At what point does Management or the Company make a concession ? This trend is all too familiar with any and all airlines, someone needs to make a stand here and get something good and I can only hope that is what we're doing here...

And just why would anyone select to get paid less credit? i.e 2.5 instead of 3.75???

PBS is overall a good thing. The initial transition to PBS can be painful because it is very efficient and needs less pilots, but as far as scheduling goes it is great.

I hear guys saying how PBS screws everyone except the most senior Pilots - how can that be? The same amount of trips flown each month as before but now every pilot has more control over their schedule.

If you are junior before PBS you do not have much control but if you are junior after PBS you should at least be able to get specific days off. Obviously a junior guy will not be getting off on holidays or most weekends but that is no different then before PBS. When you just consider that the same rotations will be flown before PBS as after PBS, but now you have more options in selecting them, you will see it is a scheduling plus.

You are obviously going to hear good and bad about PBS prior to actually using it - keep an open mind and decide for yourself once you use it. One more thing - there are a lot less guys on reserve with PBS - more lineholders which is a good thing. :)

Scoop

How can there be more line holders?

Management makes concessions when we are in the driver's seat and they are competing for our work...That simply isn't the case right now due in part to the economy...due in part to deregulation....and due in part to ALPA's total failure at controlling the product we deliver...

You need two things for your wish to come true...

1. An improving economy.

and

2. ALPA's ability to stop the "bidding for flying" and the absurdly low barriers to entry to become a pilot.

In the absent of those two things.....Management won't be making concessions...It's all about leverage....

so, we are getting PBS. And at what cost? I say no, for now. We have been sold out. I might be ok with that if the MEC were honest but they are not. we have furloughed a number of pilots, 156 I think, but we are at the limit. Then we downgrade 65 captains. Then suddenly, after a dramatic impass, we TA PBS? We have been tossed under the bus. No way around it. I hate to call names but if you think this is a coincidence then you are an idiot!

I say VOTE NO on ALL ALPA encumbents! Vote them out! Not becuase they sold us out thogh but because they didnt tell us!


Vote them out and lets start new!

lll be honest, there are some major pros and cons of PBS.

Biggest con in the eyes of the junior pilots is that the company could reduce the pilot group in size to save money in the long haul. Although with the no furlough clause it should greatly mitigate or prevent this from happening.

The main Pro being the efficiency of scheduling and man hours which yields greater productivity at a lower cost compared to the current bidding system.

I am a fence sitter and I cant be swayed too easily. When the road shows are out please let me know, im excited what they have to show us....

John P said it best, just wait for their end product. Then make comments.I am not a company man either, but if it could increase efficiency, yield enticing Bid packets to other carriers why not...

There are a lot more line holders because PBS is more efficient and builds lines around pre-month conflicts. The down side of this is generally less flights in open time.

For example, and I am using rough figures from memory, DAL used to have around 30 reserve lines for every hundred lines (this is a ballpark estimation) and now with PBS we are shooting for around 15 per hundred. Obviously different categories are manned based on specific needs but this general trend held true for all categories.

DAL uses 85% as the ballpark number for lineholder vs reserve. It does not hold each month and if we are carrying extra pilots there will be more than 15% on reserve, but the system is made to run with 15% reserves.

So on the plus side of PBS - less Pilots on reserve.
On the down side - less open time for Pilots to choose from.

Scoop

Scoop, I see that, all of the conflicting trips from new month, training, and vacation will be used to make more lines instead of going into open time. The training and vacation days lost will result in more working days per year and less open time takes away from your ability to improve your line or build it up to increase pay. I maximize my days off during vacation months for qol and all summer I was able to add 20-25hrs to my lines by swapping and pick up to increase pay. I will lose that ability for the most part. I would not be willing to give that up.

Jerry Atkins stopped by our groundschool class to chat last fall(ATR peeps in jetschool) He said ASA payrates are not a problem in regards to the high cost. The linebidding system was the problem, especially at the beginning of the month due to the conflicts. He said that was costing the company a ton of money.

They are trying to get ASA inline with SKW cost wise. PBS maybe one of the final pieces to the puzzle.