Unfortunately I've flown with a few Captains here (& know of at least one FO) who have said that "they need to get their 95+ hours each month to pay their bills". IMHO, that is not only living beyond their means (especially for the Captains), but as I told them, masking the shortage problems. The moral issue of keeping guys on the street is an another issue unto itself!

 

During my forced vacation from DAL 2001-2005, we were told that any furlough over six months was worth it. Under six months, it was cheaper to just remained overstaffed.

 

I was there with you buddy. But during furlough I worked for another airline and management there had it calculated that two years was the magic number. Perhaps six months worked back when we would have made $175/hour as a 757 FO. But now that we make a lot less, the timeline is stretched out to realize the savings.

 

I don't want to throw a wet blanket on this piece of good news. Actually two pieces of good news as there was a thread about Mesa cancelling their furlough as well.
Both times that I was furloughed, I had a family member fly high time at my airline because he wanted to be able to put more money into savings after paying off both his houses. I, of course flew with captains who had to fly high time because they wanted to send their kids to a nicer high school.
I find it worthless trying to reason with these people. They are part of the reason we are in the economic times in which we find ourselves now. Greed and lack of common sense.
On the other hand, I flew with guys who purposefully flew low time because they knew there were fellow pilots out on the street.
I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go around.

 

Nice to see positive news! We were told from the company something like 18-24 months to recoup the cost of the furlough. At least those going back will be on 2nd year pay. Personally, I would prefer to wait and avoid reserve if possible, 20 days of reserve trying to commute is tough.

 

Good luck to all. We need it.

AL

 

Good news there are some recalls out there... best of luck airtran dudes.

 

Word out of the training department...

All remaining pilots on furlough will be receiving recall notices in the next day or two.

No word on class dates yet.

Congrats to all!

 

Que dicha,,, congrats to all.... well it seems the pool is next ah?

 

I've seen two CA's in the B737 at CAL that had line values of 109 hours and 102 hours respectively for FEB in the past two days. Since the majority of our lines are being built to 72 hours and their are 5 lousy low time trips in open time for the entire month of FEB, whenever something pops up they are grabbing it. Sad thing is that one of them is an ex-Express CA who is a "nice" guy and the other is a check airman "open time" grabber. The check airman sees NOTHING wrong with it either since he loves to fly so much. You sure won't see these guys working on a holiday though...........they'll tell you their time off is too important....... Don't get me wrong...I have NO problem with picking up trips from the advertisements to help someone out, but the ONLY trips pilots are advertising is for TRADES, not straight pick-ups. I'm keeping a list to show our furloughed brothers and sisters who was screwing them while they were away. Maybe they'll treat them like the dirt they are. We all have bills, but NOW is not the time to be hosing those less fortunate than us. I wonder why these guys wear union pins when the only union they're supporting is their bank account with more money.................. What goes around comes around. Congrats on the canceled furloughs Airtran guys.