that’s adorable. You haven’t sh@t on dtz in months huh?

 

Was true when I said it.

 

That settles it, English is definitely your second language. Now you're just making crap up.

 

Translation: "as long as I get mine, screw everyone else."

 

You know Blue, I'd question whether you were actually a pilot given how consistently you keep advocating for giving up awesome work rules and/or double-talking yourself into crappy profit sharing formulas. But, then I see 6k+ posts on the forums and I think maybe you've just been Stockholm Syndrome'd into a company man over many years.

 

1. The entire JB forum could gladly tell you I'm no company man.

2. Talking myself into crappy profit sharing formulas? Your argument against me could and should be leveled against nearly all the major airline pilots in the industry, or at a minimum their negotiating committees. What you describe as "crappy", would apply to most existing profit sharing plans at our peer airlines, so you're really just saying you know better than all the negotiating committees who negotiated those contracts. That's not just a little arrogant... And it's even more rich from a guy a few months into his NK career, who does not have, and never has had a profit sharing plan at your airline. So keep on telling us how much more you know than the committees who negotiated those plans, and the pilots who have been cashing those checks. They'd love to know how crappy they are and how much better you could have done...

3. As long as we're talking about profit sharing, you were just telling me on the other board how JB pilots can't have profit sharing because JB is a "growth" company and that the plan wouldn't pay anyway because of the accounting methods available to growth companies. Well, JB is only ~23 years old, has been a growth company it's entire existence, and for much of that existence it did IN FACT have a profit sharing plan, and there were several years where the checks were quite large. So, what that means, is I don't have to wonder if you have a clue, you've already proved beyond any reasonable doubt that you do not.

 

Nope, it means it's not my fight. I have my list, you have yours. I fill out my survey, you fill out yours. I have no interest in "screwing" anyone.

 

Gross mischaracterization. Which is rich considering you accused me of EAASL. Are you sure YOU can read English?

I was (apparently poorly) trying to explain to you the holes in the current formulas, how the company can manipulate them to payout less, and suggested a better method to calculate profit sharing. But, you didn't get it because you don't know the first thing about corporate accounting.

 

There it is again! What I know and don't know about corporate accounting aside (arrogant clownfish), here you are again saying you know better than the union negotiators and union subject matter experts who helped our unions negotiate these plans!

 

Let me try and clarify a few things.

With regards to DTZ, it’s less about dropping everything and staying at zero. It’s more about being ABLE to drop everything and adjusting your schedule to how you want it.

Example: I was awarded a really bad relief line in another base coming off OE (boarder line offensive, really). I was able to drop everything except one holiday weekend. I rebuilt my schedule in my preferred base well above guarantee. That one holiday weekend I couldn’t drop? I swapped it out for a 3 day that had a double overnight in my preferred base and it was front end and back end commutable.

Bluedriver mentioned maybe dropping to 40 or 50. Logical on the surface, but let me address this as I’m sure he’s not the only one thinking this. One of the issues I have with this is that once something is given up, it’s rarely given back. The other reason this is a bad idea is because it creates a credit threshold restriction. A few pages back, Bluedriver (not trying to pick on you, you just mentioned earlier) couldn’t drop a trip because it would bring him below the credit threshold. Not ideal especially if you have to go in for multiple times to add/drop/swap request on an 8000+ pilot group.

Pay has also been brought up here. No question JB pilots earn more hourly than NK pilots. The reality is that our grid rules, DTZ, etc.. all play a role in us getting to credit a ton a month. This allows us to be paid less hourly, but credit more bringing us up to comparable pay rates.

From personal experience, I’m on track to earn six figures at the end of year one. That includes 3 months of training pay (1 month on the new rate).

Someone else asked how many people DTZ and camp premium. I know of 4 people who do it. In practice, you have to be flexible and ready to go whenever a call comes through. The way premium works here doesn’t allow for this strategy to be sustainable all year long. If you’re at the bottom of the list, you probably won’t be called. This forces you to work an awarded (and subsequently adjusted) schedule. DTZ is about schedule flexibility and less about waiting for the call for premium trips.

Some of the cons of DTZ AND OUR GRID RULES is that reserve pilots gets shorted. Reserve pilots can’t add/drop/swap. They can only pick up reserve assignment from other pilots from the trade board (can’t interfere with 117, of course. It also pays above guarantee), and can list for the XY list (this is where our 4 GDO days come in handy). These reserve rules is what allows the grid to be green though. It forces adequate coverage on most days. We also get to bid for specific reserve periods (something that doesn’t happen at JB?). So bid what you want and more times than not you get your 1st or 2nd preferred reserve period.

So that’s the spark notes version of it and some of y’all might be asking “so why would anyone leave?” That’s a good question. Some people don’t want to commute. Some people don’t want to stick around for the merger. Some people live in large legacy bases where they know won’t be shutdown. Other people are young and have their shot at pretty much any legacy they want. If you were to be in your mid 20s and could basically choose what legacy you work for, would you stay for the merger? I mention this because a large majority of our attrition are are from 1st-2nd year pilots.

One thing to mention that gets skipped over on APC is that our 4 GDO days guarantees you at least a week or two off in the month. So that’s something we should definitely keep!

I know a lot of our pilots are happy here. We get paid well, have excellent QOL, have good layovers, fly with awesome crews, have amazing CPs, and the company pretty much leaves us alone for the most part.

Hope this helped!