Just change your bid for the March vacancy to Opt-Out of the Lance Program if you get pushed back for training in February.

 

Better to back-door lance and get the month you want. Easy button.

 

If you know when you want to Lance, bid captain for the first month, attempt to go in the last class of the month (much better for pay purposes and you will probably get most of your "captain" month pulled), and then just bid back to Lance the following month. That way you can back door Lance in any base that your seniority can hold (basically all of them). There is simply no reason to roll the dice with upgrade training and then take a pay hit with a Lance upgrade if you can hold captain anyway.

If you are worried about the commute, you will probably only have to commute for one or two trips which you can give away, trade, or just call out for. Don't punish yourself for the company's weird policies.

 

Call crew planning before you attempt anything like this. They may send you to upgrade anyway since jumping in and out to game your class date essentially denies someone else a slot.

 

I know some or all of that may sound confusing. Pm me if you want more or better details. Lance is buried in the contract and hard to understand. It's an amazing program and I highly recommend it.
Crew Planning is also very helpful, as is SWAPA contract admin.

 

I am willing to bet a few beers that the LANCE program goes away with this contract. Lee hates the program.

 

that's what I'm hearing as well.
Looks like the only way I can make sure I spend a month in Dallas when I want to is to bid cpt then downgrade myself into lance.
training scheduling has way too much power, hopefully that gets fixed.

 

Lee doesn’t have a vote.

 

A vote no, but he does have influence.

 

Lance captain has been dealt many blows over the years, but it's still around. We haven't heard a thing about them changing it right now, so I doubt it will be touched in this contract.
Not sure why the company would want it gone. Pretty sure it's a net positive for them. I always hear that rumor from other pilots who are "in the know", but most of those guys are full of $hit. It's a FAA approved program that has been with us for a very long time and many thousands of flying hours.
The ones who want it gone are mid to upper seniority captains who see lances flying trips that they can't hold or beating their TFP numbers with better vacation weeks. Typical pilot jealousy ruining someone's good deal that they may have even taken part in just because they don't like someone else getting it. The best I can tell, swapa has tried to kill it twice in two separate TA1s. The first time the compromise ended up being that lances could only pick up 10 captain duty periods per month. The last time they did away with that but then made it so you could only Lance for a year.
It is still an amazing deal for a senior FO or junior captain and it forces you to get out of your comfort zone and be a good pilot in both seats.