I don't understand. "A large amount of overtime flying" implies that Delta doesn't have enough pilots to support the schedule with everyone flying a normal load. Why would we pilots expect to be penalized for this?

 

Best of luck to ya.

 

The real reason for all the extra overtime is not lack of pilots, it is:

The COMPANY decided to move equipment around to different bases!

When they do that, it causes TRAINING EVENTS!

When a large percentage of your pilot group is stuck in the training pipeline, and not available to fly, well....the other guys who ARE available, get Green Slips.

This extra cost was SELF INFLICTED. More Management Genius. Bonuses all around!

But guess who's going to have to clean up their mess when it comes time to negotiate new pay rates, and have to compensate for all this extra overtime expense?

 

I was listening to the local sports guys yesterday and they were talking about negotiations and how as a player you don't want to be in them. Their example was a MLB player is going into contract negotiations after batting .305, 140 home runs and 520 runs batter in. He is pretty proud of himself but if he was in the negotiating room he'd be shocked to hear his team say "but your struck out 80 times. You batted .210 from May 21st to June 5th. 150 of your 520 runs batted in came in a losing effort." And so on.

Point being, I think we're going to get trashed with some funny numbers in the coming year. Not necessarily false, just not indicative of reality. "You're costs were up because of overtime." We can only fly overtime if you offer us overtime, eh?



.

 

You sir, have broken the code..

 

Absolutely fly her over there.

Recently, I was there with my other employer. The dust in the air stuck in my throat. The nicest view from the tallest tower sucks. The beer's expensive.

There's a reason why Emirates pays so well: because enough people like me see living in Dubai as a hardship. I'd probably go there if it boiled down to a choice between living in Dubai or living under a bridge, but first thought would be, "Which bridge?"

 

+ a bazillion (That's NOT my number )

 

[QUOTE=sailingfun;1142379]Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it almost impossible to make a illegitimate comparison of a 2 pilot operation to a 2, 3, and 4 pilot operation using the DOT reported numbers?

Looking at the MIT website, when looking at "Pilot Cost" they put the word "Unadjusted" in the title for this very reason. For this reason it is also very hard to compare say Delta and United because you don't know the make up of their 2, 3, or 4 person crews without doing a lot more research.

I will also submit that no two airlines uses the same underlying data to come up with there numbers because there is no requirement by the DOT to do so. For instance the DOT ask for an item like "pilot salary" but does not say which pilots must be counted. So airline A might add Line Pilots and Management pilots but exclude pilots on long term sick leave while another airline might include every pilot on the seniority list. This is just an example but when you look at all the item that go into the DOT reported number you get some wide variance.

Also, to be bluntly honest, any dumb pilot can go find and look at DOT numbers or the compiled numbers of someone like the MIT Project but I expect my union to be putting in a lot more effort and doing a lot more research into what the real data is when looking at other airlines.

As Bar just stated Delta is in a displacement mode which is one of the reasons Delta's pilot cost are high right now. I am on my 5th airplane training cycle in under 5 years. Depending on the amount of downward movement on the March bid I could be going to my 6th.

Airlines, and businesses in general, have a competitive reason for not letting others know their true cost and if we are relying on the numbers that 10 different airlines are coming up with and reporting we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

 

You can almost dream up what would be said. A pilot's advocate would list all of the "chapter 11 rates, pensions, etc." and they would counter with all of the "buts".

Those "buts" will be leaked out from now until there is a TA. I think we just need to get used to it. Maybe a little boot camp in preparation?

"but, you guys don't wear your uniforms right."

"but, if you're so good at what you do why do we have ##### ASAPS and #### violations each year?"

"but, what happened on that flight in ###, are we going to have to write off that airplane?"

"but, you have pilots that only fly one trip every two months, and you want a pay raise? Do you know how many employees at Delta would like two months off with pay?" <<< that's real. A buddy of mine on the southside deals with that all of the time.

"but," fill in the blanks. $10 says we can figure out some of the stuff before it's even said with the key being coming up with the rebuttal. The only disheartening thing will be the source of the leaks. There is only one place I expect it to come from and can tolerate it.

 

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