Nothing unfortunate about it. They can have that one.

not a chance in hell
then again i also said this merger combo wouldnt happen.


that value airline menu gets cheaper by the day

res ability to pickup was a large gain for reserves and a slight negative for lineholders. Imo. I’m a lineholder and viewed it as an overall gain. We also have a res fdo line that the language was designed for. It allowed us to maintain the ability to credit well over 200 in a vac month. So the res pickup had to be available to do that. Fdo is a sudo res line. 12 off 18 on with caveats. You can also back them together 24 days off. Apply vac to either or both sides 42 days off and you start the 18 on as a long call.

Frontier pilots can trade reserve days for open time trips as well.. which is really nice

Whoa there - so if on Reserve, and have trip in open time - you can just pick it up on R days? what are the conditions, if any?
NK you cannot pickup diddly - on R days or on off days

Straight time gravy. Great.

These integrations are a MARATHON and not a sprint guys/gals. Don’t let yourselves get too high or too low and focus on what’s important.

Fly the airplane and keep safety at the forefront of what we do daily. It’s easy to say and hard to do with all of the uncertainty that will be a part of your near future. In reality, as a line pilot, you don’t have a lot of say other than letting your reps know your wishes for the upcoming JCBA. Then when it does come you have your vote and that is your voice. As for the SLI please download the ALPA Merger policy and get to know that document. This will be the driving force that will control SLI talks down the road.
There will be NO staples……There will be NO DOH list.

This is not what F9 pilots chose or SPA pilots for that matter. We fly and they manage 👍🏻 I have read the positive comments from both sides and it’s great to see. Your groups collective unity will make it go relatively smoothly or be an aspain (sp) like nobody’s business.

Mergers are not an employee friendly endeavor and unfortunately I know firsthand how those conversations go at the dinner table. Have an outlet for your stress and use it often just don’t kick the dog too much 😂

I HATE mergers and in the end you will too……

Handle the threats and Fly safe !!

Merger Announcement Date. Today is the only snapshot that matters.
Expect it to mostly be relative seniority.
Possible to have some longevity weighting by whichever side benefits from longevity (NK) - this will likely be the biggest bone of contention.

This post should be bookmarked. I've got the feeling this post is going to age poorly unless the majority of pilots are willing to take a sub standard contract. I don't see Franke offering an industry standard contract.

I hear you, and I am certainly not opposed to new ideas or improvements to reserve life. Ideally we want the quality of life wins of both companies, but to be careful that two good ideas don’t conflict more than they help.

Im just hopeful you guys can fix your vacation and training pay asap so that garbage isn’t forced on us in some kind of arbitration scenario. Lol. Sorry couldn’t resist.

Yes you can pick up OT on rsv (days off) here at F9. If you are over 82 hours credit you get 125% over guarantee. Over 82 AND pick up premium it's 1.875% above guarantee. A 12 hour premium then pays 22.5 hours above guarantee. RSV life is good if you live in base and pick up a trip or 2 on your days off.

Unless there’s a recession or one of the big boys files bankruptcy and slashes pilot rates, Frankie really doesn’t have a choice if he wants the merger to happen. the merger can’t be finalized until a JCBA is agreed upon. Frankies not that dumb. We don’t have to accept sub standard, we have more leverage than any merger maybe ever, at least in the last 20 years.

Does this mean I won’t get my quid??? :D

Vacation
 

What is the vacation credit at NK? F9 currently gets 4 weeks with 5 hours credit per day.

I'm not sure that's true. The merger is a financial transaction only requiring approval from the DOT, DOJ and shareholders. The JCBA won't be involved in any of that process. After that's approved the process of a acquiring a single operating certificate, SLI and JCBA can commence.
Our leverage will be more due to the current state of the industry.

Same. My initial reaction was just a lot of "uhhhhhh" this morning. After reading up on it (news articles, forums, etc.) I feel good about moving forward with the Spirit class date. As a guy who was planning to move down to one of the Florida bases, in the short-term I don't think this announcement changes anything. In the long-term, however, I feel like there are some unknowns which would naturally make anyone nervous. I sincerely hope (and think) that it'll be an overall improvement for both pilot groups in terms of pay, qol, contract language, etc.

