Yeah that's true.

I saw highly attenuated representations in your post history that apply to a small subset of our 3800 pilots. Hardly representative of loopholes jumping of the page. Everyone’s situation is different.

I did say Did I say that the specific loopholes I previously noted would directly affect everyone at our airline? No. However, when a senior guy bids reserve instead of a line it does affect many people below them. If reserve sucks and the senior pilot bids a line instead of reserve, she maybe snatches up the rare day trips that a few pilots below her had high hopes of getting. The next line of their PBS triggers and they settle for the 2-days that the next subset of guys had high hopes of getting. This dominoes all the way down the line. Not to mention that a lack of trips for people that want a line creates strategic issues for them when they're factoring in specific days off they want etc. etc. Like I said, reserve doesn't have to suck and it doesn't just benefit the reserves if reserve doesn't suck.

The weak staffing language that I previously noted also does affect everyone but maybe we want to be an airline that has staffing problems and red reserve grids, but creates lots of RSA/VDA opportunities (and cancels flights and loses customers). I can see why people want a staffing issue which creates those RSA/VDA's but I don't think it's a good long term idea. I'm not too hung up on this aspect, though.

I have always thought our TA suffered from a lack of strong language. I spoke to the things that affected me and you could talk to the guys next to you in the cockpit about the loopholes/unintended consequences that come to light and affect them in the near future. I'm sure you'll end up hearing plenty.

On our first contract we should focus 75% of out negotiating capital on the 25% of the pilots that are on reserve.

So many leave and chase the junior Captain money to be on reserve. Then they want industry leading since they are now junior and on reserve. I Am not saying not to get better reserve rules. But.......

So what are you saying then? New hires are also on reserve. Are you a pay your dues guy? I dealt with it so why shouldn’t they mentality?

Reserve doesn’t need to suck just because it always has. There is no reason we can’t create a system that doesn’t make line holders think twice about bidding reserve.

Deleted

P.s. Tony Romo...you suck as an announcer.

Nope never. We have long call coming and the rest of the reserve rules as well. Not sure why I would bid reserve other than days off which. I stayed on reserve for an extra year when I got here. I did not find it that bad. Sure it needed to get better. Apparently it was the worst system ever.......

Always got my weekends off.

Would it have taken more negotiating capital to have the senior pilot start later than the junior pilot in the same silo? I don't see how that affects the company negatively. Would it have taken a lot of negotiating capital to keep the FSM protection that they can't change your RAP to end early (and thus start you earlier the next day)? Like I said, reserve going senior pretty much benefits everyone. So it's not just 25%. I also don't think better reserve rules would've taken 75% of the negotiating capital. Lastly, I think the negotiaters did their best with the situation. If you basically get to an impasse then one strategy is to put out a TA and have the pilots prove that's it's not good enough with their vote. That didn't happen (though I wish it had). The negotiating team would've had more ammo when they went back to the table.

i asked about this at the roadshow. they said that they could have done it either way, so they picked this way. i told them as a senior reserve, i'd rather it be the other way. obviously it was too late to make any changes to it at that point, but they seriously just considered it the same either way. by "they" i am talking about the scheduling specialists in the negotiating group.

people keep talking about this, both on here and in person with me, but i can't find such a thing in the FSM. where is this protection in the FSM compared to the CBA?

the company cannot "change" your RAP once you have been assigned a RAP, without your concurrence, either in the FSM or the CBA. but neither the FSM (that I can find) nor the CBA say that the company cannot assign you a RAP that is only 6 hours long, instead of 10, or whatever.

in fact, i don't even see in the FSM where the RAP is set at 10 hours for short call. i know it's 10 hours, but i don't see that mentioned in there. the CBA says it can't be more than 10 hours, right?

it doesn't say it can't be less than, and therefore the company can start you earlier the next day. but neither does the FSM. if i'm wrong, i'm glad to admit it, but i am looking all over the FSM reserve section and i don't see it, and i bid reserve on purpose.

here's something about reserve now that is annoying to me, and to some other people I've talked to. i'd like the input of other reserves from other bases.

the contract says we can work up to 14 hours, 16 hours with an ending deadhead. it doesn't say how crew services will assign trips to reserves...no flow charts or rules or anything.

so they could assign us right up to 14 hours. and they have done that. then, there was a trip that should have gone to another guy, and he would have had a 13 hour and 10 minute day. they gave the trip to me.

crew services told me they are using a 1 hour buffer. i asked them where in the contract it says that. they pulled out some part of the contract that talks about pairing construction and a 1 hour buffer. it had nothing to do with reserve assignment.

so sometimes they use the buffer, sometimes they don't. sometimes, they might use a 2 hour buffer. or 6 hours. who knows? the contract does not force any sort of consistency onto them, and i think that is wrong.

i do not know much about other reserve systems at other airlines, but i did ask an American airlines pilot about their reserve, and i asked once he is on a reserve day, and he looks at the reserve list, and an open time trip pops up, does he know with 100% certainty which pilot on the reserve list is going to get that trip, and he said, yes, they know for sure who will get it. the contract gives strict instructions for the scheduling people to follow.

in our system (and this isn't just now with a hybrid FSM/contract system...the contract implementation will not change this at all), we literally have no idea who the trip will go to. crew services can and will and does change how they assign trips. they will give trips to their friends if they want them, and give them to other people if their friends do not want them, etc. it allows for complete corruption of the system, and no consistency to those of us on reserves.

any thoughts or experiences?