TX allows me to start with 19-20 days off and have the option of filling trips back in on desired days rather than starting with 15-16 days off and having to rely on the ability to drop trips to get desired days off. That's a big difference to me. Maybe PBS would afford the same opportunity, but that remains to be seen.

 

And if it drops your trip in the previous month now you’re stuck working over the transition period with a possible 12-13 day off line that you maybe only bid for the conflict. Still pretty cool, it’s free money, but it’s no garuntee that you’re gonna start your month with 19-22 days off.

 

Exactly. It’s been nice language to have especially with line bidding and our garbage pay rates but it certainly isn’t something you can rely on month to month unless you completely turn your life over to the transition gods (crew planning) for the first and last week of every month. I utilized it a fair amount as a senior FO and it’s exhausting. Another downside to playing the transition game every month is that you then have to rely on IOT and DOT to clean the rest of your schedule up and hopefully get the days off you need. This results in not knowing your final schedule most times until 3-5 days before the beginning of the month which is maddening if you have a family. All this just to game the system so you can bump up your credit a bit every month and still be severely underpaid. No thanks. I’d rather just bid for the days off I need and make what I should be making at ~72 credit.

 

I'm reserving my yes/no vote until I read all the language. That being said being able to drop reserve days is big to me. I've been on reserve for a year and a half and that's the only thing that's made it possible to get days off that I need.

 

Nice post, however I was callled a dolt by a moron, so what do I know.

 

BRIEF-Spirit Airlines sees 'pretty big' tax deferral following tax overhaul
Reuters Staff
1 MIN READ
Jan 23 (Reuters) - Spirit Airlines Inc:

* SPIRIT AIRLINES TREASURER SAYS WOULD WANT TO SECURE AGREEMENT WITH PILOTS BEFORE CONFIRMING A NEW PLANE ORDER

* SPIRIT AIRLINES TREASURER SAYS THE TAX REFORM IS A ‘BIG DEAL’ FOR THE AIRLINE; HAS A PRETTY BIG TAX DEFERRAL LIABILITY

* SPIRIT AIRLINES TREASURER SAYS IF RIGHT OPPORTUNITY THERE SPIRIT WILL ALWAYS LOOK AT CONSOLIDATION OPPORTUNITIES Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Reporting By Conor Humphries)

 

Those senior enough to get solid TXs don't get stuck with 12-13 days off under the current system unless it's by choice or a training month (thanks to the home study LOA). Under PBS, with 4 days off, with no improvement in the required number of days off, this COULD happen. That's why the company wants it so badly, to improve crew utilization (IOW, you work more). Will the 4 days off apply between months? Will we retain the minimum of 1 calendar day in 7 free from duty IN BASE? Will the company have the flexibility to send me wherever they want for 4 days after I check in for a trip due to their definition of IROPs? What's efficient for me isn't necessarily efficient for the company, nor do they have any interest in building efficient schedules for us. They only have to build to the MINIMUMS set forth by the CBA. I will reserve judgment until I see the full language, I'm just pointing out some potential pitfalls. I like to work around my life, not live around my work.

 

There's a pretty huge disconnect between the handful of pilots who are making bank every month with transition conflict and JA, and pretty much everyone else.

A senior FO mentioned a month he had recently. He bid transition conflict, and got it. A few days before the end of the month, he dropped the previous month conflicting flight. When he got called for JA the first week of the month, he picked back up his original transition conflict trip at 200% plus he got the company to restore those days off by dropping his last trip of the month. He then picked another end of month trip up later on with move-up.

Ended up flying maybe 50 block, getting paid over 120, including one trip that he got paid 3x for (the one he dropped and then got JA to fly anyway).

The handful of people who do this regularly are completely out of touch with what the rest of the pilot group cares about. I'm sorry, in the time I've been with spirit I've come to give zero shxts about the opinion of people who are getting paid 5x or more to NOT fly their awarded trip, that I'm flying for them instead for straight time at first or second year pay.

When those people tell me to put off a pay raise in order to protect their ability to make me fly their trip while they sit at home getting paid 5x what I'm making flying their trip for them, It's all I can do to bite my tongue and not tell them where to stuff their contract priorities. Someone else sitting at home flying 50 and crediting 120 does not pay my bills, whether I'm on reserve flying his lines or trying to figure out how to add a little more flying to a month but being foiled by 29/7 or whatever other conditions are in place because of the transition and JA games being played.

I'll hold the line for rules that benefit everyone like the ability to drop reserve days, open time pick-ups paying extra, etc etc. Just don't whine and complain when a proposal that benefits 90% of the pilots will impact someone's ability to fly 50, credit 120, while making the junior guys suck up transition flights that someone else is also getting paid far far more to NOT fly. No sympathy, especially when their proposals do nothing to put food on my table. I've got no reason to continue subsidizing them sitting at home.

 

I hear ya. Lots of folks make a lot more money than me using the shady or gray areas. I just shoot for line value or min guarantee and as many days off as I can manage.

 

I don't mind people using the contract to the max extent possible. Same rules for everyone, and seniority is king. I've got no heartburn about people using the contract.

But.

Telling junior pilots to vote no unless the new contract includes provisions to keep paying senior pilots (or those skilled at playing schedule games) to stay at home while junior pilots fly their lines is unreasonable. The rest of our pilots should feel zero obligation to delay a new/better contract, keeping their pay unacceptably low, in order to subsidize a handful of pilots getting paid to sit at home.

Save the NO vote for contract problems that affect everyone. There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons to vote no that don't involve complicated calculations regarding proposed pay scale compared to current credit numbers that are possible only for a mere handful.