mudpie

After 115 hours/yr or something like that. Let that sink in. And they get up to 270 hours a year to use, does not carry over, but who cares.

airbusflieger

It ebbs and flows....

January, Feb, not a lot of PM.

Soon enough spring break comes along, then Memorial Day, then end of school, then 4th of July, then Labor Day, then Thanksgiving, then fall break, then Christmas

Repeat.

thrust

Off the top of my head:

-Delta doesn’t/can’t block as many trips for OE as AA does/can. You can buddy bid with CKA and get bought off and double dip. Yes, we can now double dip, and the creation of the “line instructor pilot” position will supposedly mirror Delta… you can buddy bid with those IPs in PBS (someday) and perhaps increase your odds of getting bought off and double dip.

-The only premium level at Delta is 200% (“green slip”). There’s a minimum trigger you must reach to be eligible, and some leveling to ensure the super senior don’t just fly greenslips all the time and the junior never get a shot. AA has 150/175/200% premium levels but there aren’t any guardrails so there’s zero incentive for AA to offer premium beyond 150%. There’s no minimum trigger so senior pilots can and do empty their schedules and fly nothing but premium and don’t have to wait for junior to get their turn. I’d say that favors delta.

-Delta can bid all their reserve days in one continuous block, which obviously creates FAR 117 illegalities, and must get payback days off for work over a day off that can then be banked. There’s an entire game called “rolling thunder” that can make this system very lucrative. While I like AA’s reserve rules, this is a better aspect. There are some cons with Delta reserve that I wouldn’t want (short call conversions)

-Delta gets a lot more sick time

I wanted all of those things from this recent contract, and basically got none of them. When I brought them up to reps and the NC, I was frustrated that a few of them had no idea these were even a thing.

Russell Case

This was a great post; well done and very informative. For the life of me I can’t understand why someone who actually works at ANY airline and hates their respective company with such conviction that they spend the time bad mouthing it on every thread vice spending that time finding a new job. More of above, less of everything else.

Al Czervik

agree. if you know the contract you can make a lot of money here. when I imaxed I made 40-50k more a year and had two months off in a row each year with pay. I worked hard though. on the WB here you can do pretty well and never work. I guess it's in the eye of the beholder. I have close friends at DL/UAL. Seems to be all the same.

Russell Case

I’m on mass text threads with substantial colleagues from a soon to be former life in every possible combo of seniority, seat, platform, and domicile at the Big 4 Majors. They all reasonably have something they despise at their airline. They all are still quite happy at it as well, and never make blanket statements about “where you should god.” But just like here, they say the domicile you want to be in is all that really matters.

Sliceback

LOL. This made me chuckle. Way back when (1980's) USAIR had a great contract with great work rules. ANG unit and the USAIR guys thought they had it made and the AA guys were nuts. AA guy "they don't get it, they're going to get run over." The late 1980's/early 1990's were a brutal time for the USAIR pilots. Lots of stagnation. Why? Because the market changed and the FIRST target was USAIR - high cost and high yield. SW ate their lunch in the NE. The problem with USAIR is it wasn't big enough like AA/DL/UA to bob and weave a bit more with a larger domestic base than USAIR which was concentrated in the NE/east coast.

Easyflier301

Solid post, and thanks.

No doubt DAL has a great premium system and the “Greenslips” are very lucrative. Don’t love that you need a certain credit per month to get it, but I’d love to see some seniority guardrails or levelling on AA’s premium in a future contract.

As for DAL/AA Reserve system….that’s an honest toss up. “Rolling thunder” is definitely great though for making money though.

Looking forward to our contract implementation when OE trips are awarded based on LCPs bids from PBS. Hopefully that stops the “blocking” / seniority abrogation that currently exists and make more better trips flow junior.

aa73

Been here coming on 24 years now. (AA.) We've come a looong way from the lost decade. Some of the posts on here made by AA pilots that have been here just a few years are laughable. They talk as if they know all the ins and outs of both airlines and their contracts. The problem is that their rants are emotionally laced with the brainwashing and conditioning that everything at AA sucks, which is a common ELFism (a common name for some of the newbs and their generational know it all attitudes.) Here's a newsflash, most of these pilots have very limited knowledge of the AA and DL contracts when they throw out ridiculous statements like "you'll make millions more at DL." There are many ways to make as much as, if not more, than a DL pilot here at AA, - while working less - it's just that not too many have figured out how. So they throw out ridiculous statements and claims. Whatever. You can nitpick little details that DL has all day long and point to that and claim it's better there. You can do the same here. So it makes zero difference. Everything else is just emotional noise from pilots that love to self bloviate on here without half of the facts.

My advice, take the job that gets you the quickest seniority gain the fastest while also getting you the most desirable place you want to live with the least amount of commuting fuss. In the long run the earnings and QOL won't amount to a hill of beans in difference. Good luck.

Varks

They don't get to cash it in at the end. AA does. $200,000. A tax free option too. I am very close to having the amount for the full 200K. That means my last 8 years I can burn all 60 hrs/ year. Great for IMAXing. They do not care about people calling in sick. The younger generation is going to do it no matter what the say and think. I call in when I am sick. I bid 4 and 5 day trips so burn a lot every time I call in. Please don't tell me it's impossible to accrue it.