I got a text from a buddy whose wife works at the GO. Not in flight ops but has friends there, and the one from crew resources said their phones have been ringing nonstop with pilots upset about the new system.

I myself never thought of calling because it isn't going to change anything going forward and one call will not make a change. I email. Get it in writing.

Just reportin' as it's text'd to me.

 

Spirit, the low cost carrier that ticks off SWA.

Speaking of merger koolaid, take a swig and look at this:



You can put that APU on MEL.

 

Scoop, agreed...maybe a published list is too harsh. Not quite sure if exploiting this loop-hole is "legal" per the contract or not. Allowed yes, legal, I admit I don't know--seems awfully gray.

My stance is if one couldn't walk into the ATL pilot lounge and proudly announce how they bid/got their schedule then they shouldn't be doing it.

Those that willingly exploit the trip-park loop-hole I would guess choose to remain rather discrete. I would hope that the majority of those that do trip-park do it without recognizing the harm it causes [junior] pilots.

Glad to learn that the loop-hole will soon be closed! And yes, I always knew of your opposition to parking.

Cubdrick

 

I would have voted against this, but I did not have that option. DPA cannot come soon enough in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

I'm no ALPO luvr but tell me---What makes you think DPA would come up with better reserve rules?

(btw--I think it sucks too)

Delta pilots will still man the negotiating committee and they are the ones who write this crap.

 

The copilots I fly with are quite proud of it, that's the only way I found out about it!

Now, in their defense, in my category (ATL777), it got started because our trips are such that the only way you can get a 75hr. line, or close to it, is to bid a cary out/in trip, every month.

When 90% of your trips are 5 day 30hr. or 6-7 day 42hr. trips, it's impossible to build a line between 67-82, unless you split one at the end of the month. And there are only a limited number of trips that cary out, so for the rest of the guys, they 'park' one, pick up one, then un-park.

But once word got around about this 'technique', it became more of a High Time Game. "Wow, did you hear about Joe? He scored a 120hr. line!"

BUT...since the last two bids have both had a lot of displacements out of my category, I think guys are starting to see what the net effect is when half the category is flying WAY above ALV+15 and the reserves aren't flying at all.

 

Spirit only has 1 jumpseat on their Airbus

 

What do you have to pay for it?

 

AS and HI are projected to hire a significant portion of their lists in the next couple years. While the total numbers may not seem earth shattering from the perspective of a 12,000+ pilot list (soon to be an 11,000+ pilot list) their percentages are pretty massive. Anything between a relative and a stovepipe/zipper SLI, even with fences, would be a windfall to them. What's worse is AS is doing flying in the code share that DL used to do as well as extremely high frequency and density flying that DL should be doing regardless. Even the "new market" stuff they are doing in terms of city pair to city pair is poaching off the connecting traffic we are doing/used to do. Some of this negatively impacts DCI, but much of it directly funnels pax off of DL metal and onto AS metal because of the code share abuse.

When you have thousands of seats a day between two massive markets and not one seat is on your metal, that's unacceptable. When the pilots doing that flying stand to gain a 20% or more seniority bonus just because of some quick hiring in the near term, well you may either be cool with that and/or think the threat is insignificant but I disagree.

HI has a small list so it doesn't take much to buff it by 20% or more. By the time a merger with them happens (if it does) we could possibly see longevity for widebody captains at mind blowing YOS compared to us, not to mention solid line holder narrowbody FO and every position in between. At least their potential windfall won't translate into that many actual numbers since their list is so small but I'm not willing to completely disregard the threat either.

I agree JB is less likely. There are many reasons why that merger wouldn't make much sense for us. But we're talking about stock grant and bonus mongering mercenary MBA hatchet men and hedge fund crackberry analcysts that don't always do the right thing for employees or even shareholders. Right now shrinking to profitability and merging are very much en vogue and our leadership has expressed a continued desire for more of both. They may want to take the hot cheerleader to the prom in Dad's Porsche but if all they can get is picking up the fat chick with the hairy mole in their rusted out blue Gremlin with a brown door they will settle for that. But the chances of us closing out this decade without another merger and/or fragmentation are slim, and it will probably happen sooner than that.

JB isn't a very good fit for DL at all. Horrible actually. The premium that would have to be paid, only to immediately have to divest large portions of it, just to get a no frills narrowbody terminal would be a ROI on par with the purchases of ASA and Comair or the underused terminal in BOS (that paves the way for JB to not only enter that market but to dominate it as well). But, IF it happens, and IF it is above the threshold that crosses the fine line between a large asset purchase and ends up in the realm of a full blown merger and goes to arbitration either because of the individual contracts at JB or, slightly more likely, the new untested federal "merger law", the relative seniority windfall that would represent would be staggering for DL pilots.

Throw in wild cards like VX and NK (Spirit) and you have a group of merger candidates, all of which are hiring and growing and drastically increasing their relative lists by an equivalent that would require DL to hire thousands of pilots a year. If ANY of those scenarios played out we would be hosed and could see relative new hires at any of those carriers senior to DL pilots hired 10 or 12 years ago. Pilots with even a couple years of longevity senior to DL pilots hired in the mid 90's and "senior captains" hired from between 4 to 10 years ago in some cases.

All while DL shrinks to profitability and reduces capacity that the other carriers simply grow into almost as fast as DL reduces in the first place. Heck, that's WHY they are able to be in endless growth mode while DL chooses tactical stagnation to drive short term quarterly reports and YOY numbers.

Even USAir is gearing up to be in hiring mode. Boy wouldn't that be fun.

 

Ok.. If guys are calling crew resources about reserve, they are barking up the wrong tree.

With the outcry on here by a few about having a seniority based reserve system, I would have expected there to be talk be some talk about it at the C44 meeting (which I sat through).. Not one negative question about it... Not one resolution addressing it either, so maybe the angst is somewhat isolated..

If your desire is to change the contract to remove seniority from reserve or any other part of the contract where you feel it is unfair, the proper way is to bring a resolution to your council meeting and try and gain support. In a situation like this where there was tons of input to return us to seniority based system, it is going to be hard to judge sentiment from phone complaints apparently made to crew resources.

 

nice to see them have some fun, we all know how tough some of the pax can be, time for a little team building