That's a Bingo.

If the airline has scheduled flights that require staffing of 500 out of every 1000 pilots to work that day, that's how many are working. Period. Most of that coverage will be determined during the line awards, by seniority. Then after the awards the grid may or may not be green for Christmas day, even at Spirit. If 5 guys pick up trips that touch Christmas, for whatever reason, that will allow 5 guys who are more junior to drop trips that touch Christmas. There is no other magic formula, or magic potion that allows more Spirit pilots to drop Christmas day.

Spirit is a younger group. Maybe they have more guys that don't have children. Maybe the airline runs less flights or less trips that require layovers over Christmas day. Maybe you're full of dung and just don't know it. I've already told you I've never worked a single Christmas, yet you claim without data or proof that Spirit pilots get Christmas off with less seniority than JB pilots. A claim you have zero data or ability to back up.

As for holiday pay, many major holidays at JB pay 200%, for the entire block/DH, or 4 hours minimum. It's good, but I expect improvement in both days included and a higher minimum hours per day. It's a win win for the pilots. If you wanna work a holiday, you get pay and someone who doesn't want to work it gets it off. If you get stuck working a holiday (I know, that never happens at NK), at least you get 200% pay.

 

Got a buddy at El Al who says getting Christmas off is really pretty easy there. Hanukkah not so much.

 

There is another phenomenon that happens at growing airlines (or airlines that have pilots switching between aircraft at other airlines) that has helped NK (and JB pilots) get Christmas off. As new pilots get released to the line from OE, they are built a RSV schedule that includes Christmas day. That adds one to the grid, and allows someone watching to drop Christmas day.

 

1) no one knows what benefits will stay and what benefits will go if the acquisition is approved.

2) I choose to work at spirit because of the quality of life, I could’ve applied with and gone to work for one of the “big boys” but chose Spirit because of the amazing work rules.

3) you’re right, money is not everything, but I can assure you that I can make more than enough money to pay my bills and buy my toys. The great thing is, after all of my toys are bought, I have ample time to use them.

4) the X list (overtime) and Spirit is not based off of seniority, so you can start achieving that right away. The X and y list are arranged based on how many hours of premium one has already worked for the year. The more hours of premium time you have, the farther down you are on the list and the longer it takes to get called. This gives everybody a fair shot at it.

 

Shouldn't write all this, it really gets in the way of Bluedriver’s narrative. God forbid you choose an airline for QOL instead of pay

 

DTZ shouldn't even be on the table for discussion at all since if the day is red, you can't drop it. It's no more damaging/cost more to the company to have drop to zero, 20, 50 or whatever because the bottom line is if the grid is red you can't drop. In other words if you can't hold weekends off, you aren't dropping, IME.

 

Show me someone that had a class date with Spirit and AA or DL or UA at the same time and chose Spirit and I'll show you a liar. Staying here after the fact is one thing. But lets not act like people are choosing NK over DL because of the "amazing work rules".

 

Just to be clear every airline needs the same basic percentage of pilots working on holidays. A contract can and will shift what pilots will work a holiday but it won’t change the number of pilots working.

 

There was one in my class who got a UA CJO and turned it down. I know of another who left for DL, hates it, and is trying to come back. LCA I recently had in the jumpseat told us about a couple guys who left for AA who are trying to come back.

They're out there.

 

I gave you a glimpse of the QOL I have had at Blue. You pretended it didn't exist. You don't have nearly the QOL advantage that you think you do. And I don't believe in the fallacy that you have to choose one or the other, QOL or great pay. I want both. The truth is JB has only ever had ONE full CBA negotiations. We are doing quite well considering that, and we just yesterday came to an agreement with management that increases our retirement to 17% 14 months from now, increases our pay next Aug to a MINIMUM of $356 an hour and restores a big part of our profit sharing plan, which will pay out after the dust settles from the merger. All that BEFORE we even enter JCBA negotiations.

I have every intention of keeping as much of the best of the NK contract as possible, but don't tell me stories of fiction about how NK pilots don't have to work holidays, weekends or anniversaries, work three days a month 200 hours credit, and every other airline works every holiday and weekend, works 27 days a month for minimum guarantee.