Which is fine. The goal here is to make the company burn up the reserves. If the reserves are being used to cover our assigned flying, which will be necessary if pilots don't pick up open time, then the company will not have a buffer to cover; sick calls, maintenance, or weather issues, as long as pilots don't answer the phone on their days off. Which results in flight cancellations.

I guess that's the big question. Are there enough reserves to cover all the open time that will be left? Don't we currently have reserves that don't fly?

Maybe we not only drop down but focus on a certain part of the month as well? If there's 11 reserves available say the first week of the month but 15-20 open pairings, there will be cancellations. For the month of Feb, TYS varied from 4-14 available reserves. If open time is all spread out during the month, it might all get covered.

Yes there are currently reserves that don't fly, but I don't think there are that many. (I don't have the numbers) So there may be enough reserves to cover the open time, but that doesn't leave enough reserves to provide the purpose that reserves are for, covering sick calls, maintenance, and weather issues.

Especially in the coming months, the company has already shown a loss in total number of pilots, there are still 2 months of disruptive weather (starting again tonight) and flying will start picking up again with the spring holidays and carry through until summer.

The company is already on the brink of a manning crisis, they just need a little push.

As much as I'd like it to be true, in all the years I've been at PSA (when there were 400 pilots to now over 1400), the pilot group hasn't held strong on the not picking up open time and the not answering the phone on days off.

I have a feeling April is going to be the breaking point. I'm guessing the rumors on the AW thread of us sending 200s there way is probably true. It's the only way the company can avoid parking aircraft as we haven't grown in numbers yet we need 10.5 additional pilots per aircraft to be "properly staffed." Even if recruitment turned around this month, we are 13 weeks away from seeing the results on the line.

I hear ya but we are at 1189 on the seniority list. How many of those aren't line pilots or go on mil leave? We have staffing for 113 aircraft using ALL the pilots. We have 97? on property with CRJ deliveries not stopping. The company is in serious trouble even without 100% participation.

Exactly, we don't need 100% participation. I've already said I don't expect FO's participate.

What we need is for the pilots that regularly pick up open time for 125% to stop doing work for 125% that they should be getting 175% to do. Until that happens the company has zero incentive to pay you 175%

Send me a list of names of any pilot you know to be picking up open time. Thank you.

Sshhhhh. Adults are talking.

Slider, you stink.

I love it how you guys agreed to a crap contract and now complain about people picking up open time. We told you that the rates were crap and capped 4 year pay was bad. Did you listen ?

You made this bed.. You need to lay in it.

We did everything perfectly, what the heck are you talking about? This is about making the company abide by the contract, all we are talking about here is a few stragglers that need to be strong armed.

Another slow one. I'll write it in crayon for you.

They are violating the contract. If they actually followed it, we'd be making a lot more than everyone else. Try to keep up. Our critical pay supposedly cost the company $19 million. You do the math and spread that across 1200 pilots.

Has this really been a problem? I quit looking at open time last fall because there's literally nothing in there that worth picking up!

How hard up do you have to be to pick up a 4-day trip, (on your days off) that pays 8:16 (an avg. of 2:04 per day)? Yes, that's an actual trip in CLT open time right now. Or perhaps you need the extra pay from those 2-day trips, some of which pay less than 3 hours,...... TOTAL.

Imagine how much more would be in open time if people didn't build their lines up to 80+ hours during SAP and seniority trading but instead dropped to 65 hours.

There never was 175%. Critical is 150.

Exactly, thats by design. The company builds these trips intentionally so that with the carve outs it is still worth less than min day. They don't want pilots to pick up open time, it is actually cheaper for them to use a reserve, and if they have to junior man a trip it still only cost 30min more that it would have for a line holder.

Thats why we need the pilots that are able to SAP down to 75. There needs to be more open time than there are reserves in order to make critical pay cheaper than the slight possibility of junior manning.

My mistake, Thank you.

Open time ( SAP) is left over crap that was put together and was never part of any line. Join the Sch committee and see how it's done.

Ok, so if thats the case ( I don't have the facts either way) then the idea is still valid. Leave them with more left over crap than they can staff, and they will have to change something.

Turn them phones off fellas. Days off are sacred.

