I obviously choose to disagree. I believe out of base pick up is an awful idea for the reasons I’ve already stated as well as those Riddle stated above.

 

the first part of what you said is not what happens in reality.

the second part of what you said, I have never ever heard of a pilot belly ache about that…ever! I have never heard of anybody complain about picking up at a base… well from an actual Spirit pilot.

Only good things to say.

 

It’s also self defeating for those trying to get to a base they are not senior enough to hold.

Base A has a reduction, pilots get displaced to Base B
Pilots in base B drop trips to pick up all of the open time in base A. Base A has very little open time and reserves are used with little frequency, allowing the company to save on reserve staffing and premium pay. Because they can staff Base A with less reserves, or haven’t had it backfire with having to pay big premium pay, there is zero incentive to add more spots back to base A, which is what the pilots in Base B need to get back to base A

In the scenario, we will call base A (DFW) and base B (IAH)

I don’t blame people for dropping and picking back up in other bases, I would do it too. But the only way to make the company add positions back into a base is to stop having pilots volunteer to pick up the flying for straight pay from other bases. It’s the whole “cutting off the nose to spite one’s face” scenario.

This was an issue back in 2014 when people couldn’t hold FLL and were dropping and picking up DOT in FLL, screwing up the sun burnt senior pilots JRM opportunities, they tried to get their LEC council to pass an amendment not allowing out of base pickups, it died quickly.

Riddle is correct. This isn’t some war of senior vs junior, it’s logic and basic correlation

 

At Spirit, there’s more flying to go around for line holders to care. Senior folks have more opportunities to get what they want when bidding and then again in IOT.

A pilot from Base A would drop and pick up in Base B. There’s still a ton of trips in Base B and premium flying is still plentiful. Not a single Spirit pilot is complaining about our ability to pick up out of base.

I’d argue that picking up out of base only adds to QOL and scheduling flexibility. I love it.

 

Especially if you live close to multiple bases, like Florida or Texas.

 

Pilots don’t complain about it because most of us understand we would do the same thing, most of us here still value QOL over other items

But just to show what you’re saying isn’t 100% correct

Right now DFW CA has 4 trips total in DOT for April. It was cleaned out in DOT by people who were displaced, picking up in DFW. Meanwhile IAH has about 60 trips in DOT for April, from all the drops in order to rebuild in DFW.

So how do you think premium flying looks for DFW when there are only 4 trips to be covered and reserve pilots standing by to cover these trips? Lots of premium for IAH, no doubt, too many trips to cover with reserve without having to go to premium

But stop with the “plenty of trips to go around, plenty of premium to go around”. There are 4 trips, in a base of 140
CAs, for the entire month that hasn’t started.

And seniority in the company isn’t base seniority. To say “senior guys still make out in IOT” isn’t the entire truth. You can be senior enough to not have been displaced and held ORD, DFW or DTW, but that sure as hell doesn’t make you senior to “make out in IOT”. You’re still junior in base. You’re just senior enough to not lose your base.

 

Plenty of trips and premium to go around in the company with the exception of DFW and maybe ORD? That’s certainly not the case for Florida based pilots and probably Vegas (not sure what the CA side looks like over there).

Here’s another picture to paint to illustrate how awesome having that flexibility is. Pilot A is based in ABC, but was awarded Base XYZ cuz that’s where Pilot A is lives out of. Pilot A drops trips in ABC and picks up where the pilot lives.

If the grid is red and you can’t drop, another option is to pick up trips that are front end and back end commutable and live overnights in the base the pilot lives, out of.

Of course, I’m not speaking in absolutes as both perspectives comes with pro and cons. I believe picking up out of base benefits the pilot group more as a whole than if we couldn’t pick up out of base.

 

There is zero doubt out of base pick ups hurt my premium and schedule flexibility, personally.

BUT….

I would not want to lose the ability to pick up out of base because most of us are “one displacement away” from needing to pick up out of base to keep some QOL. Same as selling reserve rules, lots of guys in displaced bases on reserve and never expected that until we had the displacement.

2 things can be true, it hurts my personally but I’m fine with it staying at NK because it helps our pilots and their family life and in the end that means more to me than whoring out for X list like some guys do. Who knows if it stays with JBLU. Time will tell.

 

Well none of y’all have to worry about picking up out of base, or DTZ for that matter because as many JetBlue pilots has reminded us. “These work rules aren’t industry standard and an arbitrator wouldn’t likely grant us them in a JCBA” so there you go why even bother!

 

An arbitrator doesn’t grant anything in a JCBA, because neither contract has a binding arbitration clause.

Go do your homework, spend a little less time with the jokey boy routine.