No VB, or soup, for you.

I always thought HA getting the job was Quid Pro Quo for something horrific he and/or ALPA national did to us in bankruptcy. Several things, to my rapidly diminishing memory. I think he got hired to screw us more, not screw ALPA.

Interesting thread here:

Background Requested: Howard Attarian

Like everything in life.. VB has its place in the real world.
Wasn't it 15yrs ago that we had Flight Engineers? Age 60 Full retirement?

VB can work if two issues can be resolved. Reserve coverage and Seniority.

If worked out, VB could be a positive for both the Pilots and the company. A Win Win.
Like every problem out there, there is a solution and a negotiated settlement.

Would be an interesting subject to debate. Numerous workable solutions to the problems of Reserve coverage and Seniority~
But let's me honest here.. sticking our head in the sand and saying 'F NO' to VB is stupid. It's already in the Delta CBA (PWA) and good chance that it could be a normal thing within the next 15 years. Surprised that a company like SouthWest (flying one type of aircraft) hasn't done it yet. Theirs would be the easiest to negotiate.

Motch

He will be out of here soon (age 65) and we'll get another bozo...

Did someone say MCO base?

Motch;
You hit the nail on the head for VB's, or additional bases at places like MCO, LAS, or HNL. We just fly to many different fleet types. Before the merger both legacy airlines had necked their fleets down to fairly small number of aircraft types. The combined airline is almost as complicated as UAL in 2000. HNL is the worst. We fly 737's, 756, 777, 787. What kind of base would we have?

Negotiated deals and public policy are very complicated. Just because a few pilots want a VB at their home, they think it is that simple. Unfortunately, the opportunity will create choices for the other 12,000 pilots, all of which have their own unique needs and desires, and their choices will be affected by any new benefit.

Unintended consequences.

How about a "Commuter Option". Withhold a certain amount of pay to get positive space to go to work? Yeah right. 500 pilots would decide that they would then commute from Auckland, Sydney, and London.

How many fleet types does DAL have at recent count? They seem to be printing money and are about to turn on the VB science project.


Pretty sure that's the same as just buying a ticket.

A way to fix the reserve coverage issue would be to have a few reserves in the VB but only use them to get flights out of the VB then DH them back so your reserves aren't out covering 4 day trips.

Could possibly set up some sort of field standby system. Available for pickup--built at a specific time, advertised for a specified time. Transparency would have to be fixed--no more crew desk building and assigning these on a whim. But the pay credit problem for field standby's would have to be fixed before agreeing to anything like this.

Could get a few things in the contract fixed by agreeing to this system. Could be a win for everyone. But......I still don't trust the crew desk or company to implement something like this without trying to corrupt the intent.