Working the System
 

I have been reading about some guys pulling 50-60k on 2nd year FO pay and was curious how? So I got the idea, how bout we share with each other on schemes, err techniques to squeeze more pay out of everyones ridiculously low pay. I mean thats what these forums are about helping each other out right. So if you know some magic please share. Saying who you work for would be helpful since contracts are different but some work across the board.

Thanks in advance guys.

Like you said, it depends where you work and how stupid your crew schedulers are, but here is a little something that has worked for a very senior FO (10 years):

Guy bids #1, so he bids a bunch of 2 day trips. He picks up a trip from Open Time (1.5 pay) that will go into his scheduled trip, so scheduling ends up displacing him off his original trip, because they are excited they have a trip covered, but don't think ahead (Pay protected, so he gets displacement pay for his scheduled trip he didn't fly). He does that for the entire month, and usually ends up crediting between 100-140 hrs., but usually 30-50 hrs. are at 1.5 pay. He makes a nice junk of change:D

My wonderful airline pays a whopping 50 dollar bonus for meeting A14 expectations. I find it much easier to push 7 early, and set brake 13 late from scheduled to pick up 20 minutes on each flight. Multiply that times at least four legs a day and I always end up with at least one extra hour of pay over schedule per day. Works out much better then their 50 dollar quarterly bonus program.

Lately, I have given up the 7 minutes on the front end, when I discovered our managers are getting bonus's for "on time" departures. Now, the brake gets dropped one minute late on every leg while we discuss a potential MX issue or other relevant safety related topic...

I'm not providing a bonus for the managers at our expense.

I wish we could do that. We can't pick up OT if it will conflict, or cause an illegality. If we could pick up stuff, and keep getting stuff removed do to conflicts we'd all be rich? Which airline does it this way?

Hard to make that kind of coin at any regional without doing a lot of extra flying.

Living in domicile allows one to pick up a LOT of extra flying, play more games with the schedule, "help" the company out and make premium pay, etc.

Yeah, assuming there is Open Time. Not so much lately...:rolleyes:

Great Thread! Just trying to figure out why we dont discuss this more often!!

One of my favorite from an ex senior F/O, now junior CA:

F/O is ready to upgrade to CA (or change equipment). He knows roughly when he could be awarded training so he puts a week of vacation in the middle of the potential training block. Bids a very low time line. Gets awarded training and the training department calls him and says "There is a conflict with your training and vacation, would you like to move the training date or move your vacation?" He says "I'll call you back tomorrow and let you know." In the mean time, he picks up maximum amount of OT for the upcoming month, then calls the training department and says "Ill move the vacation and start training ASAP." So he goes to training a week or so later and is pay protected for all of that OT, plus his line for that month, yet barely flew any of it! ;)

I Suggest Only Picking Up Advertised Flying If Your Airline Is Furloughing Guys........... :)

Management nickel-and-dimes us, we nickel-and-dime them. Funny when you think about it. Two wrongs. :cool:

I had a CA once set the brake 1 minute late on the last leg of our night. He did this so we would get reduce rest. One minute late results in reduced rest. Scheduling calls and gives us a new report time..... 1 minute later.

understanding how to use vacation is essential too. if you are ever on vacation on a day off, then you either 1) screwed up 2) have a bad vacation section in your contract 3) had to because of uncontrollable circumstances or 4) simply dont understand how to maximize vacation time.

i got a feeling that number 4 is often the case.

for AE... to keep it simple...

Currently, we are allowed to borrow up to 6 individual days of vacation from next year's vacation blocks. We call them PVDs. (Paid Vacation Days) If you have 2 blocks of vacation (each a 7 day block), you want to borrow 6 PVDs so that you are left with 2 blocks of vacation that are 4 day blocks. We usually work 4 on 3 off, so if you ever have a 5+ day block of vacation, chances are, you will be on VC on an off day. (WASTE!)

The next art is maximizing the PVD.
The best way to do this is to put the PVD on a work day that has an overnight, and doesnt come back to base the next day. That way, both days are knocked out (and pay protected!) using only 1 PVD!

Get creative guys! Management does, so we need to also.

Well put. Unfortunately every airline has enough "time wh*res" that it doesn't help a brotha out.

any other good ideas?

My company's current contract does not allow for much "soft money" so you have to be an "air wh*re" to get the credit up there. In the peak months the company will offer 150% pay for picking up open time, I have heard of folks calling sched at the end of a trip asking if they are trying to cover any flying (that would be a 150% extension) and some DO answer the phone when scheduling calls on off days for Junior assignments (125% and a comp day the next month). Some folks do an extra couple days a month and in the subsequent months sell the comp days back (at 3.75 hours of credit). Personally I try to fly 85-95 hours a month (which is normally where the schedules are built to) and don't work any more than what I am scheduled. The extra couple days off and time to spend with friends, family, my wife, and my dog mean more than the extra money. But that's just me.

Now the training dept guys can get some really high credit (125-150hrs a month) from what I have been told by some of the guys. They will do 2 sim sessions a few days a week, then a couple line checks, some OE and get tons of credit. Only part that sucks is the lack of true "off days".

great thread!:cool:

If you are picking up extra OT and you have folks on a furlough list then you are pathetic. No OT until EVERYONE is back off the chopping block. Period.

I sat reserve on my days off because I lived in domicile. They paid me 3:45 per day and if they called me I was paid time and a half ($36/hr x 1.5 = $54/hr + 5% override for CR9's) for the credit/Block or better. Since they didn't have any reserves in ATL, crew support considered me emergency reserve (seeing that I was the only one they could call and get to the APT with in 2 hours) and would rather TDY a guy in form SLC or ORD if they had time in order to protect they ace in the hole. Over 7 months I sat reserve 38 times and was only called once. That's 38 x 3:45 = 142.5 hours x $36/hr = $5130 extra. That's money I made on my weekdays off without ever having to work. My second year at SKW, which included 3 months at first year pay; I almost topped $53K and I average 16 days off, I was home every day with every weekend off and every holiday off.

Right place………..right time……………….right situation………..right system.

I'm on reserve so this is the only thing I can do. I call CS on my day off and see if they have anything in open time that they can assign me, if they put something on my schedule I usually only get paid 100% for it since I request it. 3-4 days later, i'll end up talking to a different CS and I tell them that i was JM for that trip so they change it to 150% on top of guaranteed. I use to block 40-50 hrs and credit 100+

Amen Brother!!

Living on base pay sucks, but unemployment is worse! I suggest if you see someone being a wh*re, tell them what you think of them!

I will not get into "helping the company" at this point but if you call to fly on your day off as a lineholder is WF (will fly) in there system. As a lineholder its 150%, as a reservist you are technically only able to pick up a reserve day (yet you get to tell them the hours). There are many new FO's here so I hope we don't teach people how to go down to 7/8 days off in hopes of a few extra bucks- totally ruins the union's push for more min days off and better crew coverage.

Yes, I know i'm only allowed to pick up a reserve day on my day off, but most new CS doesn't know that, they don't know that I can't pick anything up when i'm on reserve. As long as it's within the 72 hrs of the trip, CS can assign it to the reserve pilot as long as there was no email request by a line holder.

Silver- you are 100% correct, this situation is one where scheduling just "covers the flying" but technically is not done correctly by the CBA. I would just hate to see brand new FO's try this, get burned, and come on here saying "but others said this was how it works".

Congrats on the upgrade BTW- has it been a while? I noticed you said you are still on rsv.

I'm coming up on my 8th month of RSV in MSP and I don't think i will ever see a line. I live 9 mintues from the airport so it's not that big of a deal.