I got the upgrade yesterday. I was a 10/24 hire on the dash

 

Wow, you guys use months instead of years to show upgrade times! Lucky b#2tards!!

 

So much has changed!

 

If I could start and finish SOE before this last perm bid was completed I think I could have held CA already. fingers crossed for the next one though. I am a December 2016 hire..

 

Are you on the 145? Because they seem to only be giving dash pilots the 145 upgrade award.

 

Yes I am on the 145. How is that legal? I thought it was a "if you can hold it with your seniority you can get it. "

 

They may bypass you for operational necessity, then you get paid as a captain while being an FO.

 

That's a feat deal imo.. Your a senior fo with qol and pay.. win win..

 

Just look at the last bid for an example.

17 open CA 145 Positions posted.

The award was

-4 to senoir Dash FO's/Dash CA's/Bypassed 145 FO's.
-5 145 Fo's were bypassed and given bypass pay the most juinoir being #366
-5 Dash Fo's were given the upgrade slots of the 5 bypassed 145 fo's the most junoir being #466
-8 positions were not awarded

The sticky part is that there were more FO's who were qualified to upgrade, finished with soe, and bid for it, but were not awarded anything. I know 3 including myself.

In addition the 5 Fo's on the dash are junior to all of the 145 Fo's who bid CA but were not awarded anything. So basically they only have to give bypass pay to 1 FO and can then move down the list as far as they want, effectively "skipping" a lot of people, which is what happened. Then the last 8 spots they dont have anyone left to upgrade except 145 FO's, which they don't want to do as they are needed on line, so they just award them to no one.

The contract allows this (as best my understanding, I'm new) , so I'm not claiming the company is pulling anything. Also if my understanding of what happened is wrong I apologize but this is how it was explained to me by the CP.

I'm in the same situation as you (lateral move chasing upgrade) and just like you assumed that because there was unfilled seats on a CA bid that I would get an award as soon as I could hold it.

It was obviously disappointing and just wanted you to be aware that this could, and with summer flying requirements probably will, happen again.

True but only the first person skipped gets the bypass pay, they can then jump any number of other people, ie all the 145 FO's, and are not required to give bypass pay. Couple this with just not awarding the last 8 positions and they have a way to effectively bypass without paying bypass. Which puts us lateral jumpers in an awkward spot of seeing spots we could have held go unfilled/junior to us, and receive no compensation in return.
Once again my understanding is that this 100% allowed in the CBA, but its quite a bummer.

 

Talk about being sold a load of crap. The amount of loopholes this contract has is mindboggling. Every day it seems someone is pointing out a new one.