is the time to interview if you want pilots to be in place for early summer 2012. I think I read somewhere that Delta wasn't expecting any growth for 2012, or actually a slight decrease in pilot hours. Thus, no need to hire.