Something still stinks about the way the ASA MEC is handling this. The white paper that was compiled by your scheduling committee has bogus conclusions. They based their findings on an off the shelf, unmodified sample of SmartPref. Work rules were not taken into consideration at all, so I can't honestly say that they have done their due diligence and informed their pilot group with full transparency.

This is a major reason for the frustration on our side.

 

This is a great idea. Hopefully we can do this.

 

I hope we can do something like this. We are going to have to live with the results of the vote for a long time, so we need to vote based on good information. There have been unintended consequences of every change that has occurred. Some good, more often not so good. We don't need to jump the gun in this.

 

Why can't we have a 6-8 month period where we use both and even months are awarded with one and the odd with the other? At the end we have a vote for which one to pick.
Anyone...?
Both these companies want us to buy their product, give us evaluation periods.

 

This all makes too much sense and has no place in the airline industry. Get out of here.

/sarcasm

 

Well this was sort of suggested by the XJT MEC that XJT use Smartpref (with all programmed work rules in place) and let ASA use Prefbid while obtaining a JCBA and then after a year or so compare the two and go from there. The company was okay with, XJT MEC was okay with, but ASA MEC said no for some reason so here we are a year later with no new contract and declining bargaining power due to competitor bankruptcies.

 

I might be exaggerating with "full time trip loss" but what I was referring to is their ability to cherry pick trips to pick up on off days and have trips dropped for manually adjusting flightline. It is far from automated which is another lie being slung from your side of the fence. So "full time trip loss" isnt true but they are definitely benefiting from their jobs and are about as far from flying a true line as possible.

Skedplus is untested but it also wasn't evaluated fairly or competently. Your ASA was offered every possible compromise under the sun including arbitration or independent decision groups but every option was a flat out no. Why are they so adament about it? Is everyone being as forthcoming as they should be? It doesn't look like it to me and there are definitely people with hidden agendas.

 

That wouldn't work. Both sides need to be able to bid with both software packages, otherwise the results are insignificant.

 

From the message that the ASA MEC sent to the ASA pilot group, these are the advantages of using Flightline over SmartPref

Globalization: In a globalized system such as SmartPref, for the globally constrained pilots, seniority can be overlooked if the solution does not meet the Company’s requirements. Even though a pilot may be senior enough to hold certain trips bid, those trips may go to another pilot because it could be required to complete the overall global solution. In a non-Global system like PrefBid, just as with Hard-Line bidding, pilot’s bids are not compared to anyone else’s bid when awarding their schedule. A big misconception about Flightline is that it “globalizes” with manual intervention, that assertion is incorrect.

· Credit Window Control: Global systems can easily restrict pilot earnings and schedule quality by limiting the credit hours a pilot can obtain. Pilots will lose money if the averages are constrained to 75 hours. Pilot surveys have shown individual needs for credit vary, with the averages being 80-85 hours credit. What other employee groups are forced to take a 20% pay cut from month to month based on the Company’s desires?

· Customization and System Faults: Here are a few:

1) Currently, CDOs cannot be broken out and awarded as a pure CDO line in the SmartPref system. Absent this capability, pilots could easily end up with a CDO adjacent to a 4 day trip.
2) SmartPref does not have multiple bid sheets and does not have an unstack bid sheet. Lack of multiple bid sheets could easily result in pilots being awarded trips that they did not desire.
3) SmartPref cannot currently extend vacation, whereas it is possible with PrefBid and Hard-Line bidding




Can someone give me a list of reasons that SmartPref is better than Flightline?

 

Proper work rules negate each potential concern you just mentioned. First of all, the issue of globalization doesn't come into play until you get to the bottom of the list. The system may technically "globilize" but its far less invasive than what you guys are doing manually each month. In this system, it accomidates everyones request that it can. After the non restricted group is taken care of, it starts going through the restricted group (bottom 20% or less). Lets say the top guy bids 90+ hours weekends off. The system may give him a 96 hour line trips mon-thurs. If it gets to the bottom guy and can only come up with 70 hours of flying, it can pull 5 hours of flying from the other guy, still leaving him with a 91 hour line accomidating his request. As for the CDO rule, that can and will be addressed in the contract. As for the multiple bid sheet concern, that is not relevant as the system allows you to bid for as many different trips and as many different combinations as you want. You bid in a "live" enviornment and will see exactly what you can hold. You can STILL bid for trips and combinations that it shows you cannot currently hold....if a senior guy changes his bid, those trips will automatically move to the top of your bid or
wherever you designated them to be previouly.

Smartpref works completly differently than flightline...comparing the two is apples to oranges. Smartpref can actually be used to extend vacation much more effectively with our current work rules. You can bid for 5-7 work days for the month with a week of vacation, then after the schedule goes final anything you pick up would be added to your guarentee regardless of flight time. Im really not sure how you could get a trip you dont desire when you have the opportunity to bid on every single trip available for the month if you so desire.

As far as the credit window, this would not be company controlled, it would be union controlled. The only way you would be stuck with 75 hours is if you were the last guy and there was only 75 hours left for you to fly. Im really not sure where you guys are getting this info. Smartpref unable to extend vacation....are you kidding? Have you seen this system at all? That line alone proves you guys have no clue about this system.