I think 7?, or maybe 5......

 

7 this quarter, 12 total over the next 6 months.

 

I'm gonna chime in , don't give up transition. There's a reason that a small portion of our schedules have more than min days off ( even rsv) . Think about it if they could , (just like every airline out there) build a schedule it would like this for us
xxxxooooxxxxooooxxxxooooxxxx
That's 12 days off with 4 days off between every trip . Now if they did that to all our lines we would all get 16 days off due to conflicts .

So if you even consider giving up conflict , give it up for min days off of 16 period . I PERSONALLY WILL GIVE UP NOTHING fyi!

Someone mention earlier that it's hard to conflict . Totally BS ! You bid ,then you pick up or trade into the conflict before you bid next months . Plain and simple . Red /green helped us out (especially the FO side) to easily manipulate our schedule .

Just my .02

 

Hopefully you hastily wrote this after a couple of cocktails before going to bed because you obviously didn't understand what I was trying to say. First off- i don't feel "bad" about me or anyone else using transition conflicts. It is part of our contract and the company signed it. We may have slipped that little nugget by the goalie, but such is life. When I said its a "matter of principal" I was talking about how we should not HAVE to bid a conflict to get paid what we deserve. The company should straight up pay us what we deserve.

Now, moving forward... What is the conflict language worth? If you get 5 days off in transition and end up with a 21 day off line that pays you $10k for the month. What difference would it be if you were able to just flat out drop that trip and still have 21 days off and still make $10k for the month? Point is: you CAN put a $ amount on the conflict language, and if ALPA chooses to trade it away I will listen to what the company has to offer in return.

 

PBS is the kiss of death. They could offer $300/hr across the board and I'd vote NO.

How would I handle the transition? Pay me enough on my hourly rate to offset lost credit in transition-plus a raise. Then I'd be cool with it. Maybe take those who bid conflicts and give them priority in IOT..? I'm not sure how other airlines who bid regular schedules do it..

Would I be happy to accept the current conflict language? Yes.
The problem I have with it is this: There is already a large disparity in pay as you move up in longevity based on hourly rates. The very senior are able to bid conflicts AND get the days off they want. Then pick up over their dropped trip and make even more resulting in an even larger gap in earnings. Then you have the people in the middle of the seniority list who can get a conflict most months but don't because they need certain days off and don't want to take the risk in IOT or DOT and end up having to work on their anniversary or kids birthday. I choose most months to get the guaranteed days off in my monthly bid. Then there are those at the bottom who have trouble getting either one of the above scenarios. I feel that, for most, the language is somewhat restrictive unless you are at the top of the seniority list. For the record: I think your schedules and pay should get better with seniority.

I have been in this industry for long enough to know that soft time is a reality. I'd like to see increased rigs on top of it. At least that will force the company to make more productive schedules.

I agree we are not doing anything wrong by abiding by the contract. See my post above.

I'm not sure if transition conflict will go away. What I am sure of, is that if it does, it had better be for something better for the group as a whole.

 

There is and they the Union tracks them so you can not make too much money

 

How about keep what we have annnnnd request guarantee money?

 

There is nothing in open time after the 18th in ACY and barely anything at all the second half of the month in any other bases

 

DFW had maybe 10 trips in IOT , and 30+ after. Of course I was already close to having a conflict , I just filled in the gaps . I'm just saying you can be junior and conflict rather easy. Might require bidding RSV but if you want lots time off its a nice option ...

 

I don't know who these guys are who are able to credit over 100 hours on a consistent basis but I can tell you I've certainly never met any in person. As a commuter, it is nearly impossible to credit anything over 85 hours unless you are willing to completely sacrifice your personal life. I have been here for 18 months and have yet to credit more than 90 hours in a month while typically crediting between 72 and 80 hours.

Yes, I've heard stories of guys that live in base and sit on the phone with crew scheduling 24/7 crediting an egregious amount of hours but this is certainly not the norm (and also not really helping out the rest of the pilot group but that's another argument). It's also not the way I hope most of us want to live our lives in order to make what United and Delta A320 pilots are making.

The point is, although transition conflict and some of our other work rules are nice, they need to be supplemented with more important things such as a stronger trip rig (at least 5.25 hours per calendar day) and industry standard A320 pay. Without those two things, we will all be spending the rest of our careers sitting on the phone with crew scheduling begging for open time at straight pay and taking ourselves down to 4 days off per month just to make what are brothers and sisters at United and Delta are making.

Don't get me wrong. I love it here and really would like to make a career of Spirit. We have some great work rules. We also have some severe deficiencies (pay, trip rigs and retirement) and I think some guys like to try to justify those deficiencies with things such as the transition conflict. The transition conflict is great and I think we should keep it, but we shouldn't have to count on it every single month in order to credit 120 hours so that we can make the same amount as our A320 peers who only need to credit 80 hours per month to make the same amount of money. In my 18 months here, I've experiences a whopping 3 transition conflicts, 2 of them on RSV which if you actually follow the contract, you'll know that you cannot pick up open time in order to credit above guarantee.

If we are going to make some gains in the next contract, we need to quit living in fantasy land and admit that we have some serious deficiencies. Yes, Spirit is a great place to work and we have some good work rules but seriously guys, let's be real. We have some work to do.