Recently the deviation procedure in VIPS changed without notice. On an international flight with a front end D/H and multiple legs (example MEM-DTW-CDG) you used to be able to deviate on the short leg and retain the long ocean crossing leg to arrive in position at the scheduled time. This preserved the ground transportation when you arrived. Now when you go into VIPS the box to check for deviating is still right there in front of the short domestic leg but missing in front of the international leg. However when you check the box for the short domestic leg it deviates you on the entire deadhead. Have any of you been affected by this and what is your opinion? Have you contacted anyone about it and been provided a reasonable explanation?
I can understand having a policy where if you deviate and then arrive at the layover destination at a different time from scheduled you should be on your own. But I don't agree with flying on the scheduled D/H leg into your layover city and having no GT. We've had GT for the last several years by retaining the final international leg but now it's been removed. You could be sitting next to a non-deviating crewmember on the same flight for the past 9 hours and he will have GT and you won't. And funding for GT is totally separate from airline ticketing so I'm not quite understanding the rationale behind this recent change.