You guys can have JD back if you want. He’s back on the market 😂

 

Context matters. The implication in the original post was that our soft pay was comparatively mind-blowing. I was pointing out the endless list of mitigating circumstances that make it a useless metric for comparison with the value of compensation at other carriers.

I foolishly left some of the thinking up to the reader believing that everyone on this site could accomplish some deductive reasoning. That turns out to be untrue.

Thanks for the definitions. After nearly thirty years as an airline pilot it helps to get those all cleared up.

 

Not at FedEx, but is this mostly due to FedEx's operation requiring far more deadheads than pax carriers, and having layovers average longer duration as well? If so, the block hours are still lower, but crews are still on the "company clock," right?

Is the 300 hours block and 1000 hours credit typical? I know it's possible to have similar numbers at Delta for example, by "rolling thunder" on reserve and other such schemes. However, those situations are in the minority there.

TIA

 

Its about block/credit hour density...pax pilots *on average* fly more block hours than express carrier pilots annually and per duty day because of how the domestic and international networks differ between passengers and express carriers.

There are multiple banks per day in each pax hub to allow a passenger pilot to block 6-9 hours of block a day (with 117, depending on report time) whereas there's typically a night sort and a day sort for express carriers. That's why rigs and MPDPs matter so much for us box haulers, especially domestically...less opportunity to fly 6hr+ in our duty days due to sitting a sort. Internationally, we go around the world or part way around then work our way back for trunk routes or stay largely in theater and do international sort flying for a number of days, vs. passenger carriers largely have one leg, hotel, one leg back international trips. Block can be a bigger player here but again, rigs and MPDPs tend to rule the day.

 

So block is less due to the network structure, but TAFB seems to be virtually the same. Still on the road on the company's clock (hence the rigs you mention), just not "productive" in the flight deck. That's how I read the post, and also matches with what I hear anecdotally about TAFB being the same. Thx.

 

The single departure international trips that I like to fly on the 767 are usually ~75 hours of pay, gone 10 or 11 days once I shave a day or two on the deadheads and block 20ish hours. Not trying to sell it and claim it’s the best thing going, just what I like and understand being gone 10 days straight even if that’s all you do for the month is a complete non-starter for a lot of pilots. But, for me, throw in the fact that a chunk of those 10-11 days on the road are can be 3 or 4 days laying over in CDG, LGG IST, BOG, NRT, PEN, KUL and SIN just to name some of the ones I’ve enjoyed, and it can be, well…enjoyable.

That’s one way we end up only blocking 200-300 hours for the year while working 11 days a month. The domestic night hub turn flyer’s lines will probably look similar if this TA passes and the min pay per trip goes from 6 hours to 6.4. I assume most 767 domestic pilots will block in the 25-30 hours a months and work 11 days or so for 70ish hours. So I would say the efficiency of Legacy widebody TAFB/Days off is a closer comparison than your all’s domestic flyers (excluding the high block/high credit uber senior day trippers) from what I hear from friends at UL and DL and their schedules.
You gotta fly international or nights those 10 or 11 days a month to get the efficiency I’m talking about and that’s a deal breaker for a lot of pilots out there. Again, not trying to sell or claim its the best thing ever but it works for me.

 

Its been a while since I've had friends at DAL/UAL send me their domestic & international trips.

That said, I suspect their block hour/TAFB ratio is higher than FDX or UPS. For that reason, I wouldn't be surprised if their bids tend to have lower TAFB.

When you see people say "My buddy at ___________ on the 330/350/777/787 does three 3-day and one 2-day trip a month and credits 80 hours", those trips are almost certainly paying on block vs. min day or trip rig.

 

Absolutely they pay on Block. But it's a great gig. Many friends at UAL and DL. Been there long time. They all get way more days off at home than I do. They work 9 to 11 days a month. Not 14. They credit 85 to 110 a month. Way more if Soft pay involved. EWR-NRT, TLV, JNB, etc. ATL-ICN, HND, CPT, etc. Augmented crews. So sleeping 6 hours on them. On Wifi surfing their CNBC Stocks or watching Fox News. Than eating First Class meals with actual utensil's. I love the wood one's we get, not-

 

when can we expect payment if we left FedEx for greener pastures?

 

“YOU’LL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT!” -Judge Smails