Makeup flying
 

Question for the Spirit gurus.

Reportedly, you guys can drop a days worth of flying and then make it up at 200%.

If that's how it rolls, not sure why anyone would fly at straight time.

Or is it only Extra days of flying in a month that pays at 200%?

You have to be selected for the extra flying.

You are playing a betting game. You drop your trip and HOPE that they will call you on a day off for a trip to get paid at 200%. No guarantees that you will.

Here’s the scenario you describe: you have a 4 day trip, and you wish to drop it to attempt to get premium pay instead.

First to drop said trip, there must be above minimum reserve coverage for each day of the trip (green). There is a grid which shows you if this is possible and what that minimum coverage is.

You then can place yourself on one or both of two lists to make yourself available for premium assignments. Y list for short call trips within 3 hours of callout, or X list for trips 3:01 and beyond.

Who gets called is a bit complicated, but basically based on credit, legality, conflict, etc. The idea being to spread the love around, but this can vary depending on the day’s circumstances. It’s impossible to predict who will volunteer, for how many days, and what conditions they will stipulate (base, trip type, report time, etc)

The other important thing to remember is the rolling 48 hour window inside which scheduling owns the flying. So you cannot drop a trip Tuesday hoping they call you for premium Monday, and if they don’t try to pick your original trip back up again.

Clear as mud?

And with a few exceptional days like hurricanes pretty much zero 200% from September til spring break.

Clara bro

Do you mean, you cannot on Monday, drop a trip that starts in the next 48 hours (Tuesday or Wednesday) even if the grid is green?

Say you drop a trip 50 hours ahead (is that ahead of showtime, or scheduled block out time, or what?), do you mean you can't pick it back up 3 hours later (now 47 hours to go)?

Thanks

It's a little more restrictive than just 48 hours. It's 2 calendar days based on noon EST

Exactly.

It’s funny how guys come on here and type and have ZERO idea of the contract we are flying under. Rolling 48 hours? Haha.

My previous questions need to be changed since it's not a rolling 48:

So let me rephrase my questions to reflect calendar days:

1) Right now, it's after Noon EST on Monday, so scheduling technically considers it to now be "Tuesday". 2 calendar days from now (which is Tuesday) pushes you into Thursday. Since it's within 2 calendar days, you cannot drop a trip that starts at any time on Thursday, even if the grid is green? Yes/No

2) Green grid, right now, can you drop a trip that starts Friday, up until Noon EST tomorrow? Yes/No

3) And if you did drop that trip, I assume it goes into some sort of "open time" system. Can only be picked up at 100% Yes/No

4) Once Noon EST passes tomorrow, scheduling now "owns" the Friday trip that was dropped, it cannot be picked up, and you are outta luck (if you wanted the trip back). Yes/No

Assuming you did the math right (too lazy to check, hence at NK):
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Yes

As far as premium goes, if you have a weekday trip you have a better chance of dropping it, you will then be more available to be called the weekend prior for premium, if not, you might be in time to pick something up. Still only likely to work in the summer, xmas, 4th of July....

I admit my errors, the 48 hour was memory of my previous company.

The premise is still the same, and the exact wording:

Daily open time pot shall until 1200 EST/EDT contain all known open flying and R days beyond the next calendar day.

Example: Daily Open time available for Wednesday and beyond will remain in open time until Monday at 12:00 EST/EDT.

So I suppose if you want to be accurate, it’s not 2 full calendar days, but a 36 hour blackout from noon eastern to 00:01 the third day.

Thank you, it makes complete sense now.

Sooo, for those still awake:
Not really, the window is from:
- you have a trip that starts 23:59PST in LAS on Wednesday (and yes, it happens), cutoff to drop is 10:00PST (=12:00EST) on Monday, so 61:59 hours.
- you have a trip that starts 00:01EST in FLL on wednesday, cutoff to drop is Monday 12:00EST, so 36:01 hours.
36<cutoff<62

0900 PST = 1200 EST, but point made for drops.

Ouch. :( Thought I had it nailed. Live in MST, but fly PST, and bid EST. Always confused.

Thanks for the info
Confusing system. FedEx we can drop until 0900 day prior, which kinda sucks for day flights.

Living in base helps. Picked up 34 credit hours X List in September for 2 days. 20 hours of show no go then go home and a 1 day for 14. Holidays are usually good X List days.

I X List on my days off or just plan the summer months to X List.

On that topic, what can a reserve or line holder expect to credit a month? At my last gig we’d bid ‘max days off’ and get 11 off and 85 hour lines averaging 4 hours of credit a day.

I read you have a 3.5:1 trip rig. So if my math is correct... if you spend 144 hours away from base on a 6 day trip, the absolute minimum you could be paid is about 41 hours? Seems too good to be true is why I ask.

And is it possible to be awarded a line that is only 72ish hours? Again at my last place, our “floor” was 75 hours but no one was ever awarded less than 83-93ish with no dropping allowed.

Also, for those that attempt to get max days off without reducing below around 72 hours, how many days off per month do you get?

The 41 hours is mathematically correct but doesn't happen in the real world since the trips are no more than 4 days long.

Getting a line that is 75 hours or less is definitely possible. Especially so during the slow travel seasons.

Dropping and swapping is not hard at all. The reserve grid looking forward for ORD FOs is green the entire rest of the month except three days. Those days all touch weekends. It's a question of how closely you watch Flica for the days to turn green that you need.

I've dropped many months to zero and generally speaking I drop enough to only work 10-12 days a month. It's easily doable on the FO side