Paok,
 

Has anything gotten better for you?
How does your October look? I have heard of some folks not turning in their paper work yet for their 100hrs because they're afraid the company won't fly them as much.

But if you don't hit your 100hrs in time look at the bright side. A nice hotel and 24/7 per diem. JK

My October schedule looks horrid.

Does any one know how many FO's are coming to JFK from Orlando? We lost 10 FO's for October and I only moved up 3 places.

Just Curious,

The Chow

I believe it's 11 from MCO.

Rumor I heard in the crew room
 

The story goes like this:

A pilot was getting married and had requested 3 days off. He only received 2 days off. So the pilot then went to the Chief Pilot's office and begged for the extra day off.

He was denied and when his wedding came and went he called in sick for the day he didn't get.

Afterwards, his employment with Comair was terminated.

Has anyone else heard or can confirm this???

The Chow

Darn....Looks like I'm going to go backwards in November.

Maybe some one knows the answer to this question: How long is the L1 window open? I know you have 9hrs from the time they call, but what is the window for the time period in which they can call.

The Chow

Not sure about L1, but it'd be in the front of the bid packet. As far as your story goes, it's true as published by a company email from ALPA.

When i was on reserve i always bid the L1 window. if i remember correctly the window was from 5am till 3pm but im not totally positive. Just be prepared to get 6 ready reserves a month on that window. But the nice thing is you dont have to sit in NY on your window.

L1 is from 500 till 1500

Im moving back too..... As for october, I got A7 and dont have ONE trip scheduled, and people behind me have like scheduled 4 days...... I called planning and begged, they said it had to do with my days off.....I need 30 hours in about 30 days! we will see. I have a flown a little now..... a few out and backs... I called them on flying us out of senority and they gave me a day off, but did it again 3 days later to my friend.........

Since I'm not at Comair, I can neither confirm nor disclaim this story. I can, however, offer my unasked-for perspective:
If they're willing to fire somebody over something like that, screw 'em. In my life, my family and myself come first - not my employer.

What the ALPA email didnt say is that this guys had already called in numerous times this year and had been abusing sick calls. Interesting how ALPA forgot to mention that.

Yeah but you have to be careful about saying someone is "abusing" sick calls. How would we know? And even if that were so, I still don't understand not giving him his time off. There are plenty of us sitting reserve that will gladly pick up all or part of his trip.

The Chow

The whole idea here is that when you are sick....get a doctors note if it is more than 3 days. Also I heard from someone in the know that he called in sick something like 55 times in year. If he was truly sick he should of got FMLA. Also, he told a chief pilot what he did. If you were to ask for a day off, not get it and then call in sick, no one will know. Until you go and tell a chief pilot.

Can't argue with that
 

I still hate to see someone lose their job when all they wanted was an extra day around their wedding.:(

The Chow

I also hate to see someone lose their job. But I have no sympathy. Yes, lots of hearsay approaching: I too have heard from several people that this person called in sick numerous times. Not due to illness, but due to "schedule enhancements/adjustments". I also heard that he put in for the personal leave, but did not follow up on it. I also heard that this wasn't his wedding. It was a friend's wedding that he just wanted to go to. I understand that this is an important day for his friend, but ya know, some people consider a job as a responsibility. We have a responsibility to go to work, whether we like it or not. Just watch this X-Mas. Every year, Comair pilots successfully ruin X-Mas for hundreds of people because they <cough><cough> call in sick, and force numerous cancellations. I have seen it first hand, and it makes me sick. Please, this is not boasting or showing off, but I can proudly say that I have worked for the company for over 4 years, and have not called in sick once. I've been to many weddings, vacations, etc. Even had major oral surgery. But believe it or not, I went through the proper channels and planned ahead without burning any bridges in the process.

The problem here is that they are short staffed on captains and flight attendants and extremely overstaffed on first officers. This guy is a captain...so it wouldn't help us first officers sitting on reserve.

He already has his job back, the union got it back for him.

Great. Our fearless union helped the wrong person again. Unions are helpful in helping those who are wrongly punished or terminated, but they should have some sort of requirements for doing so instead of helping every person that comes crying to them when they did something wrong.:mad:

And this is based on what you've read on this forum? Just one more great example of people making judgements based on what they've heard which is all just hearsay evidence anyways. Not that I'm sticking up for the guy, but so far everything about this situation that has been said in this forum was found out through the grapevine. I don't think anyone on here can say for sure what happened and what were the circumstances except for the fact that he called in sick on his wedding day. Can you give me any other examples of when our union "helped the wrong person"?

Haha, no no. You've got me all wrong. I don't use these forums as gossip or gospel. Yes, it is hearsay. But when you hear the same thing from many sides (outside of these forums), it starts to have a little weight to it.

Also, on the additional examples request, unfortunately I do not have many specific examples to provide off hand, as I always just push them aside without thought. I can tell you I know of someone that was terminated after flying numerous times without their flight case (Jepps, FSM, etc) and the union worked its magic. If someone is going to intentionally break the rules, especially rules like this that are awefully easy to follow, then they don't deserve the responsibility of 50+ passengers lives in their hands.

