I called in sick on Christmas Eve with a sinus infection. Never heard anything. But then again I don’t call in sick every month as a schedule modification strategy. Had two missed commutes in a row out of DFW. Nada. Not even an email. Your mileage may vary based on how many abuses you partake in. Given the treatment I’ve been given with a sick/dying/dead family member I’m pretty sure you get a pass if it’s legitimate.

Some in management are still wrapping their heads around the fact that we are an ALPA carrier now. And remember, they are still trying to keep Inflight expectations low, and keep other groups from organizing. It's all show business.

You might, or you might not. Depends on which CP you get, if they have too many people missing trips and they need to make an example, and if they want to get someone in specific. I've had a few missed commutes myself and I've never heard a peep either, but then again I'm not on their radar at all. However, these are all anecdotal experiences.


All that matters is what is written. BJ has a long history of exploiting language when it suits their agenda. Why allow a contract that gives them even more subjective ability to hurt you?



The Railway Labor Act Simplified

This communique is for entertainment purposes only. It does not implicitly or explicitly acknowledge employment with any air carrier nor is any relationship implied. This communique does not represent the opinions or policies of ALPA or JB ALPA and does not represent the collective pilot group, ALPA, nor does it imply collective bargaining, advocacy, or workforce actions intended to disrupt operations.

If these are anecdotal experiences then so are alleged “Draconian” practices unless we can garner exact numbers and enough testimony to see if your perceptions and mine are statistically significant. Otherwise it’s all conjecture and heresay. I’d just be happy if people actually took PTO instead of dragging in looking like the Crypt Keeper spewing phlegm all over the cockpit because it’s more lucrative to fly sick and sell back PTO at 150%. Get the entire crew sick purely out of greed. Awesome.

You can do unpaid sick time so it doesn't debit your PTO. (However, I'm not sure if you can do unpaid if you go below a certain number of credit hours. I've never hit a threshold.) Agree on the flying sick thing, though.

That would be in one of the higher level classes but if this TA fails, we'd have half a summer left to fly SOP and, by the end of that, I doubt they'd want another SOP summer. Despite what others have said on here, I saw a lot of guys flying SOP and nothing more. It was almost uncomfortable sometimes and I felt bad for the pax (sorry "customers" ;-) ) but I was right there along with them in keeping it SOP. I trust that the NC did their best with what they were up against. (You hear about some airlines giving pilots a raise just 'cuz!) I thank the NC for their efforts and I'm sure their job feels like a thankless one sometimes. None of their efforts are going to go to waste. TA #1 will be a MAJOR stepping stone if we end up going back to the table.

You say scope, retirement and section 25 are the important things and that health insurance is a no-go area.

I'm fine with the scope in the TA. Retirement seems like a marginal increase and section 25 will actually cause me to fly more while on reserve to the point that I won't be able to bid reserve anymore.

Lastly, the most common reason I heard for voting in a union was better health insurance and I don't remember anyone mentioning scope. When the company axed health insurance, that's what made the union finally get voted in (with an impressive majority.) If we were on strike, would health insurance still be a no-go item?

No, what I'm saying is that heresay is defending or attacking the use of the policy based on only our experience or pseudostatistics.

The problem is a different issue.... it's that it IS written as a matter of legally binding contract law in the TA. Whether they use it or not is irrelevant. Statistics are irrelevant. It only matters that it IS written.

This communique is for entertainment purposes only. It does not implicitly or explicitly acknowledge employment with any air carrier nor is any relationship implied. This communique does not represent the opinions or policies of ALPA or JB ALPA and does not represent the collective pilot group, ALPA, nor does it imply collective bargaining, advocacy, or workforce actions intended to disrupt operations.

If this were turned down, my guess is they would just throw more $$ at us. i.e. 100 Mill bonus
I do not think that the Health care would miraculously improve, PTO sell back is gone and the RSV system is staying in place. (NC is proud of that section, along with Section 25 in general.
Vote NO if this TA is not what you want, but be realistic about your expectations if it is indeed rejected.
Maybe its worth it- Maybe B6 accepts the Summer of SOP and then inks a deal for RJs?
I doubt theyll do that, but for all of you looking for loopholes in this TA, take a look at the giant loophole that is our Current Book.
Thats not fear, thats the PEA/FSM.
Vote accordingly.

I honestly don't think we'd get more money if we turned this down. Possibly some changes in language we're not happy with, but I don't believe the company is willing to part with another dollar if they don't have to. Working under the PEA still saves them millions.

I was leaning NO up until a few days ago. I still have questions that need answering as I'm re-reviewing specific pages of the TA, but after attending the roadshow I feel much more confident in it. Also hearing from CK and JC directly about how and why they voted on this TA eased my nerves a bit.

Can we get more out of JB if we vote this down right now? I can't answer that, but I agree with all of those who say that delaying this another 12+ months will expose us to real risk and loss of benefits/pay had we accepted this proposal. Operating under the PEA is a lose/lose at the moment. What's to stop JB from making a big move due to the added time without a pilot contract and decide to announce a JetBlue Express after we vote NO? Then we'll be in a world of ****.

I also have to agree with the negotiating committee when they said "We polled the pilots, and they wanted a market rate/industry standard contract. We have achieved that, with industry leading sections". They even mentioned some things when negotiating 'market rate' hurt us, because things like PTO sellback and UTO are not industry standard, therefore the mediator couldn't agree with the pilots that we should keep those provisions from the PEA.

At the end of the day everyone had to do what's best for themselves, but after being at the Q&A and seeing the presentation, I can understand better how and why we got to where we are today.

Management is and has been disconnected from the employee groups for sometime. The middle management structure at jetblue provides an amazing buffer between reality and the jetblue reality. OTP, catering are just some examples of the disconnect. If jetblue allocated the proper resources to running the operation effectively they allocate to other projects we would easily see a ten fold increase in performance. Sadly, the airline chooses to spread itself intentionally thin.