Ability to waive below 4 days off
 

So, I wanted to ask what you think about the continuation or termination of the ability to waive below four days off during the bid period for your schedule.

Honestly I like to have the option just in case I may need it.
Apparently there's pros and cons, I just can't think of any.

As long as it’s at the pilots option, not the company’s its great. It’s a big reason I came here.

One large + of the option to waive is that during months where you want extended amounts of off time together you are able to pile your working time together. For example if I want the first 12 days of a month off I can waive below 4, perhaps to even just 1 day off between work blocks, and request the desired dates. Depending on how you setup a bid like this PBS will attempt to put all of your pairings from the 13th to the end of the month. Imagine you already had vacation during that same month, you would have a good chance at having most of a month off. Then add in a bid in the month before that where you did the same thing but instead requested the last 10 days of the month off and waived the 4 day in order to get your trips at the beginning of that month; you would have the ability to have over a month off.

Obviously PBS will honor seniority in these requests and it might not be able to honor the entire length of off days you requested, but you can still do it. If the option to waive is taken away you are left with only the vacation time awarded and the availability in the red/green board. This is only one major benefit of being able to waive.

There are people who fear that if we continue to allow waiving the four days off that we will demonstrate that the four days off are worth nothing to us and the company will get a mediator to take them away from us in the next contract. I don't think that will happen.

I think the company frankly doesn't care about the four days off anymore. Models have been run indicating the staffing requirement is the same either way.

Personally I prefer having the ability to waive as there is no way I could get the work cadence I like being stuck with four day off blocks.

It’s a huge advantage for a commuter on reserve being able to lump days together and limit the number of commutes a month.

Make sure you voice your opinions to your reps. There are a couple that are possibly resistant to letting the waiver continue. This is a massive QOL issue as you all know. Email your reps to make sure they do the right thing.

Very true. I hear people say “ we gave up 4 days off for free “ all of the time and what they don’t get is that we didn’t give it up. Keeping 4 days off is a protection for people who want it and the company can’t force you to have less off. The ability to waive 4 days off with PBS is a massive QOL asset. If we lost that our schedules would become far worse because you basically kill half of your flexibility when bidding.

I like to use it when I need it, at least 3 out of 12 months for vacation purposes. Works great when I Front or Back load my schedule. Rest of year at least 4 days off.

Yeah, that's what I'm planning to do also.
I was just wondering why the SPA email said to think about all the pros and cons and let our representative know and I just couldn't think of any cons!! That's too good to give up

The ability to waive (not give away 4 altogether) adds flexibility to bidding. The question is was there a value add to the company? If there was we have leverage by being able to choose whether we revert back or not. I know there are a couple things I’d want in return to keep the waiving permanent.

Keep the ability to waive 4 days off or I think rep heads will roll if they vote not to waive.

Short term pain for long term gain.

It’s a misnomer when people say we “gave up” 4 days off with “nothing in return”

The only way 4 days off affected the company was to restrict how they built hard lines. All that went out the window with PBS.

Now it’s just another option like any other set condition, and it really doesn’t affect the company one way or the other.

The only real affect is that “line holder” seniority is not at black and white as it was with line bidding. Some pilots on the edge of holding a line may improve their chances if they waive as PBS has more flexibility for assigning enough trips to meet the credit window, and others who hold on to the 4 day minimum may have to settle for a Reserve like.

Now I don’t know but it would seem to me that the company would be able to push the credit window higher with the same amount or less pilots than with the 4 day off requirement in place for everyone. We’re are currently setting historical credit window standards for future years and if we have a lot of pilots waiving we are able to inflate the credit window that wouldn’t be achievable without waiving. This is why the 4 days off was important under line bidding. Since we have low min days off at 13 it kept the company from building every line at 13 days off. The solution wasn’t possible. It had to build a bunch with more than 13 days off. That created a need for higher staffing or more premium pay. I can only imagine that making the ability to waive permanent with trigger the company to use the data they already have on waiving to push the window higher and lower staffing.

Sorry but I’m enjoying my weekends off. This wasn’t the case with line bidding and mandatory 4 days off.

As a mid level bidder, the kind everyone said would not benefit from PBS, I’ve been loving the results of PBS. I have had better schedules with PBS than I ever had line bidding

This has more to do with pairing construction, monthly pairing frequency, and rig than with consecutive days off.

Pilots doing this aren’t waiving total number number of days off, rather increasing the the opportunities for PBS to award pairings.

I would want to see some concrete data that shows the flexibility that waiving provides is consistently detrimental to lifestyle before giving it up.

The union guys haven't been willing to share the specific data. But every union guy I've talked to who has seen the data says that models show very similar staffing levels with or without the waiver.