I hope that too, but hope is ineffective mostly.

If we want to prevent this from happening again (I want to prevent it), then we need the 90% of unaffected pilots to contact their union reps and speak to that.


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This reminds me of when unaffected pilots got to vote on co-domiciles....

Although, I'd be willing to vote to change the vacancy process even though it doesnt affect me. I'll include it in the email I send regarding line quality. 👍

 

Company will tell SWAPA to pound sand. Just like they did with vacation years ago. Displacement language is very clear. It's not like they are doing it illegally. I'm with you, I don't like it but unfortunately this is something that will have to be addressed in section 6. Of course the company would love to hear the complaint but they would like other things changed too. Section 9 of the CBA is very much based on a p2p operation fundamentally. When they start overnighting more and more airplanes in the outstation's, which creates a cost for the company but also a cost for pilot's in inefficient parings, this is what happens. DPOS can only do so much when network planning puts the schedule together. Senior mangement has made a decision that creating more intentional connections is the path forward for the network. Look at the new cities they announced over the last few weeks. ANC today. All will feed the megas and will be timed for connections. That doesn't bold well for efficient pairings. What it does though is create more swaps in the mega's because of the rigs and tries to keep you moving. I like rig trips and try to bid them but many here want to be as productive as possible when they leave home. I hope new hires soften some of this but it's hard to see them creating anything productive these day's.

 

I am not letting SWAPA off the hook either. In their Don Quixote quest to get more turn lines for the 2 percent of pilots that get to fly them, they ended up
screwing everyone by driving down the APL. That resulted in a bunch of turns, which are less than useless for commuters, into regular lines and totally screwing up line quality because now you have a 3 day with a turn the next day. The company doesn't want to build a bunch of turn lines as evidenced by the complete lack of them.

This also provides stimulus for the company to open additional smaller bases, which I would love to remind everyone benefits almost nobody, especially when there is little hiring.

That swapa victory really backfired.

 

seriously! And the excuse of putting "day trips" I prefer over turns because turns often have more than two legs and not "locals" as our friends from OO call them which what is local anyways, into the mix of regualr lines with 3 dyas etc is absurd. "If we add them to the mix instead of creating more pure turn lines more people have the opportunity to fly them".
If someone wants to fly a turn they can grab them from TTGA where they all go anyways.
such a loss on the paring construction language that most everyone brought up but we're degraded by the SCR head for even suggesting he wasnt the smartest man in the room. Well now he gets paid by SW and where is this collaboration with the company and union that is supposed to be there?
all we here back is we need more data etc.
Maybe the increase in sick calls should be an indicator.

 

I'm not a big fan of turns or two days just because I commute. Three day rig trips are my favorite but as discussed before, we voted on a contract not too long ago and believe or not we were polled on this extensively. Hence why the dropped the APL a little. Has nothing to do with SRC or its chairman. SRC makes recommendations but the company can and does override it. SWAPA's SRC recommended a base last year. They are at the direction of the SWAPA BOD anyway. SWAPA doesn't have control of displacements. This is squarely on the company. I can't even imagine what the pairings will look like in JAN and FEB. The company has 100% control of planning.

 

I live on turns, and spreading the turns out on multiple lines is really bad. At LAX we still get out 10% turns but only one or maybe two turn lines, so its really tough for people who want them to trade for them. Plus at least one senior pilot hates turns but i guess loves the trading games, so he bids and gets the one turn line and immediately puts his whole line into ttga. Thats his prerogative as a senior guy but it sucks for the 3-4 of us who actually want turns. Just collecting the turns into 3-4 lines would ease things quite a bit.