PurpleToolBox

Here, FDX Alpa comes clean about the SLG and how the use of PBS (he never says PBS but says SLG) makes the system more efficient and the expected 20% reduction of reserve days lost to PBS really turned into 40%.

And there's also some very nice information about the new software which we still don't have. The company will probably surprise us during negotiations.

Noworkallplay

Show me when I said PBS must be used. I simply was asking for how you would propose fixing it. Tell me how the other companies with hard line bidding get rid of trips that are conflicted? Its a pbs type system. My idea would be to shorten the original bid window so you could build a second set of hard lines. This however would take a completely new scheduling section to lay out numerous different issues. So that would blow up a focused negotiation. This would also creat numerous new issues. Lets please not start trying to change everything. It will have enormous consequences. Lets stay “focused” group.

kronan

Number of Reserve days still hits 100%. It's just that a minimum of 80% of them are published in the bidpack. (See 25.A.4)
Let's use the 777 bidpack as an example of fun with percentages.
777C has 20 Reserve lines. That equals 380 R days. Assuming the company's actually complying with the Contract, as monitoring has repeatedly show, that means 95 R days were reserved for the SLG system. (380/.8=475) Had all Known R days been published as Reserve lines, there would've been 25 Reserve lines published. (Little known CBA fact that the number of R24 lines percentage wise was increased to 13% in TA2015)
Still, we "lost" 5 R lines and that equals a loss of 40% of the Reserve lines for the month.

FO side a little different
50 Reserve lines so that's 950 R days, Rounding up equals 1188 R days. Rounding up gets the old R lines up to 63. Or a loss of 13 Reserve lines. 13/50 is a 26% loss.


VTO's have ALWAYS been Preferntial Bidding. It's just in the past they never really honored your Preferences because...it was a VTO Request.

kronan

I just Value the changes differently.
I greatly prefer being able to be the #10 VTO guy and get the trips I request instead of seeing them awarded to the #24 guy.
I think a lot of people Prefer the entire R day blocks dropping the way they do now as opposed to pre-2015 (Or did I imagine all of the complaints about that implementation timeline post TA2015)
I know I prefer the elimination of the Company Converting an awarded Reserve line.
I know I prefer RB and R24 actually being awarded to VTO line holders. Instead of the previous, behold, by the Power of Scheduling those Conflicted RB days or R24 days are now RA. (Let's be honest, RB utilization tends to be wicked low, so who could blame the company for changing them into RA back in the Good Ole Pre-2015 days)
I know I prefer the ability to pick up a string of RB days or R24 during the View\Add window.
I know I prefer the ability to pickup RB days instead of flying to make my days off work for the month as a VTO guy, instead of the previous system of nothing but flying until all the trips were filled and then it was Random RA days for the bottom 70% of VTO line holders


Again, by all means, it's survey time, so let's revert to the Pre-2015 Conflict Rules and permit the company to convert Awarded Reserve lines if they need to. Let's go back to the good old days of allowing the Company to determine what kind of R days were available for award in the VTO system.

FXLAX

Ok, but that would still be low, in my opinion. Our contract has been surpassed by two negotiating cycles at AAL/DAL/UAL. I’d also like to see more improvements than in the B fund and retiree healthcare. But maybe that’s just me?


Yeah, so 3-4% is too low. It would only bring us up halfway up to that UPS rate, which is a blended rate, so it’s artificially lower than it would otherwise be. Personally, I’m looking for rates that exceed any one else’s. I’d also like to see a twelve year scale. Whack off the bottom three years and renumber one to twelve.

kronan

So, 20 to 33% VTO and it varies from month to month.
Well, one thing that varies from month to month is the amount of flying available.

And another thing that varies from month to month is the Targeted BLG. Target the BLG closer to the monthly minimum and more flying lines will be produced.

And another thing that varies from month to month is the manning. More bodies in the plane is also going to mean a lower percentage of flying lines and a higher percentage of VTO\Reserve in the bidpack.
This is October's numbers. Some of them caught me by surprise, but on reflection think the variation is the required percentage of R24 lines
Numbers will be Plane\Capt\FO for ease of typing, leaving the % off
Bus 21.6\18.2
75 Cologne 17\20.4
75 16.9\10
76 HKG 29.8\24.4
76 Indy 16.2\16.2 (Reserve was 21.6 here)
76 20.8\13.8
ANC 26.5\21.4
LAX 20.6\18.2 (Reserve was 32.4\20)
MD 22.2\20.8
777 20.5\23.7

AggieAviator

How do you determine how much reserves are used? Does open time for each plane fluctuate with the seasons?

Emmerson Bigs

The company prefers it that way too. What is more efficient and manpower negative (i.e. less pilots needed)?
Conflict 15 R-days and drop them all allowing the dropper to pick up an open 13 day trip
Or, drop only the 3 days in conflict leaving 12, making him ineligible for the big trip, leaving him on reserve being paid while the company pays someone else to fly it or even has to draft to fill it.

kronan

In the Present, those 15 days go into the VTO system, as is. RA, RB, or R24. In the Present, the person awarded that 15 day R line has converted it to all Flying, through the almighty power of Conflicts.

In the Past, those 3 days were likely converted to 2 or 3 days of flying.

In neither the Present, nor the Past, did the Trips our notional Reserve Conflicter here picked up make it past the Secondary System to be flown at Draft or by someone else at straight pay.

The difference Now, is that there are more "Custom" R day lines built via the Secondary Process. Unknown Reserve lines if you will, versus the Known Reserve Lines. In the Past, there were more Known Reserve Lines Published, but still a lot of Unknown Reserve Lines in the VTO Request system. Flying only fills all the VTO lines when your seat is short and there's a lot of Conflicts that Don't take advantage of the +6 option, A lot of people who Don't bid around their vacation. A lot of people who protect Min Days Off when they have C\O or training.

Emmerson Bigs

Not saying there aren't benefits for our side. Just that they come with a price.
Those 15 R-days have no requirement to be assigned to anyone. Have you tracked every R-day block during the view/add and secondary process to ensure they remain in the system and are actually assigned to someone by the time the bid month starts? Doubt it. There's also no requirement for those R-days to be assigned.
And, yes, the person who may have sat reserve for all 15 days or a portion of those days now has flying instead. But that has a huge benefit for the company who now has a situation that's stable with far less moving parts (i.e. is the target reserve pilot available for the right days, do they need to adjust RA to RB, do they need to move R-days, split the trip, etc.)

Maybe, maybe not. But the point is that currently only one pilot has to get paid for that trip and those 15 R-days. You can't say that those 15 R-days didn't exist to cover the very trip that's now being flown in their place. Maybe those R-days aren't actually needed any longer. Big company win. Before, two pilots were getting paid for the same (roughly) block of work days when the whole block of R-days wasn't knocked out. Sure, it's a benefit to that one reserve pilot who avoids R-days in the crash pad. But lets not pretend that the company didn't want this just as much as our junior pilots.