+1. I love seeing you little b****** whine

You're not even a pilot so I don't know what you are even doing here.

But what about the "best scheduling flexibility in the industry?"

PSA's contract actually has some parts that are heads and shoulders above the rest of the industry. There are bad parts as well.

The catch is, AAG will have to fix the pay scale and the 12/4 in the next year or so, or shut PSA down. Everyone knew that when it was voted in. The bad parts of the contract will be gone. How is that a loss for pilots?

Critical pay made PSA the highest paying regional in the industry, and the SAP made the schedules very flexible. The company stole critical pay away.

Why in Gods holy trousers will they shut PSA down? That makes less than 0 sense.

They won't. They will need to raise pay. That was my point.

PSA will be forced to raise pay, or they will not be able to attract any new hires.

It's too late. We already aren't attracting new hires. The stuff has only begun to hit the fan. Even if we get a flood of new hires, they are months away from the line barring no delays. We have been shrinking while taking on more aircraft. According to all the surveys everyone came here for the fast upgrade. No one came for the bases, flow or FO pay. At 4 a month, the upgrade flood is over. Righting the ship today will still mean no noticeable results for months. PSA was gambling on buying someone or someone going bankrupt. They gambled and lost. Time to pay.

Sure but seniority based and FCFS are what's left over after people SAP stuff away. It doesn't change the fact that we could flood open time with more flying than we have reserves to cover. We are out of schlitz. Time to press back a little.

Reading comprehension is a gift. We aren't even talking about schedule flexibility. We still have it. Run along, run along.

I disagree. If they change it in the next few months there will be no problem. Reason for saying this is because just look at the march lines. We are still slightly overstaffed, and they could easily build much more efficient lines. If they do this they will have no issue going another few months on the pilots currently on property. I do agree, however, that if they don't do anything soon, then there will be a big issue. PSA, Envoy, and PDT management are puppets though. AAG sees the numbers concerning everything. They know the issues. They came down on payroll and scheduling back when delays from crew swaps and pay discrepancies were incredibly high. They know the hiring issues happening at the WOs. Ultimately it's up to them to pony up and fix the issue.

I agree they are puppets and this is all up to AAG to fix.

My crystal ball assumptions are based off the claim of 10.5 pilots per aircraft. That gives us 15% buffer. I gladly welcome more efficient schedules and it seems like March is a hint. TYS actually had decent time lines with more than 11 days off. I'm certainly no expert. The bandaid of efficient schedules might be enough only if it occurs with something to actually attract pilots.

There were five pilots in yesterday's new hire class. Only 3 remain in the previous class.

That's because the new cute girl is CommutAir and PDT. As soon as they get half of their deliveries, they be saying the same thing.

What is the reason that the two left from the last class?

Meanwhile Mesa and RAH are getting 20+ a Class.

If only PSA would listed up when everybody told them to hold the line. Oh well...

Pay raises? You think that Parker will give PSA pay raises after accepting that crap at the first time? We are all in the same boat (PSA/PDT/ENY) and is not because of PDT or ENY.

I still can't wrap my head around why Mesa would have anyone in class at all?

It has to be bases. The people wanting to go to regionals right now must be living in Mesa bases. I as well could see no other reason to go there. They are by far the lowest paid large rj operator in the system.

More efficient lines is just the first step, a step which means they have actually finally noticed there is a problem. The next step will be a reduction in 200 flying as 900s come on board. I agree with a few changes they can continue to limp along as they have been for another several months.
Thats why this is the time we need to start putting the pressure on them

SAP 75, no open time, no junior man.

AAG may be aware of the issues, but they won't do a thing until it starts affecting their operation.

Of course bases. Mesa has all hub bases. Why would you come to PSA for a measly $2 more per hour? That doesn't even cover the cost of a crash pad, much less the additional stress of a 2 leg commute to DAY.

The fast upgrade doesn't really apply unless you have previous 121 time. It doesn't matter if the airline is upgrading in 6 months or 2 years unless you have your 1000hrs. Also I think we all know that, baring a big slow down, all the regionals will have less than a 2 year upgrade in the next 2 years.
And after upgrade you're right back to a 2 leg commute and a crash pad in DAY.