This. Why give in on PBS when the company knows they cannot lower pay and still recruit/retain pilots?

We got an email the other day form our union telling us that they formed a committee to study PBS. They claimed in that same email that they formed said committee due to requests from pilots.......Riiiiiiight.

The company wants it. If the company wants it the pilots DO NOT WANT IT. I can guarantee that with 100% certainty.

 

DTS (Drop Trip Sequence) is an option we currently have during our vacation months. When you elect to DTS whatever trips touch your week of vacation also get removed from your final line. If you bid a line with 4 sequences and your vacation block touches two of them it's very easy to only work 8 days during a vacation month if you are a line holder. It can very based on carryover trips from the previous month or if you have more than 4 sequences in your bid line but it's currently incredibly easy to swing 14-20 days off in a row with our DTS system.

PBS (Preferential Bidding System) is a computer based system that doesn't use prebuilt paper lines to put together your monthly sequences. In theory it goes from the most senior pilot to the most junior pilot building lines individually until all lines have been awarded and then creates reserve lines. The way to duplicate the DTS option with PBS was to select the 65 hour option where you had a completed line once 65 hours of credit was built since your week of vacation counted as 21 hours all you had to do was preference for trips that credited in the 22 hour range so it only assigned two more 4 day trips and you month was complete. The downside to that was since a lot of our trips have been below that number it could take an additional one or two day trip to meet that threshold. You also couldn't necessarily guarantee where your big stretch of days off would be. If you wanted to get above that 65 hour number you could then cherry pick OT.

The key to PBS is to think of it as a function of how do I get my credit number to the desired threshold in the most productive way whether you choose 65/72/85 for desired credit for the month and not just think of it as a days off system. That is why it will be supremely important at Envoy to continue to push for better trip sequences. Our QOL depends on it even more with PBS since it functions around credit more so than just picking out the pre built lines with the most days off.

Side note: The 65/72/85 credit thresholds were in the previously negotiated Navtech PBS system. I'm not sure if those would change if they reopen negotiations or if they change vendors.

 

You guys are talking like we're at another airline. Sam will not fight the company, and the company will come for PBS. Don't get me wrong I will vote no and think we should hold the company hostage on every change possible, I'm just saying the company will come for it and Sam will put a spin on some horrible product. It will be up to us to shoot it down and I hope we do.

 

yes, that would be sam, victor and the trng rep the pilots requesting the committee for pbs. mec bull. the mec has actually done nothing for 3 years that has a permanent positive effect on the pilots, everything sam has signed have been LOU's with 90 day cancellation notice, none have been LOA's and none of the LOU's have been converted to LOA's in 3 years. envoy pilots being set up by the mec chair and cronies.

 

This is what higher ups say in alpa when they're not doing good or are not listening to the pilot group. We have say stuff on here, our reps don't hear us or understand us when we talk to them.bpbs for example, we don't want it, and nobody on line talks about, then all of a sudden the mec says "we're forming a group to find a good PBS system". Sam, please leave.

 

Sounds to me like Sam needs to be sent back to the line. Isn't that how elected representation works? If your reps aren't doing what you want them to, you fire them and find someone who will. Otherwise, we might as well decertify ALPA and become SkyWest...

 

Pretty sure Pagey is at PSA. He is not saying the Envoy MEC is meeting about it, the PSA MEC is the one forming the group.

 

actually last year the lec reps asked sam to resign from the mec position, he said no, the lec reps said they will roll call vote and this is where the ord capt rep caved in and refused to vote for removal after the ord capt rep had agreed to do this. So as always, the ord reps are useless, one of the main reasons this union suc.ks.

 

You guys haven't seen anything--at least you didn't have Homer and the East Texas Mafia to deal with. The sheep are still skittish.

 

Sorry for interrupting the current union talk at hand, but I've got a quick question. Can someone occupy the cockpit jumpseat while in jeans? I know it seems like a dumb question, but I've never done this before. I had something pop up last minute and I need to get back home and that's all I brought with me. Looks like all the flights home are full so I'd like to try for the jumpseat if it's available. It says first class attire and per the nonrev policy I just looked at it says neat, clean jeans are considered first class attire, but I don't think I've ever seen someone jumpseat up front in jeans. I was wondering if that would be an issue if I show up and introduce myself and ask for a ride in jeans. Thank you.