HUH!? What's the risk? You think it would go backwards, or that we would except less? The whole thing would play out the way it should under the RLA with us having the MOST and BEST leverage we have and will ever see in this industry. SO much hyperbole from the AUTO yes crowd that read Section 2, Overrides and Retro Bonus percentages. You haven't even seen the implementation language or how the retro will be calculated and paid for tax purposes.

If you dont read TOF and only scowl the executive summary with your own narrow mind, you will miss a lot of legit concerns and possible concessions with this contract. I'm seeing massive negotiating fatigue from the pilot group, even the ones that have only been here for less than half of the negotiations. Reminds me of what I saw as a NH in class with MIL guys, fresh out, that have been used to subordination for so long, that even below industry average things in the contract and with the company was acceptable or great to them.

I'm still on the fence. I think we can do better, but still reading away to be convinced we should lock in the gains without pressing more.

 

And the 80% *****ing on social media that their QOL wasn't improved the way they wanted it to be...

 

I like it!

 

I also fall in the undecided camp, though leaning yes. Here's why...

1) I'm not subscribing to the notion that widebody RATES are attainable. I think it makes for a great pipe dream. Simple notion... we fly one type. How do you spread the rates between captains and FO's and over how many years without sacrificing earlier gains? Some think we should go to 18+ year rates of pay, but SWAPA disagreed, and I agree with their disagreement. Where we SHOULD concentrate are rig, work rules, soft money. This becomes evident when one compares our ADG with OAL's. Using this metric, we come out on top despite lower rate. So... while I wish the rates were higher, for CA's, they're still higher than B-737-900 rates at OAL's. I'm not sure about percentages, but only a chunk of the pilots fly WB's for whatever reason, and a chunk of the pilots at least at some OAL's fly airplanes paying less rates (A220 and B717 at Delta come to mind). Like I said, I wish our rate was a tad higher, but that in and of itself at least for me isn't worth voting no.

2) Disability was my main focus for this contract. You can cockslap your Delta A350 captain neighbor with the highest rates, but if someone T-bones you on your way to work, those rates don't do you any good without industry leading protections. In my previous life, I never cared one iota about disability. In fact, anytime the discussion turned to disability, my eyes would glaze over. That changed when I went on disability as a probationary pilot here. Imagine being the sole provider and you get the news from your employer that your benefits are ending, along with your paycheck. Thankfully, my issue was acute and was dealt with, and I regained my unrestricted medical. But what if I hadn't?
Learning about it was a school of hard knocks. That's when it became my number one focus and that's been addresed now. I'm under zero illusions that the company would have gladly paid us even higher rates than addressing the Benefits. And whether you like it or not, the vast majority of pilots really couldn't care less about this.... until it affects them that is. To the company, it's a very expensive item and they loved our collective blissful ignorance.

3) LCO.... I can see and appreciate the concerns that the company will learn to deal with this and quite possibly overhire so there are minimal to no reroutes, let alone going out of the original footprint. Though I personally want to make the most money I can when I'm at work and as someone who generally liked getting rerouted or even JA'd, I understand there are those who bid specific trips for specific reasons and any deviation from that trip is an affront to their seniority. Most of us would be ticked if we bid for and were awarded HNL, but ended up in LBB. I do think given the size of our operation and single type, stuff will still happen, so LCO concepts should be very lucrative even if premium is down.

4) Premium flying... I think this game will definitely change. I think MOT will see far more action. This part is gonna see many changes and this is where I'm paying a lot of attention and have a lot of questions, particularly about SWAPA's estimation of company's behavior as a result of these changes. For example, the company seems to be incentivized to hire way more and have a big reserve coverage. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Just a few of my thoughts....

 

Are you saying you think this contract will cause more hiring/reserve coverage or less?

I'm in the camp that it will reduce reserve coverage and somewhat end the over hiring.

Fully rigging open time and assigning premium before STC will drive more open time participation. Also the reduction in APL will hopefully create more legailites allowing pilots greater flexability to pick up.

This will lead to reserves sitting more, hopefully driving the company to reduce coverage. I know that I will be watching for really low block easy stuff to be assigned to a resreve to EF. Addtionally, trips would have gone straigtht to a reserve will now have to go thru open time, making these trips more visiable.

 

Company will no longer be forced to STC stuff since all OT is gonna be rigged. That's my hangup. Instead of creating several trips with DH inflation running rampant because they're dumb, they'll get smart with it and just assign it all in one go. So now, only 1 pilot will get the trip instead of 2 or 3?

 

Well they can only split if there was no premium bid. Most trips I see get split 2-4 times had a premium bid.

Then if they do split, any low block stuff will be rigged. Knowing that block time is the usual limitation to maximizing income at SWA, pilots will take these straight instead of going to a reserve. And it seems you don't have to worry about bait and switch on a highly rigged trip because LCO will pay on top of the orginal value (disclaimer, still haven't listened to LCO podcast).

 

Yep... that's definitely a possibility.

 

From a DAL guy, we changed our reroute rules to be fairly punitive, and they stack. I talk to people all the time who's reroute pay (that's what we call it here) is more than the original value of the trip. For reserves, they kill it because it's on top of the guarantee.

Yet it still happens. Companies gonna company, and if you think they'll dial back their flexibility just because it costs them some coin, you'd be wrong.

 

This is my thought exactly based on a decade of history here. The company only responds to monetary influences when it comes to planning. Ask the big heads in crew planning and scheduling. They will tell you that there is no dollar cost input into reroute decisions. When it comes to short term execution, they could care less. All these "oh, the skysolver got me because I was the cheapest solution" really boils down to the skysolver grabbing someone because they were the most available and legal solution with the least amount of downstream impact. Previously, that would have been absorbed by rigs. Now it isn't. I think we are going to see a lot of DL style reroute paying trips here in the future. All of my DL friends say that their reroutes now are ridiculous paying simply because it all stacks. That's how it should be.

I know reroutes aren't exactly rampant right now and everyone isn't paying attention to how this is going to impact them, but think back about 18 months. It's all cyclical.

RJS, I think you are absolutely correct about open time being a completely different game. I am also interested to see how they envision this going. As an amateur economist, this is going to be a fascinating study in how humans change their behavior to systematic changes. There are so many big impacts, I can't even really wrap my brain around it. Fully rigged open time is the biggest. No straight time splits is also huge. MOT, vacation slides, being able to pick up over nonfly events..it's too much to grasp, honestly. One thing is for sure, the amount of TFP being generated by open time is going to multiply by a lot.

I am also a positive leaning fence sitter. I am getting into the weeds of the education products now and despite there being a few things that gross me out, I am very impressed with the amount of work that went into this TA. No matter how it goes in the end, I am forever in debt to our NC for removing my anxiety about a medical event and taking care of my family.