In theory, you are correct.

However, we all know that's an impossible feat. No way anyone (not mgt, me or you) can perfectly predict the amount of reserve use/sick/weather coverage a month ahead of time (or even a week or a few days). Premium is used after all else and does happen from time to time. For us, we've seen, it's not often. But lets not ignore it as an area for improvement.

I just don't want to give up true capital to get something the masses want more.

 

No doubt.

I would agree it’s pretty far down my list

 

You’re giving up a one time 50kish max for software that already exists out of a few billion to fix a clear problem. Just because there’s not much premium currently does not mean that will always be true. It’s not near the top of my list either but it’s a fairly inexpensive fix.

 

No. The premium system is used by nearly every single airline. It allows the company to not carry a ton of reserves. It's mutually beneficial. It should and will stay.

Last minute things will always happen. Sick calls, broken planes, stranded crews, timed out crews. The only way to not have a premium or JA system is to carry to metric sh|t ton of reserves all the time. I want the premium system to stay

 

The word “fairly” is relative.

As I mentioned, even it if cost just $1 to actually fix, the company is likely to act like it costs much more and want to bargain something for it. Reason being is that the current system works just fine from their perspective.

If I never fly another premium trip for the rest of my career, i won’t lose a minutes sleep. Getting a premium trip is cool but It’s a BONUS. And given such, I dont want to lose out on the many other things I think are much more important.

 

I know a lot of people who are leaving because this job doesnt have the pay or benefits that the legacies have.... Ontop of the normal operational BS we deal with on a daily basis, I dont blame them.

If F9 wants to be successful and grow, they need to attract good candidates and be able to keep them through their careers. But when you have no min day, low rates, meh insurance. no good LTD. no good flight benefits (will change naturally if we grow). Not much premium offered. Most flights you get on are delayed at least 30 mins usually. Waiting for gates. issues with gate agents. It all adds up.

Contract is an easy way to attract and keep pilots. The other stuff is pretty simple to fix, but I guess it just isn't bad enough to where they want to yet. Although I did hear rumors of gate agents being F9 employees in domiciles being talked about.

The fact I have to call ops 3 times to get a reply or just hear nothing at all is horrific. Never happened on any DL/UA/AA flights I did at my regional.

 

Actual costs are agreed upon before negotiations even start. The company does not disagree with costs. You should just stop while you’re behind on your arguments.

 

Just call once. Then go back to looking at your phone.

 

That’s not true at all. After speaking with both my CA rep and my FO rep it turns out this is literally what the negotiators do during contract time. By the time they all come to the table they know what topics are being asked for based on what was sent to the MEC from the pilot surveys. From there the company argues that contract improvement 1 is worth X while our negotiators argue the value is Y. When they agree on a value the discrepancy disappears and language gets codified into a new contract.

 

LOL coolaid, you can’t actually believe this…..

So all areas of the contract already have an agreed upon price prior to negotiation. Everything.

LTD - check. That costs X.
Revised reserve rules - check. Those cost Y.
And so on.

And ALL airlines run negotiations this way?

My bad dawg, I had no idea. I’ll stop while I’m behind…