It’s not sympathy, it’s psychology and my goal is just to understand why people vote the way they do.

a significant minority opposing pbs isnt irrational

 

Why are you asking pilots about flight attendants' opinions on their own contract, pay and work rules? Do you think we know more about it than they do? If you want to better understand what the flight attendants think and want, then go talk to the flight attendants.*

*= assuming you have a decent set of social skills, unlike a certain DEN based CA.

 

ALPA many times over the last 15-20 years.

 

The FA’s I talk with don’t understand PBS. Most I talk with don’t want to understand they just believe whatever the majority tell them.

 

and it seems most of what has been told to them is egregiously wrong or just way misunderstood

whe I tell them that PBS is NOT a trip trading tool the look at me like I have 2 heads.

 

This


One big problem is there is just so much (I don't mean racial) diversity in their workforce. You have breadwinner fathers who work 150-160 hours a month and don't want too restrictive work rules, you have people who really should retire but don't because this is their social scene, you have people still single middle aged, both a male and female who just want to enjoy work and mostly focus on QOL and commuting issues, you have Moms who fly as little as possible and are only looking for flight benefits, you have others who never planned on making this a career but whelp 10 years goes by quick and kind of hard to get back into a competitive field you may have degree in after spending 10 years out of it and now realize they need to look out for themselves and want increases in pay, and yes you have your influencer types who don't even know they are IN A UNION cause they didn't have one at Sunglass Hut and won't pick up the phone when AFA calls them for a survey. All these groups are just not going to have unifying interests.

 

might be the ‘tism talking m’lord but I respect the general brain pan size of pilots more than FAs.

Actually what I meant to say was…damnit…that’s what I meant to say.

 

You kind of answered your own question…..you like PBS, they like linear….principle of primacy. I’m not here to debate which is better…but have you ever wondered why if PBS is so awesome….why is it the company is the one pushing for it so aggressively???
obviously PBS is pretty much industry standard these days. I will say just as eject says below the ability to intentionally disrupt has just been such a long lasting bidding strategy……..and that goes away with PBS. The other is linear bidding is hard to screw up, there are preset schedules some you like, some you don’t……don’t like it don’t bid it……with PBS you can kind of screw it up, if you tell it to do something you dont really understand, and lastly you can’t end PBS (at least United’s) with an avoid statement. Generally speaking in the FA world, you’ll find seniority prefers to avoid things they dislike as opposed to chasing things they do like.

 

Maaaaaaan
there are pilots that don’t understand PBS, they pay people to bid for them. It’s not real high level computer programming, but in order for you to learn good bidding strategy and techniques it will require some time and effort. What? “They pay us enough to have someone else bid for us”……well they don’t pay the flight attendants that much and not all of that workgroup really wants to take time to learn a software they feel they shouldn’t have to. I could teach elementary school kids to linear bid, I might need to have high schoolers to understand bid via preferences.

 

I agree with what you’re saying to a certain extent, but I think the main issue with them at least from my conversations are that they are very “comfortable” with their pre constructed line bidding. They have been doing this forever and don’t like change. A lot of the senior mamas think it will reduce their quality of life and bidding ability. They think they won’t get as good of a schedule from what they have been told by other FAs who are against PBS. They also think that if PBS is adopted it will lead to layoffs.
As I have done both I’ve told them that overall it’s not as bad as what they have been hearing from their peers, but not as good as what the company is selling, but overall I like it because I don’t have to bid a crappy line overall to get the days off you need.