I don't have time to go into great detail. but those arguments don't hold water. If they looked into smartpref as they've said they'd know how smartpref does things differently.

Live bidding...doesn't require multiple bid sheets as you get to see real time what you're holding.

Vacation touching. Many ways this can be handles. IE blind bidding. The system doesn't know you have vacation till after the lines is awarded. You select pairings that allow vacation touching and those drop off. Their are different options available that would be customized with work rules.

CDO...this was not part of the demo and is easily changed to conform to work rules.

Credit window... Again, custom work rules dictate what the window can be. Demo is just a generic and arbitrary number.

Open-time. Smartpref doesn't have to solve to 0 open time, thus the feared globalization becomes fairly moot. Again work rules.

Nearly every negative coming from the ASA side about smartpref either has been covered or debunked. I don't even know if i'd vote for either but nearly everything negative mentioned is covered under work rules which need to be negotiated.

 

Globalization sounds like unstacking that screws everyone on the list from top to bottom, instead of just the unfortunate few at the bottom... I don't know which one I like better

 

You bring up a great point. Work rules.

You, I mean Steve, is not just having to negotiate for a brand new software system, that no other airline is using, but he must also negotiate the work rules that apply to the specific software. The majority of work rules will have to be modified current rules OR new rules all together.

And one more thing. How many XE line pilots have actually sat down and bid a monthly schedule over several months? And how many of these pilots have been trained to used the product?

At ASA all the pilots have been trained and have bid schedules for over 4 years. So whom do you think will have a greater knowledge of how the Flightline product operates and produces an end product?

It's like an XE pilot telling an ASA pilot how to fly a CRJ.

 

Work rules that you do not have. That's a great deal of negotiating capital your going to have to use. You better save every penny because you will not like our interest rate if you need a loan!

 

You obviously didnt read what I said about the restricted group. Those few pilots at the bottom are the only ones affected by what you call globilization. This doesn't even necessarily cause a pilots request to not be honored. Look, I truly want the best system, and having seen and truly understood how both systems work, im telling you, smartpref blows flightline out of the water. If flightline was better I would be campaining for it all the way. To think about filling out 100 bid sheets when I could just bid live is simply ridiculous.

 

How many union pilots are off of trips to do this and how many days per month?

Or any other method? The changes in the threshold or bottom of the credit window has been described as not honoring seniority since it socialized most to fly about the same amount of flying, regardless of seniority, despite honoring what you bid.

Smartpref has is currently being used for phase 2 on the ERJ side. If you'd like to see it in action, ask your MEC to show it to you. But you will probably run into resistance on that since they already turned down your idea of running them on dual tracks.

And what about the work rules that we will have? Do you honestly think they will resemble anything that we have or anything that you have? It'll be a combination of the two with some rules gone and new ones written. Not to mention that one of the best things about flight line may be gone, vacation low. If flight line would be a decrease in QOL as it exist now, how can you expect us to vote for flight line without vacation low and a whole new set of untested work rules and loopholes?

 

Just like those few pilots that were going to be affected by the unstack option, which was only going to be used as a last resort. Bottom line is this: if you allow globalization, you will eventually see it every month, and it will affect a greater percent of the pilot group each month. Find anything in our history that says otherwise. I'm glad you think that Smartpref blows Flightline out of the water, but, frankly, I really don't have any reason to trust you, so your opinion is worthless to me. It's like my daddy always said "Opinions are like rear ends, everybody's got one and some stink worse than others!" I love my daddy! But I digress. If you haven't bid with both under the same set of rules, you are merely providing an opinion (see above). The only way to accurately analyze these two products (or any other) is to bid with them side by side with the same set of rules and make an educated determination based on the results.

 

I couldn't agree more and I am totally open to seeing them both in action. I am a little sceptical of your MEC though having not looked at this system with work rules in place and having raised concerns that were clearly addressed in the smartpref presentation. Why would they say no to a dual track option? I mean this seriously not as flame, but I would be much more hesitant to trust your MEC based on their track record than a fellow pilot like myself who has done all the research and just wants a good system that will benefit us all. Im sorry, but your MEC has not shown that they want to same. They want flightline or bust and refuse to spend more than a few mins researching anything else.

 

Very good point! Which is exactly what the XJT MEC did and the ASA MEC didn't do. To this day they have not run any real pairings through smartpref with any existing work rules.

 

this sounds like Republicans trying to convince Democrats that they are insane and vice versa. Why doesn't someone create a thread about Flightline vs Smartpref and quit discussing it in the "whats the latest at ASA" thread? ...just a thought. I'm sick of this scheduling complaining and no news about whats new at ASA.