I agree it's an issue with the beltway traffic. But at the end of the day just do your best, if you leave late, you leave late. Just be upfront with the crew desk when they call, especially during rush hour. Or at least give them an update if traffic causes a delay. While enroute.

Highly recommend putting each bases ops phone number in the cell phone to call if there is an issue. Done it many times especially when metro suffers a delay.

DC

I've only been called a handful of times on shortcalls. I'm about 62 miles to the parking lot. It doesn't matter if its 2am or rush hour...I always preface my conversation with the crew desk with...there is major construction going on or the traffic is absolutely horrible. Then I stop for coffee at Dunkin Donuts before I get on 50 and the Subway to get a sandwich right as you enter the airport.

Their time limits are not realistic. It needs to go back to "within a reasonable time".

C11DCA,

I agree with everything you wrote. My problem is with the written 2.5 hour call out as opposed to the previous and nebulous 4 hour "rule". This is just one of a long list of concessions the current contract contains. What are we going to give away next time in order to get the deal done and to get a raise? The list of concessions already given unnecessarily is staggering.

A good friend is a rep at the former USAir. He tells me horror stories about things they gave up "in exchange" for a few bucks today. But at the end of the day, they got squat. Mgmt sees the (contractual) holes they are going to drive a truck through and we've been too stupid to look beyond our wallets. Those holes just happen to be the barking starfish we sit upon at cruise. At the end of the day, those few additional (hourly rate) dollars cost us a TON of Andy Jacksons over the life of the contract and keep those starfish strapped in and away from home far more hours and days per year. Meanwhile those dollars are safely in the company coffers and will be doled out at bonus time.

We have been too focused on the hourly rate and NOT on the W2.

I realize that you understand all this, but some of the tripe I read makes me wonder how many guys are already enamored with this feckless contract and are eager to pony something up for the next one.

Rant over,
Cranky Walter

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/000...ll_xlarge.jpeg

Cranky Old mako.

I totally agree that many get enamored with the $$ at the expense of quality of life issues. And a lot of that has to do with the negotiators I think. For not flying the line in so long they lose perspective of how it really is. Think reserve rules, vacation drops, landings class etc...

For reserve callout, the net is we now have 30 minutes less to report as compared to the legacy UAL contract (not sure what CAL had, it might be an improvement). The "unwritten" 4 hours was to push vs the 2:30 to show. And there is a caveat for traffic etc built in. For some that change is huge, for others not so much. With 10000 pilots not to be unexpected.

Management always find loopholes in a contract that benefits them. Always have, always will. Plus add in the NMB precedence of management being the contract administrator and coming up with contractual interpretations. If we as labor disagree with those interpretations, we have to follow the grievance process to close that loophole. Thankfully our MEC grievance guys are awesome at kicking the company's ass when it comes to the process. But it takes time and money to hold them to the contract they agreed to.

One year till openers on the next contract. Now that it will be a "normal" two negotiation versus a three way, we can make the improvements that need to be made versus meshing bits and pieces from two distinct contracts and philosophies.

DC

Half agree and half disagree.

The current contractual work rules are just now getting back to where they were a couple of decades ago. Over time, we lost them, and lost almost all of them in bankruptcy. It took almost 10 years to get them back. Would I like to see improvements - yes.

Our current contract is much better in all areas than lUAL has had since contract 2000 ended 13 years ago. It is better than lCAL had since before their strike over 30 years ago.

Our current reserve system is better than lCAL ever had, and is similar to what lUAL had since 06 or 07.

At the moment I wish they would figure out how to pay me, and how to present that data so I can figure out if they paid me correctly.

This month's vacancy bid was posted today and it has 20 SFO 787 openings. It may pull some pilots from the smaller aircraft there, perhaps making them more junior. Closes out 4 May.

Other than SFO, where are 787 crews based?

IAH and LAX.

Thanks for the heads up APC, looks like I may have to make a very difficult decision on May 6th (Day 2 Indoc).

Well, you'll be able to see the results of this bid on the 4th, so at least the tea leaves will be fresh when you try to read them on the 6th.