What' are the typical schedules like at Frontier? Usually 4 on 3 0ff? Reserve and Lineholder min days off? Thanks!

 

12 days off minimum for reserve and hard lines. All reserve lines are built with 12 days off.
75hr guarantee for reserve and line holders.
Monthly open time bid in rounds.
Daily open time computerized on a first come first served basis.
You can drop to finish the month with as few as 70 hrs credit but can't fall below 50hrs month end prediction as you adjust your schedule.
You can go to legal maximum per month, but if you look like you're going to time out for the year when CS audits your flying in September you can be forced onto reserve in December to keep you FAR legal.

August out of DEN the average line credit was just over 80hrs, avg days off 15.5, a mix of 1 - 5 day trips with almost 50% 4 day trips. Day turns go senior - 80hr 20 days off, and butt kicking 5 day red-eyes go junior at sometimes 98hr - 12 days off

We have a LOT of flexibility in trading / dropping / swapping trips, so those 98hr 12 day off lines can become 80hr-15day off lines fairly easily. You can split trips and drop the pieces you don't want in most instances (leaving the 48hr OMA for a reserve). Those kind of overnights have been disappearing as we serve more of our cities 7 days a week.

We are still adjusting to 117, additional domiciles and red eye flying. There are still fatiguing trips built, but if you call in fatigued and it wasn't obviously your fault (you were partying all night in LAS) you'll be removed from flying and pay protected with no sick time loss.

One nice bit we have (that management WILL want to take away in the next contract) is the ability to make up sick days - duty period for duty period.
For example; You're scheduled on your last day to fly SLC-DEN-LAX-DEN, but your kid gets sick at home while you fly your SLC-DEN leg so you call in sick for 1/2 of a day - dropping the DEN-LAX-DEN 4:15hr turn, and are charged 1/2 of a sick day.
The next month the same thing happens and you bang out sick for another 1/2 of a day worth 4:15. You get paid for the time dropped, and your sick bank is reduced by 1 day ( 1/2day + 1/2day = 1day of sick. Sick time is calculated and used in whole or half days. We don't do sick or vacation by credit hours).
You can then pick up a DEN-SLC-DEN from open time within the next 2 full bid periods after the one in which you took the sick time (sick in August - you have until the end of October's bid period to make up the day), call CS and tell them you want to use the SLC turn's credit (which would have paid around 2:15) to replenish your sick time (1 full day), and your sick balance is replenished, but you don't get paid for the SLC turn. In the end you'll essentially get paid 8.5hrs for flying a SLC turn - with NO loss to your sick bank.
It's a good option if you don't want to pay for the optional STD (short term disability) insurance, and want to build your sick bank for emergencies.

There are a lot of things to fix in our next contract, but this isn't bad for an independent union's 10 year old second ever contract after bankruptcy. The concessionary pay needs help soon though!

 

Oh, We do stand-up's too... (CDO) Continuous Duty Overnights - Some call them 'high speeds". Show at domicile in evening, fly, hotel, show early in morning, fly to domicile, done - all within one duty period so no "rest" required. Pays minimum of 6 hrs credit. Most carriers have gotten rid of them. Some people LOVE them (especially the FAs) Great for watching kids during day / shortening life span, etc.

 

Just flew with a very senior CA who was lamenting the disappearance of Stand-ups. Said he loved them because of the 6 hour credit. He believes the company is no longer willing to pay it, so they abolished them. I can't find any CDOs in the August bid. I wonder if they come and go seasonally, or is his theory correct?

 

We haven't had CDOs in quite a while. I doubt they'll be back.

 

Do y'all have much luck maximizing your vacation? Ex.. Having 7 days but actually getting more than that?

 

I think 117 made them very difficult / impossible if you ran even a little late. Not worth the operational challenge for now. The company may be too cheap to pay the soft time too.

We had ABQ CDOs for a while, and they went VERY senior...

 

With trips that leave domicile and don't return you just have to cover a day of the trip to have the whole thing dropped / pay credited.

Yes we can maximize vacation. The days of vacation vs credit hours vacation cuts both ways though. If you're VERY junior you could end up having the majority of your vacation fall on days scheduled off already - we bid pre-built lines, not PBS. For the vast majority, the day system works great and respects seniority absolutely. If you're #1 you can bid a line where a 7 day vacation period touches two 26hr 5 day trips, and have them both dropped/paid. If you're on reserve you get paid 4hrs per day of reserve your vacation covers.

We can slide vacation, but it get complicated quickly. Half the pilots here don't understand it ;-)

 

New bid out. Same 4/11 Jr CA DOH. MCO based. One DEN backfill CA.

Company must not be ready for as many CAs to leave as they thought?

Our Crew Planning motto: "Measure with a micrometer and cut it with a chainsaw"

 

That one 'Denver Back-fill CA" was already a DEN CA a couple months ago when he was awarded MCO CA. Now he's back to DEN.

This seems more like a way to let a guy back who was misawarded due to some kind of mistake or Flica glitch to me; but I'm only guessing.

Just to keep myself grounded in reality, and avoid false hope, I'm personally not going to interpret this as the company reconsidering their plans to reduce Denver.