Cargo Pirate

This also might not be entirely fair but, it appears to me, that when setting priorities, the union considered the old adage, "You only have to be junior once."

I hope this is not the case. It seems to be accepted that junior guys sit reserve at the Purple airline. I for one bid reserve whether I am junior or senior and will make this an issue at the next negotiations.

My seat is way overstaffed(more R lines than lines) and we are still denied R day swaps.

OHab

And while I'm at it, what sticks in my craw is that, the co didn't impose the algorithm to safeguard reliability. Then as now, anytime a trip showed up in open time it disappeared like raw meat thrown into a pit of ravenous dogs. They imposed it to reduce operating cost. Every time we fly, even at draft, the co makes money, but by restricting r-day drops and moves, we're likely to cost less.

Unknown Rider

I'm on the Boeing and have moved and dropped R-days many times. Is this just a problem on the other aircraft and if so, why?

Magenta Line

Here's how I usually got R days moved or dropped....

1) Outside of the current bid month, dropping or moving R days has rarely worked for me. You guys are trying too early. Try next week when we're actually in the May bid month. I cannot recall EVER getting a day dropped or moved outside of the bid month.

2) Don't ask for more that 1 - 2 days at a time, that includes moving and dropping. I usually asked to move 1 day, then went back in and moved the next day, etc...

< I should caveat all this with "it depends" upon alot of factors; your seat, the calendar month (May is not a huge vacation month, Jun, Jul, and Aug are), peak, etc...

3) Don't move days that make the company give you a 1 in 7. There's a reason why you got 6 day blocks of reserve...... the company doesn't have to give you a 1 in 7. If you get a 15 day block, you're getting 2 "1 in 7's" either in MEM at your crash pad/house or in the field. Same logic applies to moving one R day later in the month where it stands alone. Skeds can't do much with you for 1 day.

4) First of the month we're always short on crews; carry-over, vacation, ad hocs, etc....

5) I usually went to the ACP to get days moved, didn't ask for that many R days to be dropped. That looks like I'm not trying to get out of working. What the ACP's used to say was...."let the system work and then come to me if you need to move days." I usually tried a couple of times then went VFR direct to the ACP who went direct to the scheduling guru and got the days moved. No, I did not have a problem going VFR direct every month or every other month (after I was off probation.....) Also I never tried to move all of my R days or rework my month -- I just moved the days that made my schedule work the best for me and therefore for the company.

6) Notes, cautions, warnings -- the company can see all of your drop and move requests and I vaguely remember an email that said "if it did not go through the first couple of times, you're probably not going to get your request" or some such drivel. As I recall, the software is denying your request, not some pink body in skeds. You can hammer all day on the computer but if it says "error message" you're getting nowhere and the pink body sked guy/gal cannot override the dreaded "IR" message. If you ask to drop numerous times and then develop an eye problem you might get a call from your ACP. You'll probably definitely get a call if you use that ill-advised technique 3 months in a row.

And finally, remember that the next time the phone rings in scheduling your crisis of moving an R day just got trumped by a broke jet in Jakarta. That's one of the reasons why I went direct to the ACP to move days when the system wouldn't work for me. By the time he's back in his office there's at least one if not two more crisis' to handle and my little "boo-boo" of moving a couple of R days was a piece of cake for him to fix. (I am sure there is a Freudian reference to this condition of benevolence but I cannot place it).

Tuck

Not trying to stir it up, but I've never had probs moving or dropping R- days. On thurs at exactly open time release I put in 4 R day moves - each 2 day moves and all were approved. MD11 not out of MEM.

nightfreight

Reserve has been very good lately, not too much flying. But, moving or dropping a day in the MD-11 has been almost impossible....

OHab

Good gouge, and it's how you have to fix you schedule in the current system. Another related problem is the one of Insufficient Reserves on Trip Trades involving multi-day trips, even when the trip load was nowhere near max open. I've had them denied when the trips covered the same footprint, as the software, (then, don't know if it's been fixed) first dropped the trip, before assigning the replacement. Usually it involved trading a trip which went from days to nights or nights to days. Has anyone else seen this, wondering if the RA+, RB+, reserve coverage has fixed that problem?

Magenta Line

IR on trip trades involving multi-day trips is a tough one to fix. I've had that happen to me more than once. I have tried to drop 2 trips and pick up one trip that covered both trip's footprints and almost never have had any luck. My guess..... the sked now has to get 2 different bodies to pick up your 2 traded trips. It's a really bad predicament because you and I know if those trips aren't death marches they'll get picked up. I'd call the scheduler, tell him what you want to do, and then hit "enter" as you're talking to skeds. Let them see what it is you're wanting to do.

Other options: try to post a trip for trade at the various other web sites. once you've been here awhile and have friends in the same seat, ask them for trip trades. I have about 4 guys I regularly trip trade with; they've got friends in ALA, I've got friends in CDG. It works.