Whether you are a 20+ year seniority or a new hire, the schedule improves at a snails pace as you move up in seniority. In fact, the lines and pairing get worse every month. Not much gets fixed around here, from top to bottom. This place reminds me of the military-f**@ up and get promoted or at the worst, they just give you a different job title. We have people who are in ALPO leadership one day and the next, they are in upper management. Money does talk, doesn't it? We have upper management pilots who have NEVER flown a full month's schedule "leading" this pilot group. They've been flying for over 30+ years and their total time is well below 10,000 hours. Must be nice to fly a SMF turn and call it quits! Blind leading the seeing comes to mind! Ph. D in the Art of A$$ Kissing sure comes in handy; where do I sign up? Oh never mind, I'd like keep my soul please! The only 2 things that they have mastered throughout life are 1) counting their stocks & money and 2) playing company politics. It reminds me of a Colonel I once knew. This guy never once deployed to a war zone or overseas let alone stateside, because he was the biggest weasel and a back stabber. In fact, he's never had an overseas tour. He spent majority of his time playing golf with the higher ups and never did ANY meaningful work; he delegated them to his subordinates with a turd carrot painted in orange. Everyone whoever worked for this this guy thought he was was the biggest jackass, nevertheless he was a likable person outside of work. Sound familiar? I once read that the anti-christ will be extremely likable too! One day, he gets promoted to General and becomes the man in charge of deployments. At the change of command ceremony, I heard he made a big speech about patriotism/duty, honor, country-truly disgraceful!
Our "association" is led and run by junior folks who rarely fly the $hit that a everyday line swine is forced to fly. These guys get every weekend and holidays off in the name of the "association duty". They hide behind closed doors and think of ways to personally benefit themselves while wining and dining on our coin. When challenged, they start foaming around the mouth and their heads start rotating like a scene in the movie Exorcist. When pushed to a corner their come back is, "well then, why don't you volunteer?!?!". Seriously? The association and the company agree on MOUs that are rarely honored by the company (yeah you, crew scheduling) and the contract is written so that no one truly understands it. There are so many loop holes that most EVERYTHING is open to interpretation. It reads as if a mentally challenged 6th grader wrote it. Every little questionable contractual item that a line pilot tries to accomplish, whether it's with the association or the company is like pulling teeth. e-maestro trip trade inquiry is literally a waste of space on the "schedule tab". It's a total waste of key strokes putting in a trip trade inquiry. Did you know that there's supposed to be a dedicated crew scheduler working the trip trade inquiries? I mean, reeeeally looking at them carefully! This was a negotiated item in the last contract to better our lives by having a live person being able to use some common sense and having the ability to override the cheap scheduling software. How many times do they come back with an answer of, "denied due to lack of reserve coverage"? I'd say, every f-ing time! And when you call them on it, they act clueless and the tooth pulling process starts. I'm guessing most ya'll are not calling them and asking why.
The company and the association seem to think that they can keep this pilot group preoccupied with iPads, PBPs, hiring, new destinations, and a whole lot of empty promises. They can send out surveys until the cows come home. Well, all the cows have come home and have all been grilled and roasted! If everyone does their actual job like they are supposed to do, things can go so much smoother for everyone. All of these problems can be fixed so easily. Oh wait, I forgot. It takes people with a soul, integrity, and sense of duty & honor to make that happen. Instead, too many focus on expanding their little kingdom and their pockets. Imagine if we as pilots performed at the same level as these folks.