Originally Posted by Lakeaffect

Yikes—this feels unsustainable, maybe it is.

I’m genuinely curious what AF Onewire, DERA, and others who are against picking up premium trips while pilots are on furlough think about this:

For a current Spirit pilot being offered premium (x/y) trips right now, what should they do, in your view?

Is accepting those trips right or wrong? Is it helping preserve jobs for furloughed pilots to return to? Or is it prolonging furloughs by covering flying that would otherwise create recall pressure?

I’ve been hearing a lot of very confident opinions that don’t seem well thought out. Things get thrown around as if they’re obvious truths like calling this “scab territory” without a real understanding of what that actually means.

I’ve had real cockpit conversations where pilots believe a strike vote means you can strike immediately and use that misunderstanding to justify strong opinions about contracts and other pilots.

It feels like a lot of this comes from people wanting to sound informed or aligned with the group, but operating off simplified rules like: “Don’t help the company” and “Don’t pick up premium during furloughs”

The problem is, when those rules are applied without a deeper understanding, they can become counterproductive depending on the situation.

I get that forums are an outlet for trolling and ****ery, but setting that aside. What’s your honest take on picking up premium trips at Spirit right now?

Originally Posted by emergencyexit

You even said it yourself, that isn’t the intent of move up pay. So if a reserve takes MUP to show early, that eliminates scheduling having to call for premium trips. Stealing money from someone who should be getting 200% and giving it to a reserve for MUP.

You’re sitting at home in an outstation, say MCI, and you get a call for premium. You’re really going to tell me a pilot shouldn’t take the trip to save a cancellation because we don’t have enough reserves in FLL? That’s just stupid.

And if you look at how many people are on the XY list, you’re a minority in this thought process.

Originally Posted by SoFloFlyer

Yes, but the point is that if guys wouldn’t pick up ANY premium, they would recall guys and those guys on reserve would get MUP to at least have a chance at padding an underwhelming reserve paycheck (though a pay check nonetheless given that they’re probably unemployed).

Reserve needs to be renegotiated at NK, but the that’s a separate topic entirely.

Point still stands, don’t pick up premium when pilots are furloughed. With coworkers like that, who needs enemies?

Originally Posted by hoover

in the way back after i was furloughed for 13 months i came back and got the gift of flying with a dude who self admittedly flew the most of any pilots on property the year before. He bragged at how much he made when i was on furlough. I mentioned i was barely keeping my house and just thought it was so cool to tell.me again how much he made picking up all the premium he could.
yeah that was a fun flight, not.

Originally Posted by Lakeaffect

Yikes—this feels unsustainable, maybe it is.

I’m genuinely curious what AF Onewire, DERA, and others who are against picking up premium trips while pilots are on furlough think about this:

For a current Spirit pilot being offered premium (x/y) trips right now, what should they do, in your view?

Originally Posted by CincoDeMayo

37% is crazy number. At 20% for today already. Unsustainable bleeding

Originally Posted by CincoDeMayo

The general rule for decades has been to not pick up extra flying when you have your fellow pilots on the street. If the company has flying it can’t cover, recall. And this is what you’re seeing here, even the guys picking up flying still can’t cover the amount needing to be covered, so they have to recall.

But there will be a time when attrition slows and they probably will furlough again; and the rule remains the same, you shouldn’t pick up flying when you have pilots on furlough.

Originally Posted by Lakeaffect

I guess what I’m saying is. If everyone stops picking up open time/premium trips when the company is in a potentially unsustainable situation, is that really in the best interest of furloughs? I think not. I’m not interested in general rules, I’m interested in now, our current situation.

Originally Posted by FriendlyPilot

Here's some possible karma...

The limit on wages in a liquidation is $17,150 for each employee. Which means that the court won't allow more than this to be paid to any employee for total wages owed. Since airline pilots are paid in arrears its possible some pilot that has been picking up trips has a big payday coming, but if the company liquidates, its the secured creditors who get paid fully and then unsecured creditors. Employees would only get up to $17,150 and then after 180 days if all secured and unsecured creditors have been fully paid (they won't be) then any leftover money can be paid to employees.

That would be the 'karma is a b***h" outcome for guys picking up with pilots on furlough.

Originally Posted by FriendlyPilot

Honestly it doesn't really matter. Today's cancellation rates is already 44% and its early PM. Could break 50% by the end of the day. Guys picking up aren't stopping furloughs from not coming back. If they can't figure this out the doors are going to close very soon.