avi8tor220

A lcal jumpseater was explaining to us about the so called "mafia." Can you guys explain who and what they do? I was trying to listen to the jumpseater but he didn't have a headset on and those damn Q cockpits get noisy. All I remember was hearing about Hong Kong and maintenance flights.

Dave Fitzgerald

As a LUAL pilot, I would like to remind everyone that junior manning was one of the specific topics of the injunction. I'm not trying to argue the company side, but if they are getting ready to take us back to court, this thread will be presented. Junior manning is allowed under the UAL part of the contract.

I would urge caution in your discussions about specific individuals. This was one of the parts singled out in court.

APC225

After the lines are awarded a group of ten or so widebody pilots keep getting the best trips via trade or straight pickup. Conspiracy theories abound (schedulers work with them outside contractual open time criteria, mx notifies them directly of ferry flights, they all call scheduling at once to block anyone else from getting through, they have a software program that accesses the DOS-like level of the company computer so it "sees" the open time trip before it gets to the GUI interface that regular pilots work with, and more theories). Union and company checked into it and said nothing was wrong.

Speculation is they sign up for automated open time alerts via text message, as any pilot can do. Some or all of them carry two phones on different carrier networks. With all these phones on different networks they increase their chances as a group of getting a notification first. As soon as any of them get a text message of open time then that person speed dials scheduling to get the trip. After acquiring the trip, the group then uses it to trip trade only among themselves or against even better trips in open time.

Or not. Who knows.