Does anyone know how this would work and what benefits there would be for anyone? Both the Company side and our side. I don't see ANY good points for the pilots except for a VERY few.

 

They only want it for widebody international and there is no upside for the pilot group.

 

Camel nose.

Good instincts.

 

There are pro's and con's depending on whether you are a pilot or management.

If you are a pilot, you can get "based" at home if you live in a virtual base. The con, is that there are caveats.

The pro for management is that they can build trips without deadheads and therefore, lower credit.

I'm sure there are others that can elaborate more.

 

Write your reps on this, think of the consequences. Just moved X number of hours out of your base, now your on reserve or can only hold Baghdad layovers.

 

Kinda like senior FOs bidding with LCPs? Or the 777 payrate? Or any of a half dozen other items out there in our contract? I want to see what this is all about. You might be right that it will be a disaster, but I have nowhere near enough details yet.

 

Virtual Bases are not a good idea....management can turn this "good deal" (that's how mgmt will sell it) into a nightmare.

 

VB was in there because of the CVG mafia. Harwood primarily and then Buzz.

CVG will close in fairly short order, and MCO was the faux experimental base to deflect attention. Harwood is a smart guy, but not smart enough to actually make his motives opaque.

VB is totally inappropriate. TDY, on the other hand...

 

Until we see the actual contract (TA) language, if it exists in the next TA, nobody knows the details on how this would work, and even then, there will be unforeseen loopholes which will be exploited by the company just as there always are.

Bottom line, the only reason the company wants Virtual Bases is to eliminate DH credit. That is a 3 way win for them. It saves them paying the DH credit, and the seats can now be sold to customers rather than held for crew, it saves them on body count in every category where the DH credit is eliminated, and it saves them the cost of hotel rooms for the DH crews.

What the pilots get is.... they get to drive to work instead of a guaranteed PS seat to/from work, but the trips will be worth less overall due to the reduced DH time, so those same pilots will have to work MORE to accumulate the same monthly pay/credit time. Meanwhile, they will stagnate in position longer as there will be reduced need for pilots in the categories above them, as that DH credit time goes away too.

 

So if VB can be traded for higher payrates for everybody how is that a bad deal?