Im curious too which "team" decided killing HILO / PerDiemOnly specifically for FDA pilots was a good idea....

 

Bid for Training may be good but we paid a high price with bump and flush on every bid. Also, once you bid an FDA you are locked in for 2 years even if you haven't started training yet (notional award instead). I assume this was to prevent new hires going to the FDA from immediately bidding out.

 

I am absolutely, hopping, steaming angry about this one. I commute to the Hong Kong FDA. Being junior, I was almost never able to snag one of the rare single departure lines, and the rest of the bid pack had shorter trips shot-gunned over the whole month.

Therefore, to minimize my time near "the center of gravity" I would bid VTO and piece together reasonable requests (usually two trips 2-3 days apart). Each Hong Kong trip begins with a DH or GT from Hong Kong to Guangzhou with a short lay over, and ends with a short layover and a DH or GT from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.

So what would I do during that 2 or 3 days in between? I would deviate the back-end DH of the first trip, and the front-end DH of the second trip, and pay with the company credit card to stay those two or three days at the layover China, Garden, or Pullman Hotel (usually still at the crew rate) in between trips and expense it "International Hotel In Lieu Of Deadhead."

Now is that considered abuse? Is this some nefarious, evil action that was not intended? I think not. I consider this a hard earned benefit we are all allowed to utilize in order to slightly help us improve our quality of life in a challenging (and getting more difficult by the year) work environment.

If this TA is approved (and I hope to god it is not and for a ton of other reasons in addition to this one), then my situation will fall into the "Non-intercontinental" category. Now I may be mistaken, but my guess is that the company will not define "Consecutive Dead Heads" to mean the back end of one trip and the front end of another. In fact, I have not yet found "Consecutive Dead Heads" defined at all. So it appears to me that the company can just make that term be whatever they feel like (since it appears that our NC didn't bother to ask).

Now some will point out that Part iii of that section might allow me to do the same thing (increased from one day to two) and that is true, unless you need a third day (and then you are screwed). Also, the hotel must be the front end layover hotel. What happens if they are booked full during the time needed and you have to go to one of the other two layover hotels that FedEx uses in Guangzhou (it has happened to me more than a few times)? Then again, you are screwed.

Also, what happens while commuting home, if you would like to spend some hours in that departure area by-the hour hotel in the Narita or Taipei airports to get a shower and short nap and expense it latter? Well, if this TA passes guess what? That's right, you're screwed.

This is a huge give back in so many ways and I am at a total loss as to why our NC would even entertain it or fathom to guess what they might have gotten in return.

I do think that they felt that this would affect so few pilots as to be easy to get away with. But I tell you now, it will affect many more of us than anyone thinks. It might not be now, it might not even be a few years from now, but I guarantee you that eventually, this change will bite everyone some time during their career here.

And again...WHY? ...And FOR WHAT?

I apologize in advance if anything I wrote here is in error, and will politely defer if anything needs to be corrected. I am also copying this post to that larger thread for increased exposure.

 

I did the same thing. For the life of me I cannot understand why we would give that up. There is no reason for us to make any concessions, especially to our Quality of Life.


Petty and insulting.






.

 

The company is more vindictive than one would think. They have a hard time manning HKG and then take away the tools used to make it workable. That is scary that they feel entitled to dictate a pilots life.

 

figure it out fellas the company has no interest in giving us anything. They are just trying to take what we have at such a gradual rate that many people don't realize it. Here's a "bonus" forget we haven't given you a pay raise in three years and don't read the small print we are screwing you every where else too. Spread the word so everyone stops just looking at the pay rates and bonus and understands just how bad a deal this is. Respect to Delta for voting their POS down and getting rid of their union sellouts.

 

After seeing the "highlights" with all the company efficiency's (concessions) I only needed to look at the pay rates and bonus to make up my mind

 

[QUOTE=NoHaz;1963763]Bid for Training may be good but we paid a high price with bump and flush on every bid. Also, once you bid an FDA you are locked in for 2 years even if you haven't started training yet (notional award instead). I assume this was to prevent new hires going to the FDA from immediately bidding out.[/QUOTE

At all the companies that do bid for training, you can't get bump from your seat except if the is a displacement bid. If a senior guy wants to go to a seat, there must be a vacancy in that seat. If you by pass your upgrade you have to wait for a full realignment bid. You can't just bump a junior guy on a regular vacancy bid

 

[QUOTE=StarClipper;1964460]Does it really say that? I think it gives the company the option to do that more efficiently, and could be how the company executes it. I think this is what will happen, but only when Mgt. wants to do it!

Kind of like JL "your part of the problem" issue.

 

There are probably a few guys that have had conversations with B.S. concerning the SIG and line construction. I've found him to be condescending and projecting an attitude of "I know what is best." The statement that I've read here about the HILO not being used as intended seems typical. I watched the webcast and it was clear to me who did this to us.