Great concept Scoop. Swaps are entered into iCrew and awarded in seniority order, with nobody allowed into a category unless they already have the seniority to hold it. (i.e. NYC A320A plug cant swap into SLC). The logic could easily be written to allow for a multi base swap as well. Pilot 1 SLC to DTW, Pilot 2 DTW to ATL, Pilot 3 ATL to SLC. It is an idea with merit.

 

AA and Envoy have it. It’s called Mutual Inter Domicile Transfer. It’s quite popular.

 

This type of lateral "transfer" bid worked well at the regional I was at. It was a nice perk to accommodate transfers on a more frequent basis rather than lumping them in with big training event AEs.

Everyone who was interested had a standing bid which allowed a domino effect when pilots chose to vacate a domicile and had seniority that could hold a vacancy elsewhere. Seniority was always followed. Of course, it would be more complicated at Delta, but I think it could be done and it would be a nice QOL benefit.

 

So let’s say I bid and get awarded a category with a preference for regular line only. Then, via the swap process, a bunch of guys junior to me leave and a bunch of guys senior to me come in. Now I’m not holding a line. Is that fair?

 

How is that scenario any different than what can happen on a regular AE?

 

Well, with all this discussion I think my point is proven. It sounds good on the surface but it's waaaaay more complicated than just two pilots swapping positions.

Denny

 

Even though SLC is senior to ATL, ATL gets the trade.

SLC used his seniority to hold SLC in the first place, and now nobody wants his spot. He's stuck until the next AE, just like he is today.

Two out of three happy pilots ain't bad (source: Meat Loaf) Especially when the alternative is zero out of three.

It works great at other airlines.

I don't understand why you're against a gain in QOL with essentially no cost to the company.

 

Might have been mentioned already, but consider what the FA's do in NYC in the summer. Senior FA's from all over the system poach the intl flex-up in NYC without "suffering" through the slow months.

I get that there would have to be a NYC pilot looking to swap bases to create an opening, but at least from a perpetual NYC pilot this does not sound like a good deal. Same reason we don't have OOB swaps. It's really great for the super senior (system wide). If you took an AE based on relative seniority in the base (along with the associated freeze) then it suddenly doesn't sound so good.

I remember reading years ago about that AA pilot that writes for Flying. He boasted about flying out of NYC in the summer and MIA in the winter. My thought then, and now, is what about the pilots that he's bumping down? Everything's cool if you're at the top of the rock pile.

At NWA we had Temp vacancies, similar I think to what has been proposed with the TDY language in this last contract. The caveat was the pilot had to bid for PBS (and if I recall correctly pickups/swaps) below all the permanent pilots in the category. It could be a good deal for the Temp pilot while still protected the guys that were in the category permanently. That would be fine with me. Sport bidding in/out on a whim? Not so much.

 

I propose the last several pages where we hi-jacked this thread be renamed "Existing/Senior/Old Pilots hate change, grumble grumble grumble"

 

For sure. Many good changes will never be sought or implemented because pilots hate change.