We wish the company was making millions off our backs!

 

We shouldn’t have to use tips or tricks to pick up Premium flying. It is one of the greater failures from our last contract. The same group of pilots continue to pick up at will, by cheating the system one way or another and in fact picking up last minute premium trips and commuting all over the network to do so. Those pilots flying with minimal rest is NOT using good judgement. HMM one of the requirements for the issuance of an ATP certificate. One small incident, or accident under those circumstances would result in the FAA hanging that pilot and/or the company out to dry. It is an unfair system and allows that same group of pilots to have an unfair earning advantage over the rest of the pilot group by either living on FLICA to pick up, or by using other tactics This process should have been addressed and changed years ago with a LOA. ANY TA not addressing this problem should be an IMMEDIATE no vote by this pilot group.

 

I also see this as one of the most visible failures of our Negotiating Committee for giving it away in the first place (it was a system known for these problems at the time) And the MEC who allowed it in the first place and STILL TO THIS DAY has failed to come up with anything to actually fix the problem 8 YEARS LATER. possibly 4 months ago we got a Captcha placed on the sign in. Which added a useless layer of security which has not put a dent in the lopsided premium awards likely because the people picking up know the trip will drop within a 10 min window. At this rate the current F9 Alpa leadership will be retired before there is any effective solution to the PAF.

 

How did they give it away while at the same time it was know as a system with the same problems? That doesn’t make alot of sense. I agree it does need to change.

 

They gave it away for sure the NC told me that directly "they (Scheduling) wanted the ability to crew trips faster"
The contract was inked in 2019 bots were not as ubiquitous as today but they existed. There were a few Regionals using Saber that had these same problems at that time. There were known system exploits IDK what they were then or really now. How ever you cut it giving that away free and clear as the NC did was a strategic error causing a cascade of problems. By allowing a select few to pick up the bulk of the PAF it causes the other pilots to give up on PAF and pick up open time which reduces the trips in PAF. This is why we presently fight over 6hr red eyes. and other garbage trips.

I also take issue with the way in which the Captcha was deployed (note it was only deployed after the bots started crashing flica) On the front end sign in and not when a pilot tries to pick up a trip. Now every time I want to check my schedule I need to take a Turing test to prove I an not a robot. ( a test I regularly fail for some reason)

After 8 years I would expect a more comprehensive fix. The time to do anything quickly passed over 7 years ago they might as well have done it right.

Where we are right now I would not advocate any big changes in the Union. As a pilot group I would advocate higher expectations from the Union leadership, unless of course you personally don't want any changes in the status quo.

 

Thats fairly well articulated (and accurate) however there was a seniority based way to pickup premium. Vja. At 1.25. Point is it cost management more money now. Smaller cost increase to 200%. After that it was ja domicile specific at 1.50. So Same cost. There were separate issues with both of those processes and I don’t believe anybody still does ja?

Going forward last I checked nk seems to have figured out how to spread premium around in the fairest most efficient way. Could be a bit behind because I haven’t looked closely at some of the new agreement in regards to premium. imo our premium improved, costs more money to management, but still needing a substantial overhaul to spread it around more evenly.

 

We need to eliminate reserve pickup while we’re at it. You want more premium? Don’t blame the guys picking it up, blame the reserves who pad the life out of their schedules with every shred of Opentime

 

I’d be fine with a couple hr block. Similar to out of domicile. Getting rid of it completely hurts fdo in a big way. Solving a management wish for free. It’s helpful to think about downsides when contemplating changes. There’s very little language with zero downside.

 

Ya sure make reserve worse than it is…dumb.

 

The logic that we had to do it back in the day, so everyone should suffer in the future, is incredibly stupid.