Me to Planning- "I need my 100 hours and I am really worried for October, because I have a long way to go and am in a window with not muc flying"

Planning- "Well sorry, but your just going to have to put in to fly your days off if you want to get your 100 hours"

Have you spoken with the training department? You might get better luck there - at both my carriers I was told they'd pull an F.O. off a trip if I really needed to fly. And if Trans States would do that for their Pilots...LoL

100 hrs.
 

Paok,

I'm sorry to hear about that response. Do you think a planning supervisor maybe able to help? Perhaps you can pick up some extra flying out of CVG or something. Just a thought.....Otherwise its time to go over memory items and limitations again.:confused:

Something is wrong when scheduling tells you that you HAVE to fly on your days off if you "want" your 100 hours. It's their responsibility to get you to your 100 hours, and in most cases, they should want to so they could pair you with whoever.

Attrition
 

Does anyone know if we are still losing pilots as quickly as before? It seems that we have about 8-9 FO's from GSO come to JFK for October and another 12 will come in from MCO. Now I also notice that training said they were going to run 3 new hire classes per month. But is the shortage of pilots really that bad???

Just Curious.

Right now we are under-staffed with Captains and overstaffed with FO's. Seems to be only one solution to me...

Upgrade People!!!! More Of Them! Jesus!

From what i've heard from the Director of training, the attrition is still fairly high..with 24 confirmed new hires a month in oct, nov..and possibly more in december...hiring should continue at that pace through june.

That's just what's being told to our class..so who knows where that's gonna lead.

He also said that comair's loosing 10 airframes due to time limitations in the next 18 months..are they doing anything to replace these 50's..or are they just gonnd use the 14 or so 900's they got and restructure their routes a bit?

I did hear the routes for the 900 to JFK, Denver etcetc from CVG.

Check this out
 

Thought you all might find this interesting:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnat...7/daily12.html

Pasted from link:

The two airlines that do the most business at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport have boosted their profit margins considerably over the last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation said.

The department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics on Monday released second-quarter financial numbers for 21 U.S. carriers. The average profit margin for all airlines was 8 percent, the highest since 2000, the bureau said in a news release.

Delta Air Lines and its subsidiary Comair followed the trend: Delta posted operating profit of $470 million for the quarter and its profit margin was 9.3 percent, compared to 8 percent in second-quarter 2006. Comair's operating income was $20 million and its profit margin jumped to 7 percent, compared to 2.1 percent in the year-ago quarter.

The airlines in total have had five consecutive profitable quarters, the bureau said in the release.

Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) operates a hub at the local airport, where Comair bases its operations.



Five consecutive profitable quarters? The same time frame they used to convince the courts to throw out our contract and impose pay cuts because we weren't making any money??

makes you sick doesn't it

Let's keep in mind that we're not the accountants here. From what I've heard, the finances between Comair/Delta are a bit grey as it is all muddled together. Before the bankruptcy, it was commonly known that Comair was the most profitable part of delta, but alas we were still part of delta. Delta goes bankrupt, so does comair. Every employee in Comair took a pay cut, not just us pilots. The non-union employees were the first to get hit, a fact that many people have forgotten. They remain at their lower wage. When Delta went into bankruptcy, it needed to lower costs and increase revenue. Pay cuts, company wide, helped that cause. The fact that they profitable shows that the restructuring worked.

Don Bornhorst is that you??

No, just someone who has seen both sides of the coin

Pay cuts, company wide... except upper management. BONUSES FOR EVERYONE!

Restructuring has indeed worked. I just hope the new CEO doesn't ruin the good thing thats going...

I dont understand, on this website it says the most Junior Capt is 01 hire??????? Are upgrades really taking that long?, also not to sound like a jackass but I have flown over 90 hrs every month, why arent you guys flying over there?

Saab, i have no clue. I'm a lineholder and I fly between 75-90 hours a month depending on what I drop/add etc. I have no idea why the reserves aren't being used. They told us 60 upgrades soon (cant remember if the end of this year or beginning of the next) and multiple "smaller yet more frequent" upgrades following that. Who knows.

I hear ya, but have there been any upgraded the past few years?

There's been some. 2 years ago they upgraded a class or two, then immediately downgraded them. They upgraded a few months later. Just recently there was a large upgrade class that got canceled halfway through the class.

where does it say its my job to get you your 100 hours?? My job is to assign you to a pairing. I dont have a clue how many hours you have or dont have. I would love to give you guys all the flt assignments but i can only give what i have to give, i would love nothing more then to stop having you call and ask when am i going to fly. Ive allowed lineholders to drop days off pairing just so i can get an New F.O. time in the jet. We have been doing alot of drops to try an get your time in. I dont have the authority to DS a lineholder just to get your time in. You need to talk to flight standards if your close to the 120 day mark. Sept is a slow month always been that way since ive been here.

Safe Flying

Thats great! hahaha!:)

That is incorrect information. In the latest vacancy bid I saw a capt upgrade with a 20xxx employee number, which puts him in a hire date of late 2002-early/mid 2003

ftrpilot I am one who wants to be used I have my 100 hrs but I like many others hate sitting at the crash pad in the middle of assignments. Looking at Reserve status why on a day like today will they not release some of us we are not going to be used and we could sneak home for a few hours. would it be worth bidding to fly until I can hold LC?
Just a question if you have the time
PS I thought you were headed to the ramp tower(that was you right)?