I’m with you…commuter, quite dissatisfied with how QOL has become. If they’re incredibly Fat on CA’s why not entice those of us who aren’t 60. Heck offer any CA with 10 YOS or more even 12 months pay to leave. I’d be gone in a heartbeat. Let someone who wants to be here keep a CA seat instead of someone who’s golden handcuffed into staying and unhappy.

 

A 40yr old CA has 25yrs of servitude left at JB. That’s a lot of work the company can squeeze out of you during that time. A 59yr old has 6yrs left of work, less to squeeze there.

The company knows very very few CAs will leave to start over somewhere else, regardless of age.

 

That might be why they have trouble enticing. Being as fat on CAs as we are....If you can drop all the trips you want, (green days and/or eveyone willing to pick up whatever I drop). Why bail early? Just bid more VILs when I want etc.....

Of course...a year from now this might be much different. No CA VILS.....no ability to really drop or trade much.

 

I posed the question to leadership. Why not 55yr olds? The answer I got back was dropping the age below 59 substantially increases eligible FOs, thus defeating the purpose of eliminating CAs.

 

I did 5 VILs in 2024. Including DEC. it was glorious. And you know, sometimes FOs make errors and accidentally apply landing credits to the CA to continue VIL eligibility . It’s an error prone world.

 

Absolutely hysterical. Thanks for the laugh, the hoops one has to jump through in order to get 2 consecutive months of VIL in a row is truly mind numbing especially with no open time. Gotta make sure those 3 landings are in after the 15th, but ALAS! We open the VIL bids on the 14th close on the 18th and crew trac landings update at the end of the month! “Insert back and forth email chain with OSC records and Crew planning for incorrectly denied VIL award”

It amazes me they’re so worried about saving money that they trip over themselves tasking a handful of crew planners to go line by line through hundreds of pilots who requested VIL and make sure they won’t lose landing currency. God forbid they go to OSC and log 3 bounces.

It’s why I don’t have buy in on the whole we are up **** creek narrative. If they were that concerned they’d award the leave lines and not worry about landings.

 

On the other side of it, I lost a VIL because the FO legitimately forgot to put one in. He was running to commute. I get it. Despite my claims that I made the last landing and had 3 on the trip, ACARS is the sole source of accuracy in that regard. No ACARS no credit.

 

You can always email training records. I’ve had FOs forget to log mine, get dequal emails, I email them the flights I have logged TO/LDGs in my logbook, and they take care of it. I haven’t had to fight VIL denials yet though.

 

I’m confused. You block in, you’re sitting right next to the guy, and it’s important to you…

Do you guys not interact with your FO’s?

 

ACARS is not the sole source. You can email training records and proivide your last 3 landings so they can update your record accordingly.