Pay COULD be differentiated by location. Pilots choose for it not to be. I’m not advocating for it in anyway, but I’m fairly certain if ALPA wanted SFO pilots to be paid 105% and IAH pilots to get 95% of whatever the rate is, the company would agree. That basically already exists on a small scale in GUM. The bottom line is no one WANTS it to be that way, not that it CAN’T be that way.

 

Dang I like that idea. If you’re senior enough you get what it want

 

At 12 hours (I believe 10 for certain assignments), long call isn't actually commutable. This despite most long call notifications coming in at 15 hours plus, and the company having short calls plus field standby to use. So on long call some watch the list and commute in if it gets close, obviously risking discipline if they actually do get that call at 7:30pm when they're 6th in the 5-day silo. Or maybe there's an overnight FedEx option but it isn't really practical, and the very likely backup plan is a sick/fatigue call in case of a morning assignment assigned late. Or you just commute in when you're that 6th 5-day guy and sit in the crashpad, just in case the company calls at 7:30pm for a morning show. That's the stress of commuting to reserve in a nutshell. You either have no life or you hawk over the list figuring out when that call will come, and thinking about commute flights and contingencies the whole time. It sucks. Most guys have integrity so they bid away from it instead of playing the games it takes to have QOL. Some guys actually can commute to reserve because they have 20 flights per day, but that's not everyone. Reserve isn't actually that bad in base.

So... to make reserve suck less, make it commutable. It's really that simple. There are three parts to this. 1) longer callout time, at least to cover the overnight when there are no flights. A non commutable morning should have notice by 3pm. A show after 2pm: they can tell me that 2am-4am no problem. There are commute flights for that. 2) Stop short call abuse and ditch field standby. Though I could actually see allowing fsb if we got 18 hour longcall at all hours and sc/fsb abuse was contractually limited. 3) Positive space commutes, especially for reserve since they don't have the advanced notice a line holder does.

That's it. That's how you get commuters to cover reserve captain on the expensive coastal bases.

 

Correct - there seems to be no motivation to do so. Not sure why not given that this is the case literally everywhere else.

I am curious if we have differentiated pay scales for ground handler etc. they are unionized too and don’t have an option to commute.

 

Actually, some (although not as many as pilots) do commute. At least among the CSRs and tech ops. Not sure if they have any kind of pay differential, though.

 

ALPA could start be enforcing the pure LSR/SC lines currently outlined in our existing UPA. Make FSB a bad memory.

 

You sure about that? Guam guys wanna chime in?

 

You'll know when you have reserve rules right when it actually goes senior a least a few months in certain categories.

 

Reserve will never go senior in domiciles that have co-terminal airports.

 

If pay is differentiated by location it should be after-tax profit based not cost of living based. If your blue commie government taxes too much or your neighbors are Spirit flying trailer trash then maybe your fair share is smaller than the guy who renders his services in a posh libertarian paradise.