ThumbsUp

Of all of things wrong with our reserve system at UAL, FSB is probably the most minor for a commuter. I personally preferred it to SC just due to the shorter duration. But then, SCs and FSBs weren’t used as frequently as they are today.

JetBlast77

When I was a commuter, I used FSBs as a tool to get released earlier. I would pickup a morning FSB on my last day (6-10am) and if I went unused I was released at 10am, instead of sitting around waiting to be auto released at 3pm or whatever the time was back then. You could also use it as a tool on your first day as well. Pickup an evening FSB and commute in even later in day 1. I’m not saying FSB is great, but it did have some positives.

fadec

It's more so because reassigning a line holder is step 5 behind reserves and senior manning, and carries 125% add pay. Line-holders simply don't get reassigned at United. The TA changes reassignment of a line holder to step 2 only behind reassignment of a visiting reserve, deletes the 125% add pay, and keeps field standby while making first-day reserves available for a 0600 departure.

fcoolaiddrinker

A buddy was explaining you got a 3/1 add pay duty rig that kicks in 2 hrs after the original footprint in exchange for giving up the 125%. Is that correct? If so are there any other disincentives to reassign a lineholder because imo that isn’t much of one.

fadec

Nope. In fact it may actually cost the company less to reassign a line holder because for certain reserve assignments there's 2 hours of add pay. Even worse, the TA doesn't force the company to go one way or the other. They have the option to use a reserve before even starting these steps. It's entirely up to the company what they do.


And that's what this TA is in many ways... We give complete control to the company to schedule and reschedule as they want. In return we get a few dollars here and a few there. We get nothing like a true disincentive. It doesn't even come close to what the company has to pay now, e.g. 100% add pay for a senior man vs 2 hours add pay to assign a morning reserve who is unavailable in the current contract. These miniscule time perks don't disincentivize the company and they certainly don't compensate us.

The current contract is one of volunteers. If you want a schedule disruption and extra pay you can volunteer for it in many different ways. The TA makes us into resources to be used involuntarily for insulting amounts of pay.

I don't want to disincentivize the company anyway. What I want is to incentivize pilots to work. If no one comes in, oh well FUPM. That's basically what we have now. The TA gives it all away. Literally all of it. It turns us into slaves.

BlueSkies

Unbelievable! How did the union think anyone would be OK with this? Did they think pilots wouldn't read the TA and figure this out? Also, did the Co. really think pilots would vote in a concessionary TA?

RJSAviator76

OK, let me clarify a few tidbits about reserve at Southwest.

- Reserve availability is 16 days per month in a 31 day month, or 15 days in a 30 day month.
- Minimum guarantee is 6 TFP per day and that's if you're not used. If you're used, you will get Average Daily Guarantee which is 6.5 TFP or whatever the trip is worth.
- You are subject to daily reassignment pay which pays premium on the date of reassignment, so the more scheduling jerks you around, the more money you'll make.

Something other airline pilot groups don't seem to get, but at Southwest on reserve, you will only make min guarantee only if you never get called out. You will always exceed your guarantee and often times by a healthy margin.

For example, Reserve "guarantee" based on 15 days of availability is 90 TFP. On the low end, our reserves will credit around 105-115 TFP without picking up anything extra, and I've seen them as high as 135-140 TFP without picking up anything. To get your hourly equivalent, divide that by 1.149 to get your equivalent credit per hour.

The downside of reserve at Southwest:

- No long call. 3 hours from call to departure/2 hours to lounge.
- AM RAP starts at 0305 and you're on the hook until 1705.
- PM RAP starts at 1130 and you're on the hook until 0130.

Smooth at FL450

And to add to SWA's rules, we're not required to be contactable until our RAP starts...none of this checking your schedule on a day off. They may call and try to get you to acknowledge an early assignment, but we are under no obligation to do so until rap start.