MEC meeting tomorrow
 

Hey all.

Please contact your reps and let them know how you feel about the current administration. Our MEC has been lacking on many things for as long as I’ve been here. Scheduling. Pay. Contract abuse. Etc.

The old guard has Served their purpose and it’s time for new blood This is no longer a 300 pilot airline with outstation bases. We need people that are removed from that mindset to take the helm and steer us in a new direction

Call your reps. Let them know how you feel. Even if you like the current admin. They still need to know

no pbs unless we get increased flow

Screw the increased flow. How about more pay.

....do you work here?

...what....

Sure, increased flow would be great... but PBS (with appropriate language) is almost an immediate increase in QOL. Barring any concessions to take PBS, of course.

Maybe, maybe not.

getting to aa faster>QOL at a regional.

Only benefits the people with skeletons in the closet that couldn’t get hired otherwise. AA and Union all ready tried more flow. Piedmont said NO for obvious reasons. Can’t staff this place as it is.

Shouldn't be a problem staffing the place, since they are, by choice, only hiring to replace attrition now!

:rolleyes:

How about all of it.

They want PBS so that they can reduce staffing needs, get rid of what little soft pay there is, and reduce the costs associated with their grossly inefficient schedules (lots of wasted per diem and hotel rooms required to pay for these atrocious lines). I say "Let em have it!"

But in return we get

• to share the salaries and bonuses they would have spent on hiring and retaining pilots to adequately staff the airline with the current schedules
• the QoL gains we would all have gained due to hiring pushing up our relatively seniority
• the increase in flow rate that would have resulted from hiring to properly staff the current schedules

PBS can be mutually beneficial, for sure, but we can't let the company understate how much they'd get out of it. We deserve comparable gains, the above is just the start.

Preach brotha.

5 hour JR mans and $1.23 pay raise for captains in return for PBS.

True, theoretically if we aren’t growing anymore we should easily be able to flow 15-20 a month considering we recently had 25+ new hires a class. It’d be a win for everyone, pilots flow time cut in half, company can continue to advertise a quick flow, and American gets more pilots without having the hassle of interviewing.

The fact this isn’t happening tells me the rumors of more growth are plausible.

baaahahahahahahhahahahahahaha!!!!!

The January NH class was single digit size though.

Yeah because right now evidently the company is only hiring for attrition. Could probably easily ramp that back up especially with a new promise of faster flow.

Well what happened to that rumor of us getting 30 more planes in 2019?

You must be a union rep. They are the only ones that think this is actually a gain. Haha

I’d still put money on it happening at some point in 2019. Likely why you certainly won’t see increased flow.

Not really. If life and pay didn’t suck so bad, the need to move on wouldn’t be as urgent/necessary.

If you are driving a busted jalopy and the opportunities for a brand new BMW is offered if you can suffer a few more years, maybe you can endure, (but it could be disastrous on spouses who can’t endure never seeing you for those 5-7 years, or missing that much of your child’s life and not even having the pay to show it).
But if you are driving a 7 year old Accord, sure the new 5 series will be great, but the Accord isn’t all that bad (you get to see your family slightly more often, and a bit more pay).



Sound logic.
Can you quantify this? How much more efficient is PBS in pilots? 250?

Just quick math shows 250 FOs (250x$40/725=13.3) would be about $13 per hour more. But then the company isn’t saving anything. So $12/h increase.

QOL is going to increase automatically with PBS, we should get 1-4 more days off.

The flow would go up 2 per month.

If the company is growing, the CAs would get $15 and FOs $9 (some pay split). But if the company stopped growing the pay would need to increase across the board $12. The currrent FOs would all upgrade, the company would switch to CA strong and the longer serving FOs would need that pay increase as not many FOs would be getting hired.

QOL "automatically" increases with PBS??

What?????

short term gains<long term gains

id rather be at AA for 35 years than 30 for a "higher QOL" at a regional.

by the way, same as it ever was. It won't change here, you might as well try to get out quicker somehow (hired outside the flow, faster flow, whatever that may be)

Yes. Better system.

That’s just 1 view. I want to get out of here, too, but I also want my time here to be better. Hence, increases in QOL and pay are great.

If the system and rules it works under are garbage, it’s the same crap just repackaged.

Riiiight. Better for whom? Been there done that with PBS. Never think that PBS is there for YOUR benefit.

this is why we don't have nice things.

Your assertion was we "AUTOMATICALLY" get 1-4 extra days off by accepting PBS. That is woefully incorrect and entirely based up on the contractual language they negotiate to construct pairings/rigs/etc. You do know you can have PBS and still get 11 days off right?

PBS is an optimization tool. Who do you think it is optimizing the schedules in favor of? Hint: it's not you.

The system is only as good as the work rule/protections in the contract. PDTs is lacking, especially with the modified min day being 4hrs. PBS is designed to minimize crew and maximize scheduling efficiency bases on the limits of the contract so the system will strive to assign no more than 4hrs of pay opportunity per day for an average of 18.75 days per month throughout the system.

