Kipper

Does anyone have any experience with a first class ticket being purchased and reimbursed on an international deadhead where duty day is over 16 hours?

I recall that “lay flat trumps everything else”. Yet, I’ve heard rumors that in fact we can still get first class.

Just wondering how to get it authorized so it will be covered. I’ve read the contract but all too often, my interpretation is wrong.

Thanks in advance.
K.

CloudSailor

I think you're right about the FC ticket with the duty day >16hrs, but haven't done it myself.

I hope that dudes who fly with SL, former NC Chair who brought us the 2015TA (and sold it in true used-car salesman fashion), ask him about how the Company actually interprets the lie flat seat language .

Adlerdriver

Assuming you're discussing deviating. Yes? Doing what you're describing has nothing to do with CBA 2015 or lay flat seats.
On a front or back deviation, as long as you're authorized higher class of service, you can buy whatever ticket you can afford. I just did it on EK coming home from my last trip. Full first class.
It doesn't matter if you're over or under 16 hours of duty. That's it -period-dot.

One caveat: Recently the company has started putting restrictions on mid-trip tickets because of the technicality that we must request a pre-approval (unlike front or back DHs where we have no master to which we must answer). Pilots have a long history of cancelling scheduled tickets on mid-trip DHs in biz class and buying first class tickets on the very same flight with extra bank without even deviating because they were on the same flight. Now that is being foiled with the requirement to get a pre-approval and the ticket price is being limited by the approver. Kind of beyond your questions buy just some extra info to throw in your bag of tricks.

Front or back - buy whatever you want on the long haul DHs.

CloudSailor

Of course, as Adler said.

If your commercial flight qualifies for First/Business due to duty day or block hours, you can purchase the best FC seat available on the PiLOTS site PFC or Global Travel. Or, you can book it directly through the airline website with the corp. card. I have flown La Premiere on AirFrance, their First Class and booked through Global Travel and AF website. Those seats aren't available on PiLOTS PFC page.

Of course, the Co. will no longer purchase DH's in FC when lie flat suffices (and our int'l deviation bank has suffered accordingly). I got carried away with tossing in a lie flat punch to the old NC while neglecting to answer the OP's question.

Rock

I’ll add a little here based on info from a fleet manager. As of 19 May 2022, you can no longer upgrade yourself to first class on a scheduled midtrip deadhead even if you request to deviate. In order to fly in first class (instead of business class), you have to deviate to a different flight than the scheduled flight. Your first class ticket will only be approved if it is less than 200% of the original fare for the deadhead ticket. I realize that makes no sense but that is the letter sent to fleet managers and global travel. So if you want to fly in first class on a midtrip deadhead instead of business class, you must get approved to deviate, it needs to be on any flight but the originally scheduled flight, and the ticket price can’t be more than 200% the fare of the original ticket. 🤷‍♂️

threeighteen

And yet, despite that being a massive violation of status quo, our union did nothing.

Kipper

Thanks for all of the replies. I appreciate you guys taking the time. I was hoping to get a scheduled flight booked as First Class but I can see that’s not going to happen.

It’s unfortunate. The company purchased me a business class ticket and of course it is thousands of dollars higher than the baseline and established fares. Really crappy that it is not booked first class as it should be.

Thanks again!

Adlerdriver

I’m confused. If this is a front or back end DH then cancel the biz class ticket, buy the FC ticket and deviate at the appropriate time. If it’s a front DH, then do your final check-in at the gate for the scheduled flight that you now have a FC ticket for. Easy.

CloudSailor

C'mon NoBrains, it is a massive violation of status quo to suddenly impose limits on the mid trip DH's! It's a reminder of how the company will unethically exploit the CBA language to improve the bottom line. And it's also a negotiations tactic for division.

Just like how the company got away with a break from status quo by unethically snatching accepted fares from us years ago. And yes, our union didn't fight it right then and there, as we should have. The company has squeezed even more from our accepted fare 'system' in the last 18 months. The fares are ridiculous and you'd know it if you were flying the line.

I agree with you on the 100% of the deviation bank should remain. It is from our awarded lines and trips, so it should always have been ours to retain and use within the CBA.

If the company had some decency to show after what our WB int'l dudes lived through the last 3 years, the least they could have done is make the deviation bank ours without having to negotiate for it. Instead we get the lip service of "thanks for doing such a great job! could not have done it without you!" FCIFs, buried in the macro message of "sorry we just seem to be broke now. Yeah, right now, when it's time to split the pie of phenomenal profits we have raked in for the last 8 years". And we get BS like new limits imposed on mid trip DH's. It's just downright insulting.

Merle Haggard

Nailed it.