Adlerdriver

I'm starting this thread to hopefully provide a resource that might be a little more user friendly than the FAQs in the company's Insite system.

Anyone who has encountered such things as:
1. Expense report pitfalls
2. Interpretations of CBA language that doesn't match expectations
3. Baseline/Established fare issues
4. Deadhead class of service related matters
5. Consistent non-compliance with the CBA by the company.
6. Insite report highlights and responses
7. Any other information that might be worth disseminating

To make this a user friendly resource, I suggest the following:
1. Put a title on each post added to this thread to allow easy identification of the subject.
2. Restrict each post to one specific topic.
3. If you're going to reply to a post and add information about the same subject, quote the whole post you're replying to and use the same title.

Let's not learn these lessons in a vacuum, one lesson at a time, one pilot at a time. If issues are made known to many, then they will be recognized more easily. Insite reports will be consistently submitted and if the problem continues, progress to grievances. Finally, keep the appropriate ALPA committee in the loop when applicable.

Adlerdriver

Hotel funds never expire. So, one thing I've learned from this new expense process so far is almost never use the hotel funds box at the bottom of your expense report when you're submitting it. Most of the time it's better to wait until the appropriate expense reports are closed and you're certain you still actually have a deficit. At that point, request the hotel funds be applied to that month via Insite. Use of hotel funds is an irreversible action, so always try to use the DBA with a finite half-life first.



Specifically:
If you're submitting July with a deficit, you need to wait until July is closed AND June and August are closed as well. That way you can see the final numbers on any DBA that was transferred from June (and earlier months) and August (backwards to July). Only then will you know exactly how much of a the July deficit wasn't covered by DBA.


The only reason I say "almost never" use the hotel fund box is to address a situation when you know you have no DBA coming forward from earlier months and the month after your deficit month has no trips (vacation, training, etc). If you're 100% certain that no DBA money is going to be applied to your deficit month, then you could apply hotel funds during your expense report submission.

One final gotcha: To figure out the correct amount to request from your hotel bank.
Go to the summary section at the bottom of the expense report for the month with the deficit. Use the amount labeled "Net Travel Bank Balance". It's on the last line in the upper section labeled "Travel Bank Summary".
Subtract any DBA money applied to this month from that number.
Whatever remains is what should be requested from your hotel bank.
Doing it this way will account for any out of pocket expenses that weren't covered in addition to the deficit (which, by this point has probably been payroll deducted).

Obviously if the amount required exceeds the funds in your hotel bank, then you just ask to empty your hotel bank.

Nightflyer

Don't sign a long term contract in a rising wage market.

ALPA National has deep pockets, but "we" prefer not to use them because we would have to show them our books?

Pilot negotiators are not as smart as professional negotiators.

Don't trust the union when they explain their interpretation of "lie flat seats" won't hurt us.

Adlerdriver

Whoever is setting the Established Fares is not following the CBA when it comes to XTRA Parings (non bid pack trips). If you get one of these pairings please pay particular attention to this. The idea behind this change in the CBA was to set the Established fares closer to when pilots find out they have the trip. The goal being that if they choose to deviate, they're buying the deviation tickets about the same time the Established Fare is being set. Since most airline tickets tend to increase in price the closer to departure time it is, waiting to the proper time to set the Established Fare is usually going to benefit us. The company knows this and is trying to set them early.

Established fares on XTRA pairings are supposed to be determined when "a pilot" is assigned to the trip (not necessarily you... another CBA loophole) if there are 14 or more days before the DH.

No pilot? Then at 14 Days before the DH.

Trip built or revised inside 14 days before the DH? The day of the build/revision.

XTRA Pairing Established Fares with more than 14 days before the DH are being determined within a day of the FO bids closing. Since these trips are not part of the bid pack, it's not possible to have a pilot assigned to them, so they should be waiting until there is a pilot on the trip or 14 days prior.

The first opportunity to have an XTRA Pairing assigned to any pilot would be a custom line or more likely, the view/add window. Still no one assigned? Then next is the close of the Secondary lines.

Loophole:
A Captain gets an XTRA pairing on his Secondary line that still has +14 days before the DH. However, the FO (i.e. "a pilot") was assigned to the same trip 8 days before at the close of the view/add. Established fare was determined then (or should be) - not when the Captain got the trip.
i.e. Any pilot assigned to an XTRA pairing that already has or had a pilot assigned to that trip in either seat will have to use the Established Fare determined before he got the trip.

Finally, open time hawkers and reserve pilots - be especially diligent. If you end up with an XTRA pairing, find out when it was created and why. If you are the first pilot assigned to that trip, you shouldn't be seeing dates on the Established Fare from back when the FO bids closed.

StarClipper

I heard the company proposed a 4yr contract, but the union ask for 6yrs to have more time to build up the funds for next negotiation.

Nightflyer

I heard that too.

I wonder how much money was wasted on trips to the zoo???

FrankTheTank

Yup... But I am even more curious on how much money has been spent on this stupid retirement scam.. I mean plan.. Maybe we can get Bernie Maddoff to manage it..

Nightflyer

Several weeks ago, on the crew bus, a union volunteer assured me it was only "just under a million dollars".

She didn't give an exact amount.

Perhaps that is a question we should ask the treasurer at the next opportunity?

kronan

2+ years of Union Activity and hiring various outside advisors to validate Management statements of the increased costs of a Traditional Pension....Yes, why should we spend any money on such an issue now.

Wouldn't it be better for the Union to Not Follow through on the promise it made during Ratification to pursue ways to improve our Pension and simply Wait until 2020 to start spending money researching the issue?

Or better yet, not Research it at all. Simply look at the Company's profit margin and spend the years 2021-2023 saying we need to get 777 Capt's Pension ratio back up to the 50% it was years, and years ago. All we have to do is Hold Firm and Say the Company can afford it over and over.

Then we can build expectations up, and up.

Sure would be a bummer if Mgt said, okay, we'll bump the Traditional Pension up 30% but that's going to mean pay raises over the next 2-4 years will be 1 or 2%. After all, Pension is part of you compensation package and many of you will spend more years in Retirement than you did working for FedEx.

KrustyF15

Kronan - I dont think anyone is saying that the union shouldn’t spend money investigating ways to improve our total retirement... but two problems with the way they are going about it:
A. The deeper they have gone into the pockets, the more ownership they’ll have in the plan and less likely they will be able to call it a turd, if it is a turd. No knock on anyone in the process; that’s human nature.
2) Why haven’t they explored any other possibilities? At a focus mtg, I asked PM if they looked into any other options, modeled any other total retirement increases, and he said no... when asked why, the answer was simply, “we just haven’t”.
d - If it’s such a great deal for the company, why aren’t we asking for the moon? Why outside of section 6 negotiations, where we could ask for other contract fixes in exchange? Unless maybe it’s to get guys with three to five years left something on top of their already fully vested A plan...