Same 4hr/day credit for the same 11 days off a month at the price of triple premium pay, Vacation conflict bidding and a smaller pilot group with PBS at Piedmont the way things currently are.

I didn’t claim the 1-4 days off.

And, please, I’ve preached the language surrounding PBS as vitally important since I’ve first been posting. I understand that.

PBS really don't help our schedules unless we open up more flying and get round Robin flying... doing mdt and abe turns or that crap clt flying is going to keep trips and credit the same.. unless american laxes the banking scheme at phl and clt, do not expect our schedules and trips to change.

Now let's talk about staffing.. look at how many pilots are available to bid today..... it's on the bidding page... look at how many FOs that are on the upgrade list in the next few months... we need about 50 FOs line qualified in the next few months to keep up with upgrade. If anyone thinks we can staff the current planes we have now just do some simple math.. for every captain we lose remember that is two seats that need to be filled. One for the vacant left seat and then one for the now vacant right seat. When we lose an FO it's worse as that is now 3 seats, as they just lost the CA seat they thought they would fill to replace the captain they just lost.

Remember the note about hiring only to cover attrition was at a time when we were voting on a TA and triple premium was trying to be taken away and the rumor it wasn't coming back. Remember our management (top) is very adept at workforce negotiations... look at us airways mid 2000s and what that group gave away.

American/ PDT has problems.. 50 seat jets are being phased out, we are operating planes that aren't economical, crews that aren't economical, and an inefficient route system .. we ron rj's at ROA, AVP, AGS, ETC., delta parks a bus, 717, MD, etc.

I guess what I am blabbing about, know your worth right now. American had invested 100s of thousands of dollars in you. If your QOL and pay is terrible right now there are lots of LCC and cargo operations killing for us. American in 10 and twenty years from now may or not be a great place... make money now and make your QOL as good as it can be now.

This again man? Wanna know how many got hired outside of the flow at AA last year across the three WO?

Before you tell me that there are other airlines, consider your audience. I am here for AA. That's why I came to a regional with a flow to AA. Are you at a major? Do you have skeletons?

Did you come to PDT thinking it would morph from the 1976 corolla with a rusted out frame to a Porsche?

I bought the rusted out beater with a contract to trade it in for something shiny down the road. You don't come to Piedmont thinking it's ever gonna get better, and if you did then you didn't do your homework. Same as it ever was.

If you wanted good now, you should have gone to Republic. You still can. I'm gonna deal with this hellhole until my number gets called

This sh!t about vacation is ridiculous. Only pilot group I know that will complain about likely getting more days off a month and more efficient trips (i.e. higher credit) but MAYBE having to lose a few days of your sweet vacay.

I attempted to do my homework, I guess it wasn't good enough, or the toll expected ended up piling up worse than expected? I knew the frame was rusted out, but wasn't expecting the windows to get stuck down and the windshield to crack/shatter... so I had to drive in below freezing weather with no windows.


I am with you there, we're "in too deep" at this point.
However, IF there was a chance for getting out slightly faster, or improving slightly while here, I would take improving slightly. Get the windshield/windows repaired and drive for 1 more year, would be preferred to getting frostbite on my face for 'only' 6 more months. You can't reverse frostbite, tissue gets damaged and is unrepairable.

I guess it is a debate on the singles vs family types. Sure if I was single, I could give up a bit of my life now to have a nice one in the future, it really only affects me. But those with other commitments have others that are affected, and that time can't come back.

What an appalling attitude. “I’ll just sit here, be miserable, complain about everything and hope I make it big one day.” God. It’s not so crazy to want to make this place better for myself and the people behind me, regardless of whether we make it somewhere else or not.

Dude.

Brilliant, I mean BRILLIANT people have tried. Before your time. Before my time. They're long gone, but if you talk to them about whats going on here? SOS.

Quote me saying I wouldn’t try to make things better and I’ll concede. But that’s not what I said. If you sign onto a deal with a bad airline with bad quality of life and bet on it getting better... not a smart move. The contract is your guarantee (well, it’s supposed to be at least lol PDT ALPA). You can’t count on it getting better.

I think Flyinguy and myself are on the same page. He’s right that it depends a lot on your personal life and the sacrifices you can make. Some can deal with a lot, more easily, simply because they don’t have kids.

Anyway, if you think I’m just sitting around here letting myself stagnate....

Kalitta is open 200k third year
Spirit same if order happens
Frontier same with new deal

Jetblue. If they call??
Hawaiian with a HNL address
Alaska? Who the hell knows
Moxy? Maybe? Merge with JetBlue


Many paths to a great career. Legacies are great but. Also downturns can cut lists by 30% quick. You’ll not know if you chose right until you walk out at 65 and light one up. (Stogie of course)😉

Anyone go to the meeting today since we have so many keyboard warriors in here? How was it Mantis, or did you have to work?