I can't argue with that hopelessness, but if they need 10% to get to 51% then they might figure some changes to reserve. And, yes, I'm now a United Pilot.

Svergin and GB:
I couldn't agree more strongly.

What is the option if we vote this down? Does reserve get any improvement? NADA!!!!!

Sitting reserve is a choice for all but new hires.
Had a bad summer on reserve? Sorry, but guess what? IF staffing is short, life is going to completely suck, even with the "mythical" better reserve system.

I say "mythical" because what is perfect for some, sucks for others. Our current reserve system is by the far the best it has ever been for either legacy company. I bid it about every other month. I get 81 to 85 hours almost every month to fly very little. SC's? Bring them on. I will take every one I can get.

But that is the problem. We all have different lives, and different expectations. No matter what "mythical" perfect reserve system we get, a percentage will hate it.

That is why we get to vote. If the bullet points here are accurate, I am voting "yes", only because there is no "hell yes" box.

FWIW, I am a QOL guy over money. Voting "no" doesn't improve anything for me, or anyone else. It kicks the can down the road. Section 6 is years away from completion. The company is, for the first time, offering me a carrot early, for some minor scheduling flexibility that I agree with.

The kicker for me is the "DAL me too" clause. That pushes me from a "yes" vote, to a "hell yes" vote.

For the new hires in a short staffed base, my sympathies. I did it too. For anyone that CHOOSES to commutes to reserve, I would not give a dollar in pay rates to make your life better. But I have only 1 vote. Maybe 51% would vote yes to that. That is why we all get 1 vote.

OldMako

At least someone has the thought to come up with some ideas about how to improve the quality of life for reserves.

What I read in your list is this, "incentify" (I think that's a word) pilots to sit the more onerous reserve assignments. So what you are really proposing is a seniority based reserve system, to some degree. The more senior one is in bidding reserve the more money is available for him or her.

Problem number one is this, some one always gets to be jr. and get dumped on.

The facts of life win this job is the pay is good, but being jr. just sucks.

Those things you mention sound good but it doesn't "fix" being jr. and having less, if any, control of one's schedule and therefore time off.

But, thanks for the response and maybe some of what you posted will show up.

Reserve is reserve and it's a whole lot better now than under LCal's. My vote is yes. Pay me now and pay me more when Delta gets paid again. To vote no for something that 95% of the pilots can control by their own bidding is mind blowing.

I knew the bottom pilot on lUALs list back in the day. After furloughing hundreds in the late 60s he was the last pilot. The good news was he never bid, because it didn't matter. The bad news was always on reserve, always waiting for the surplus out of a base and always waiting to be furloughed.

He retired at 60 a Junior Reserve Captain on the "three holer."

He still liked it better than a cubicle and "having" to play golf with the "boss."

Is that message you want to leave for you SEA brothers and sisters? Or the IAH 737 CAs that were solid line holders up until this fall. Or the SFO 777 pilots that were solid line holders until their flying dissapeared. Or the DEN 737 CAs that were line holders until the 76T closed in DEN. Or the 777 pilots in LAX that got pushed backwards when the 747 base closed........pretty cold hearted words.

That would be my take on his posting as well.

Amazing that there are pilots that have had mostly positive careers. Sure, they may have taken a pay hit in the concessions. Sure, they may have have been displaced from CA on one fleet down to another fleet with not much loss in relative seniority/QOL. Some were lucky enough to get hired and awarded their first choice of base and stay there. Never got displaced out or had to deal with a shrinking domicile MULTIPLE times and are now faced with uprooting the family (for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th time) or commuting, AGAIN.

And they have the balls to those that have been through it that it's all a "choice".

Pilots have proven time and time again they we are our worst enemies.

L-UAL MIA wasn't that long either

But we can walk it back further, tell all that to a L-CAL DEN guy that got to enjoy the fabulous glory being DEN based, only to watch it close. Only to wait almost 20 years to hold it again.......

Schrödinger's cat.

The company really wants something from us. We can give it away for change, or we can get something from it. They can (and did) negotiate in weeks when they want to.
Let's turn this down and let them improve the offer. This is one time they don't want to wait. Jan 1 we have 3% coming. Let them add to that after the New Year.

How quick is that Delta re-negotiation coming ?