CAL always had Flight Planning rooms (with phones, color printers, and yes chairs) in every hub terminal for years. The "self-dispatch in a box" came after the merger as the end state for ALL of us once U migrates to CCS and ditches the dot matrix.

As far as the briefing in the airplane goes, please help me to understand why in these post Shuttle days, some U captains are printing half a tree worth of ACARS paperwork for the next leg while in the descent on the current leg? I've seen it quite a few times, and always ask "Aren't you still going to go inside to look at the WX charts??" So what's the point, besides being a major distraction?

 

It's been tried many times. Paid for duty time instead of flight time. That is the mount Everest at the negotiating table. I do not like working for free, but the CBA requires us to flight plan and pre-flight for free. I won't give the company any more free time than I have to. Until we start having perpetually late flights due to inadequate time available, this will not change. Jeff wanted this, let's give it to him.

Don't work for free, if we do, it's like crack, they'll just ask for more, and I think we've heard this tune before. Your career is worth what is it because of the contract. You are essentially waiving the duty time provisions by flight planning on your own time. The NTSB and FAA might not view that favorably in a fatigue related incident or accident.

And, I hate this, but it used to be a career for me too. I love flying. Not any more, now it's just a job.

Again, if you give them stuff for free, your career will just be a steady downhill slide....oh....wait.....never mind.

Enforce the contract, insist on it!

 

Forgive me, but is everyone on CCS now or is LUAL still not? Does everyone bid with the same program or is that different too?

 

We all are on CCS. We do vacancy bidding through CCS and we just did our last month of PBS on our old system. Starting with January bidding we will be bidding with the same PBS system.

The vacancy bidding through CCS is more robust than the old UAL system, but the PBS system is far less intuitive than the old UAL system so its a tradeoff.

At least EmployeeRes is better than the old UAL pass-travel system so at least that's good.

 

Really? How? Blue flies on autopilot better than black, loads fmc better, clicks seatbelt better, pushes print button better? Just how.
Let me guess you use more highlighters on a map. Well pat yourself on the back I guess.

I haven't heard of black or blue landing at wrong airport or bending metal lately so seems like everyone is doing their job just fine.

Can't wait to fly with blue..You can find me on the plane or in line at starbucks. I don't hang around to listen to someone telling me what I can read myself. It's not like we aren't going. Fill me in with whatever details you want. We are still going.

 

No offense, but this quote exactly is the difference between the two pilot groups. Your standard is "we haven't had a mishap yet, so we must be doing it right." Our is higher than this. Our strict adherence to SOP is something lacking in the black side of the airline. The L-UAL pilots flying on the CAL side are the best ones to ask about the differences because they have flown on both sides of the operation.

I don't think anyone on the black side is any worse a pilot than anyone on the blue side, but the attitude difference is definitely noticeable. It's a big deal on the blue side when one pilot doesn't follow SOP. I've been told on the guppy fleet there are "many" SOPs and you almost never know what to expect. That certainly doesn't happen on the blue side. If one pilot does something not SOP, it will be questioned to ensure what they are doing and that we are all playing by the same rules.

 

I'm not talking about ramming airplanes into the Terminal or going four wheeling in Denver.... or gear up in IAH.... etc...

I am not a standards guy or sim instructor... I leave that to the professionals.... to train....

I am talking culture... pilot culture... Isn't it interesting that last Oct, scabs were sanitized from the union committee structure. There are fundamentals in life... like women voting, black presidents... and no scabs in union positions. Some get it... some don't.

 

Maybe, you should ask some of them yourselves!! You may be surprised what you hear! I've had both the LUAL pilots and Flt Attendants as my crew members. I've been told by MANY that they enjoy our culture! Or you can just come on here and spout your hearsay while I'll just go by direct quotes!! Try to get over the us and them mentality, it's coming across very UNPROFESSIONAL!

 

Let me first say that I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that scabs should not have any place within a union structure, period. I've been a MEC cmte chairman and vice-chairman long enough to see how pilot advocacy gets undermined when scabs are involved.

But, ALPA National and sUA MEC (as well as CAL) have ALL had scabs in key cmte positions before; at sUA Dubinsky's MEC Comm was written by a repentant scab.

 

As a U-hire, I can't tell you how many lCAL pilots have told me they are glad that we are here and Scabs are finally getting treated like they should be treated.

IMHO, yes, there are pluses and minuses to both pilot groups. The lCAL side has a vastly better attitude towards their job, each other, and other coworkers. I hope to $%#@ that the combined company adopts this, and doesn't retrograde back to the UAL that I left.

I would like to say training and standardization is much better at lUAL but that is not really an accurate statement. I doubt lUAL is that different from most other airlines. My opinion, and the opinion of every new hire and u-hire ( including a few ex-Feds) is that lCAL is really, really poor in this regard. This is not the fault of the individual pilot, but the leadership in flight department.

So going forward, I hope the combined pilot groups adopts the lCAL camaraderie and culture, and gets trained by, well not UAL, but simply industry standards.

And I hope that we, together, create a special little place in h$ll for scabs.