...... Processing.......

 

Hmmm...... a week ago you posted this:

And 5 days ago you posted this on the VA L&G Thread:
So which is it, CJO from Hulas or "You don't work for us..." at VA?

 

I guess that I shouldn't be surprised that the SAP is completely broken and the union doesn't give a crap about it, when there are MEC members working as recruiters for the company.

 

That's incorrect.

 

The SAP is not broken. Trade approvals average 4.5 hours because 800+ pilots are submitting 30+ requests each in a 24 hour time period done through a low tech, outdated software product. We need several smaller improvements to the SAP that can collectively reduce approval times. Removing the rest buffer was one small improvement the company did. I can think of several others that would reduce times. Removing the medical and grace month dequal training issues would help too. If there was really a good reason why the company shouldn't let someone SAP, they could just lock all their trips as they do with training events. Letting captains SAP during the current time frame, and FOs 24 hours later would reduce wait times. We should channel our energy towards pushing for realistic improvements, not useless complaining. Your dreaming if you think we could ever get trades to approve instantly or dump flica for another product. It is possible to get average approval times down to one to two hours average though.

 

So, 1-2 hour processing times are acceptable to you? The company needs to pay for a new system. Sabre couldn't care less as they have rebutted the union and company several times. "They are busy with a new product"......Really? So everyone that uses your old product is now on their own? Another time the union offered a programmer to help with the code. Sabre denied them because they didn't want their secrets getting out. More likely they didn't want the world to know that their programming language was probably written by an intern. Sabre is a huge part of this problem.

Of course it is in mgmt's best interest that the SAP be as difficult as possible to use. They aren't going to do anything unless they are forced by a court/arbitration decision. Even then they'd probably string it along for a couple years "figuring it out".

#Processing

 

A completely different software program could result in instant trade approvals. We will never see instant trade approvals during the entire SAP with flica. I want instant trades approvals, not 1-2 hour approvals. 1-2 hour approvals are better than 5+ though. Dumping flica for something better is a pipe dream so why not work to improve what we're currently stuck with? Everyone wants to point out the problem, rather than offer a realistic solution.

 

Some have been suggesting realistic solutions for 1 1/2 years now. Separate servers for each domicile. Split CA and FO sap days. These have been suggested beginning in January 2015 when some of us started questioning the scalability of SAP with consideration for the size of airline PSA was aspiring to.

We were told "we'll grieve it", in early 2015. Where did that go? Why isn't there any real communication from ALPA about where we are with making progress on recurring contractual violations?

When this was a 700-pilot airline, it was common to have approvals within 10-20 seconds, and even during the peak few minutes of opening, approvals were consistently made within 5-10 minutes. The airline has increased in size by 60% since then, but the SAP processing times have increased by a factor of 20+.

 

That was when scheduling was manually approving trades during the SAP. Scheduling looked at every trade and trades that are being denied now due to medical and training were manually approved back then.

Almost two years ago, the union sided with the company saying "it was not reasonable," for someone in scheduling to sit in the OCC for 24 hours looking at trades requests and the SAP needs to be run without human intervention. The SAP went down hill right afterwards. Now we have the server crashing every month and scheduling manually approving trades, something the union and company agreed would not happen.

 

Don't worry. We will be a 700 pilot company again fairly soon.

And if processing times are over 30 minutes, it is broken. That is not "real time". SAP is borderline useless. I can not believe that the union is not jumping up and down and screaming about it. I guess that just goes to show you that our MEC has caved in and is just doing whatever the company wants now.

Why are we wasting time and money on this new "negotiating committee"? I have seen that they have been receiving compensation for missed flights for this negotiating training. That is our money that is wasted on the ridiculous idea that the company is going to increase the flow.