If you read the post I was replying to, the poster was complaining about: (and I quote)

"We are already in the red for Reserve coverage for the first week of July"

The first week of July is 4th of July holiday. It's not surprising people are trying to drop trips that week. JFK 320 FO only has three days for the whole month of July in the red. You can drop trips on almost every other day.

Have a nice day.

 

Same to you. Some more statistics: JFK 320 FO is the most overstaffed seat in the company. Next is BOS 320FO, which is either red or black for 13 days in July.

BOS E90 FO, typically the most junior seat in the company recently, is red or black 23 days in July, and E190 pilots are what they are screaming for right now. I stand by my statement. Cheers, and enjoy your holiday.

For general dissemination for others interested in JB, I strongly suspect the floodgates are about to open here. Our hated Director of Flight Operations Resources, a former USAir PIT ALPA rep whom is now a complete management stoolie, has fired the warning shot across the bow that management feels our current pay review process is unsustainable given all the "massive" industry changes since it was agreed to 3 whole years ago. I was particularly interested in management's stated desire to stop using other "Destination Carriers" as a metric for our compensation.

If Delta, Hawaiian , Alaska, Unical, and others truly begin hiring enmasse, there will almost certainly be a mass exodus from the bottom 50 percent here. No voters, my family and I thank you. In the meantime, how many cabins do I clean, single-engine taxis do I advocate Captains perform, or stand-up PAs do I do? "None whatsoever".

 

The floodgates may open here because people will be leaving in droves. Why?

Over eight years ago the mantra from management was:

"Southwest pay and benefits -2%"

Then,

"Industry average"

Then,

"Fair and sustainable"

Then,

"Holistic review of our pay & benefits"

Then,

"We need to re-think who is in our peer set"

Then,

"Delta is a mega-carrier" (we're tossing them out of the peer set)

While our pay has gone up (hourly pay rate) this is what we've lost:

1. Premium trigger moved from 70 to 78 hours
2. Worse coverage and higher premiums for our health insurance (about to go way up for 2013)
3. Productive pairings (now less productive...many 11.5 hour 3-days) Used to be easy to get a 4-day 24.5 hour trip....now that's considered super productive! Bottom line holders are stuck in the 4 on, 3 off schedule for the foreseeable future just to get 81 hours. Hopefully they have commutable trips (tic).


I'll add more later...

GP

 

AE, you are obviously a good man and make some valid points but I think these guys swimming in our pool will be happy to hear this news! In fact, I have two friends from Comair in the pool now who can't wait to escape that sinking ship and fly for JB. Sometimes we just need to put things in perspective to realize that we don't have it so bad. As much as I agree with some of your frustrations, I will continue to take the high road and clean cabins, do stand-up PAs and not start #2 until necessary, but hey, I won't hate on those who don't want to play along. Have a good weekend.

War Eagle!

 

[QUOTE=aewanabe;1221572]Same to you. Some more statistics: JFK 320 FO is the most overstaffed seat in the company. Next is BOS 320FO, which is either red or black for 13 days in July.

BOS E90 FO, typically the most junior seat in the company recently, is red or black 23 days in July, and E190 pilots are what they are screaming for right now. I stand by my statement.


Can you explain what red and black mean for those of us on the outside please?

 

[QUOTE=MaxFwdSpeed;1221736]Green means there is more reserves than minimally required for dropping/trading trips. Black means there are just enough for crew scheduling comfort. Red means below minimum required coverage. Pretty simple.

What I would like to know is why they overhired so many on the A320 and kept staffing so tight on the E90. Seems like they got some part of their planning wrong... I know most of the remaining planes coming in 12 are A320s, so maybe they just hired them too early....

BOS E90 FO we are pretty tight staffing wise. Not emergency under normal days, but with the weather and ATC problems last week, we were in an E90 staffing emergency.

 

I also believe that providing less than great customer service hurts yourself and your coworkers as much or more than it hurts JB. Grow up. Fight to win the battle with rational debate and the facts. Treating our customer with halfa$$ legacy airline service just means less customer loyalty, less revenue, less growth, less hiring and less upgrades.

Management will still get their millions either way.

 

+1

Couldn't agree more. Who do you think gets hurt the most when we provide "standard" or less customer service, and give people one less reason to choose us? Certainly not the ones holding the golden parachutes when the company tanks...

 

I used to share your perspective, but frankly the Skinner's email is the last straw for me. I have officially "grown up" as a JetBlue pilot. When I came to the bus after 3 years on the 190, I was the guy constantly asking Captains if I could shut down 2, taxi out on 1, etc. I was the guy where the back-end crew constantly said "thanks for your help, we don't see many 320 guys back here". No more. JetBlue has effectively kept us at or below average total compensation when compared to our Bankrupt peers, and now they want to reneg on the one part of the process that's worked somewhat for us? In the same breath that they are begging us to cover the holes in the operation?

No more from this guy. If the captain says start 2, then I'm able to more safely monitor the taxi. I can effectively say Hi from the cockpit, and I do. And blue gloves are for janitors, not professional pilots. At this point I just don't care if you disagree.

 

Now that SJU has been named the newest focus city what's the latest on it becoming a pilot base?