So you get 4 weeks and 140hrs? Is that from year 1??

spirit is:

year 1-5 = 2 weeks/56hrs
year 6-10 = 3 weeks/84hrs
year 11-15 = 3weeks/98 hrs
16-20 = 4weeks/112 hrs
21-25 = 4weeks/126hrs
26+ = 5weeks/140hrs

If your intentions are to move to Florida, this really changes nothing. Both airlines have bases there now and we will certainly have bases there after this is done. Its perhaps the safest bet you could make.

hope you can get hotels for your NH ;)

you’ll want our credit any we will want that extra week after 26. You’ll also want 4 after 10 looks like. Everything else lines up except ours is straight 5 credit always for a day. Of course there’s caveats with how it’s bid. U can assign credit to days that equal more or less than that 5 and it comes from a bank. If your trying to make money assign more because it will be in that over 82 premium. If you just want days off assign less. Options are a beautiful thing.

year 1-5 = 15 days/75 hrs
year 6-10 = 21days/105 hrs
year 10+ = 28 days/140 hrs

Wow, looks like Frontier is significantly better in vacation section and reserve flexibility.

Its better than anyone. Paid for in some other areas. JetBlue is 2 with thier 5 credit but takes longer to reach the higher levels.

Laughs in FedEx

cargo excluded. Never looked during negotiations. I’m sure it’s good though. Want to share?

You do realize that the same 10 hour trip with a 2 hour incentive if you got it on the X/Y list would be 24 hours, right?

Last time I had a calculator handy, 24 > 22.5.

What he is failing to mention is that, for better or for worse, crew scheduling has discretion on what we call “Incentive” credit at frontier.

Could be straight pay at 150% or could be a 5 hour turn with 5 hours of incentive credit at 150% pay.

Sometimes it can be very lucrative.

I will say the 125% over 82 hours at Frontier makes premium trips less likely to pop up, and when they do pop up people snag them before the juicy incentive credit is added.

Double edged sword in some ways. I would be cool to a see 200% trips plus incentive credit plus the 125% override but that might be a stretch.

can they add credit to your 200%? Or is it locked at 200%? If so we want your 200% and you want our crew scheduling’s ability to bump credit in premium. They can never lower just add. I’ve seen 30 credit added to a turn. Now that was in negotiations when they were desperate.

No, it appears you can pick up only on your days off. If you do that, you have more hours/pay but fewer hard days off. Do I have that right?

At Frontier you can pick up on your days off, and you can “aggressive” pickup while on reserve. Aggressive pickup allows you to basically bid for an open time trip if it’s available the day before your reserve assignment.

You can juice your credit if you’re picking up on your days off this way, or if you’re looking for flying while consolidating.

It also removes you from having to pick up the phone (IIRC) if you want to sleep in or have a little more of a predictable schedule.

maybe Newhires at both shops will start to be treated fairly, with hotels, full MMG, & reputable pay rates! If I’m wishing let’s get some decent insurance too!

Exactly what happened to my Buddy in late 2014 at UAal as he came off a trip he stopped by CPO office to give two week notice that he would be starting with another major based on his hometown. EWR CPO said “I’ll take your ID now them, best of luck, your done here then”. I had to give him a buddy pass to get home as he was not able to get home from base for sure. So….it happens!

they can never say no to a pickup on a day off. Assuming 117 compliance. You can aggressive bid a trip in opentime that goes into rdp or from rdp to days off with caveats. There’s a bit of a dispute going from days off to rdp I believe? That might be at thier discretion? When you go from rdp to days off anything that touches a day off plus the rig is over guarantee. So the goal is 48 hr San overnight that gets home on your first day off at 6am with an 6 hr rig. You get the flight home plus the 6 hr rig over guarantee.

I guess sobo is way faster. I’m out. Best of luck to everyone.

All I’m saying is, I have friends in both airlines and after learning a little about each scheduling system I chose to apply with Spirit. The ease of ability to drop to zero hours is hard to believe and exactly what I am interested in. New hire MTC is tomorrow so fingers crossed. Looks like two good pilot groups merging so long y’all can get past ol man Joe.

What is the yearly minimum you have to fly?

I second that question. Could somebody at Spirit elaborate what dropping to zero is all about without all the acronyms and jargon? I just know at Spirit those guys are able to drop relatively soon after their first or second year with ease.

Managements have shown they are often quite content to operate two separate Airlines for long periods of time. It’s certainly some leverage but I think you are overrating it. Think USAir and American.