No. For, say, 3 days of CQ/recurrent its 9:45 of pay/no credit. You can elect to put a preference in your bid of minimum, max time for the month if you wish. As an example, say the average line value is 72 hours. The min and max windows are 64:30 and 79:30 respectively. If you elect minimum time for the month in your PBS bid, and have recurrent of 3 days, PBS will ideally give you trips totaling 54:45. That will be your pay AND credit. You will also receive 9:45 pay/NO credit. The beauty of it is that you can pick up to get more time, or don't pick up. The concept is the same with vacation except vacation is worth 3 hrs per day, also pay no credit except for line construction purposes.

Clear as mud?

Ferd,

What he said! No you do not have to pick up more time. Once your schedule is released by the 18th of the month prior, that's it unless you want to change it somehow your self.

Dont know if any one wants to know but here is a basic schedule of the monthly bid process.

1. Trips for the month posted by the 5th and bidding window opens at 8am eastern on the 5th. (Trips are usually posted a couple of days prior)

2. Bidding closes on the 12th at 8am eastern.

3. Bids published not later than on 17th by 1800 eastern.

4. You can start changing your schedule 1800 eastern on the 18th.

This is the schedule for bidding for Feb. and is pretty normal.

Denny

Has anyone heard about a proposed change to the way Delta does FMS changes while on autopilot? Currently the pilot flying inputs FMS changes while on autopilot while the pilot monitoring verifies the info. I've seen the pilot monitoring required to enter FMS changes while on autopilot at a previous company and it's extremely cumbersome, annoying, confusing, etc. Now seeing as the 767 fleet capt will be a FNW guy (WTH?) it wouldn't surprise me but it makes absolutley no sense if true.

Denny/Blane,

Thanks, that's no different so great.

The bid dates look the same too. Is back by the 17th the contract or are they normally back sooner? Ours are "normally" back by the 14th, except holiday months:D

Thanks again,
Ferd

Actually you'll like Tom (C) alot, great guy who can probably actually build the jet with a swiss army knife and a small sodering iron, been flying it forever. Flown with him several times, always a pleasure. Not your usual management stuffed shirt.

Your right, the PM makes the box changes and the PF varifies. I've been looking at your online manuals some now that we can get into Deltanet. Another I've noted is that the capt always loads the box as part of his flow. The fo does the acars and checks the route etc. There is more I'm sure but I haven't gotten that far:D.

With that said, what I was told in annual training this year (Aug) that we will mostly adopt and go with most of your's. Better to confuse a smaller number than a bigger one.

Oh, and it may sound confusing but it's what your used to. I don't know no different so it sounds good to me.

Ferd <------10 year 757 guy

Good to hear he's a good guy. I was surprised though since you don't have any 767s. We've had a very professional and ultra big picture, we fly the jet, don't build it, 767 training dept., IMO, so far. I'd hate to see that change.

You guys have the Capt load the box on every leg? Here, as you've noticed, the PF loads the box and the PM checks it. It's a nice set up because basically the guys switch jobs (I didn't say responsibility) on every leg. Most times here the Capt will do the walk around on the FOs leg as well. At least where I work. FOs do all engine starts, run checklists, PAs etc on the ground. Operations Manual Vol.1 NP 10.4-10.9 breaks out crew duties. Guess there'll be plenty of change for all in this. Guess I should be happy I don't have to figure out a new uniform. Any word on leather jackets/no hats?

In keeping with "best practices" from both companies, I would like to see us get the leather jackets. I almost had to go to MSP this week. My body is used to southern winters now, so JFK and BOS are as cold as it gets for me. However, since we will be seeing a lot more of the north now, that leather coat sounds a lot better to me than the raincoat we have.

Heyas D4E,

Yea, the jackets are one of those really stupid hot button issues for some people.

Even at NWA, we had guys claim conspiracy when they first offered up the jackets ("the company is cheaping the uniform so they can screw us for more concessions!"). More complaned about the price, and the vendor and so on and so on.

I've been standing next to guys "typing angry" (you know, that forceful, one key typing where you can see their knuckles turn white with every keystroke) in emails to the chief pilots about the optional hat policy, and how they're "cheapening the uniform".

Every airline has these guys.

Personally, I could care less about the jacket itself. It could be a parka with a plaid moose hat with earflaps for all I care. What I want is something warm and convienent when on the road 4-5 days at a shot.

The leather jacket replaces THREE coats I used to have to carry with me: the blazer, the overcoat and the coat I'd have to pack so I wouldn't look like a flasher on the overnight. The overcoat wasn't even that warm, and it looked like hell after 2 days of being smushed in the tiny sliver of space on the DC-9 with the other guy's 2 coats.

Ours don't have name tags, are black, and they look very nice. I got mine from the approved vendor (made in the US). It was about $380 (with the optional zip-out thinsulate liner), and they followed up with a call the day after it was delivered (they must have had the delivery logs tagged to notify them) and the cost was the same as a typical coat of the same quality.

The coat had very nice embroidery of the NWA logo on the inside as well as your name. It fit perfect, and it's 10x warmer than the overcoat ever was, and is MADE for the northern tier. I can clean it with a damp cloth in my room instead of taking it to the dry cleaners.

I will be very sad to see it go.

Nu

FedEx just got Parkas with Hoodies.

Anyone question their professionalism because they are smart enough to dress appropriately for the conditions?

What kind of walk around inspections does any airline expect to get when they send FO's out in -18. but dressed for 50 degree weather?

Heyas guys,

Thanks for the info on the training. How are you guys notified for CQ? Does it show up in the computer? I know you can designate "must have off days"...how is that done?

Also, if you are based in ATL, do you still get a PS pass to training (assuming training is in ATL)? Or are you on your own for that? At NWA, we self-list positive space to training with no real interaction from training scheduling. The only thing you need to do is call and verify your hotel location (we have in MSP). Whats the DAL procedure?

Question about deadheading: At NWA, we get our locator numbers in ACCESS (our version of DBMS). We can use those to check in online or at a kiosk to get our boarding passes (or change seats if we want). There's always the gate, but it's a lot better to avoid the line. Since we're all going to probably be doing a lot of deadheading, I figured this would be good to know.

If you don't want to post it here, that's cool..but send me a PM if you can help...

Nu