I agree. Everyone is looking at this as, every month will play out like Feb. When things pick up the flying will be more evenly distributed, when slow, it favors the senior folks in category, I have no problem with that.

..........

For effecting, you're correct. But for it being at the top of a survey (as was purported), it still is very surprising; and in my estimate, inaccurate.

To some extent there is still a lot of yearning for some of the little empires of abuse of days gone by. Things like touch drop vacations where senior guys can get a month off for every week of vacation (and they get 4 or 5) while a junior guy gets 3 or 4 extra days twice a year. Or the scam where you buddy bid with check airmen and get your entire month dropped then pick up a green slip month for triple pay. And of course senior reserve where you never fly and can even decline an assignment if there is even one pilot who could theoretically do it so we have guys flying 2 trips a year while junior and mid level reserves get used constantly.

Let's face it, we're all jailhouse lawyers and sometimes I think we enjoy figuring out tiny little windfall loopholes that benefit only a tiny percentage of the over all group rather than focusing on the system as it applies to everyone.

...and my take on Foster The People?

And, I don't think that seniority was or should be at the top or our concerns regrading reserves. I was just responding that the guarantee, which I wholeheartedly agree and recommended should be higher, was a contract issue while the scheduling bucket thingy was easier to do now.

Guys,

I really think a few of you (not Gloopy specifically) are making too big a deal about the reserve changes. Does anyone on reserve want to just forget all the SOT changes and keep the status quo?

The reserve changes are not a Senior vs. Junior issue. Lets face it, most senior guys fly lines. Yes relatively seniority will have more weight, but lets give it at least a few months and then decide how it plays out.

The company wants to level flying. The company controls the buckets. Do you really think the company is going to let the bottom half of reserves max out and the senior guys not fly?

Also, if there is so little flying some guys get to stay home - who should that be? When we actually had SILs guys could get 55 hours with zero obligation - Guess how they were awarded - by seniority.

If the junior guys are getting hosed on reserve we should absolutely fix it but lets not call it a failure before we start.

Finally, lets just suppose that the new bucket system really allows the more senior guys on reserve to slack off - more relatively senior guys will bid reserve and more relatively junior guys can then bid lines. Maybe reserve will be so desirable that senior guys in base will start bidding reserve - then more junior guys who commute to reserve can bid lines. Does anybody think this might actually happen - I don't.


Scoop

Jesse,

Stagnation is nothing new. DAL furloughed about 500 in the early 90's and a lot of the junior guys got to sit sideways for years.

Scoop

I didn't know the story behind their hit (I'm guilty of just liking a song and too often not knowing what the song is about). But after being complemented by my daughter for listening to such cool music she brought me up to speed about what it meant.

I'm done trying to suggest a more fair valuing of the the buckets. If you're junior your arguments are politely and respectfully listened to, but in the end it comes down to just being junior (which I will be for my first 10 years in the [prior to the 9] most junior equipment) and having to take it.

The last time I brought something up for concern and reconsideration was the LOA allowing the company to move the ALV for my category up to 82 hr for months and months (it brought the avg up beyond contractual limits for the year, if I recall correctly). I was told that was just how it was, and DALPA had its reasons. So another LOA that sticks it to the junior guys. Be happy to have a job...OK, got it.

I agree. Hence the reason I'm calling BS on it being the #1 requested change to reserve. It was a gimme declared as a hard earned victory. Reality, not so much.

I won't pretend to be an authority on the history of the company and what those who have been here for a while have had to deal with, but with this economy, age 65 pushed by ALPA, the merger, sky rocket oil prices...I think we're experiencing significant stagnation. Got respect for the ol' corps, but that doesn't mean it can't be worse than what was previously experienced.

In my case I'll reach the 60% percentile (about my earliest point to make it to the left seat) after 15 years with the company.