FedEx-new contract-baseline/established fare
 

In the old contract, I would always wait to deviate the front end until the email came saying that Global Travel had issued the ticket. That way in case the flight they listed in the pairing was sold out, they would possibly rebuild the trip with potentially more pay. For the back end DH, I would wait until I landed at the final destination to deviate. That way if something went wrong, I'd still be on the trip. For example, a few years ago we ended in EWR, a nor'easter moved in and pretty much all commercial flights were cancelled the next day. Capt. was stressed because he had already deviated. I didn't, so I got additional pay and I was covered for the extra hotel since the pairing was extended. But now with the new contract, if I'm reading this correctly in 8.C.2.b.i-I, if you deviate before the month starts, you get the higher of the baseline and established fare. If you wait, you get the established fare, which may be lower that the baseline fare. So potentially you might have a lower deviation bank than you thought when the month started. So I have 2 questions; am I reading this correctly? And if this is the case, is it better to deviate before the month starts or roll the dice and wait for Global Travel to issue the ticket or until you land and the final destination on the trip? While it is rare to deal with a nor'easter or other weather at the end of the trip, it does occasionally happen and in those instances, I'd be glad if I didn't deviate.

Do both, I plan on deviating front end early and back end late.

keep in mind, that the ticketed fare is not necessarily what the pairing gets (X pairings aside). The baseline/established fares are an attempt to minimize the disparity with a closer snapshot of the actual travel dates.

This fact is yet another example of a nugget that (we) thought this contract fixed, but in truth, just papered over our legitimate issues, regarding DH fares with yet another bogus number.
Before we had a BS fare published in the bid pack that we used to plan and balance our deviation travel. We asked for and expected that the fix would allow us the same money that the company would have spent had we used the scheduled DH. What we got is just more numbers based on airfares that someone in travel came up with that, surprise!! :rolleyes: , still don't necessarily equal the air fare the company would have spent.
Other than making things more confusing for the user and more work for someone in corptrav and crew travel audit, the company once again got the best of our NC. We bought it and now this non fix is the contract.:mad:

In the winter, I would surely wait till the last minute to deviate, established fare or not. The potential for a deadhead to get revised is just too great. And as far as the backend, think of those guys in Europe who got screwed during the volcanic eruption. Not worth it.

Shack! Between this, cutting our remaining travel bank in half before carrying it to the next month, crediting us with about 30-40 cents on the dollar for cancelled hotel rooms and absolutely nothing for all the GT $ we save them every month, it's pretty clear the company had no desire to halt the gravy train we've been offering up year after year via our deviations.

One thing the early deviators haven't mentioned is the trip-trade restriction for international DHs (including HI and AK). If you've got the trip you know you want to fly then it doesn't matter. Otherwise, you lock yourself into that trip once it's less than 14 days from show time. That's no trip trades, drops or pdo bumps. I realize it used to be immediate in the old contract, so this is an improvement.

Personally, I've been burned by the trip trade restriction more than once. As a daily open time checker when it suits me, I've said my "never agains". I haven't seen a significant difference between the established and baseline fares since it started. Personally, a few bucks one way or the other isn't worth losing the ability to improve my overall lot in life with a lucky X-pairing grab or being able to say yes to a PDO bump or swap. Maybe I'll eventually see something in the fares that make me change my mind. Until then, I'll be deviating 60 hours prior to the DH and keep my options open as long as possible.

Sorry but contract 2011 solidified the stealing of deviation banks. Before that our refusal to grieve the higher of bank or actual ticket provision is what really cost us. Minor gains on the last contract are minor gains not loses. I don't change the way I schedule or deviate because of anything that happened on contract 2015. The lesson learned should be to fight when the company cheats us, not when we try to get it back 10 years later.

FedEx-new contract-baseline/established fare
 

So far for me the difference between established and baseline has been ~$4. So I would keep your deviation technique. Same as mine.

The new "system" does nothing for us. It just sounds/sounded fancy. I still had both fare quotes be much less than actual ticket price.

Adlerdriver is right on.

259$ for me this month,
and joining a scheduled DH leg so that should eliminate a limo expense

YMMV

A little thread creep, but seemed better than starting a new thread........

Does it make sense for someone living in the Memphis area to deviate? It drives me crazy to have deadheads each month on 5 different carriers (VTO line). Seems to me to make sense to deviate even though it's out of Memphis in order to try to narrow it down to at least maybe 2 carriers and thereby getting the perks of being in the loyalty programs. On the other hand it seems like it's taking on more risk than its really worth.

Opinions?