BoxFlyer

I can't see a 3 year bid. How can the company project that far into the future when they don't know manning levels one year from now. Mini-bids every 6 months make more sense to me. If some dude wants to go to training every 6-12 months, more power to him.

Daniel Larusso

Easily. Nothing says that they can't have additional postings in the future and adjust things later and on their terms once they get a hold on the age 60 thing and other issues. The long letter keeps the guys in the back in case of retroactivity and lets them control who goes where. Btw, how can anyone realistically expect to talk about the bid and movement without Age 60/65 coming in to the discussion? That question on the standing bid is there for a reason.

Magenta Line

Agreed DL, the next bid, or few bids, MUST include a discussion of the Age 60 problem.

I can't see a 3 yr training letter either but, as in the past, we've had other bids that then supersede any award you previously held so, yes, we could see a 3 yr training letter but IMHO, it wouldn't mean much past the first year.

The bean counters think their crystal ball looks to infinity but actually, it's probably only accurate for 90-180 days and after that, it gets pretty cloudy.

Daniel Larusso

Magenta,

I agree that their forecast will be inaccurate going forward, especially since they are claiming that we are 300 pilots fat now before Age 60 when the last big bid said that they needed 360 newhires. However they like control in all things at all times, and a three year training letter with small bids later similar to the latest Airbus and last years MD bid certainly give them that ability. Bottom line I guess, is that it doesn't help us much for planning huh?

OliveBrnch90210

max open was 21 on wed last week,,,,a30/fo,,,,got called out on draft for both thur/fri. any other bubba's seeing this.??

bee boy,,,,you don't always get what ya want,,,but if ya try real hard.....

Gunter

Now the 2 or 3 year bid makes sense in the grand training scheme. The company gets it's training costs back before you upgrade again. The ACP's emphasis the importance of getting the seat you want as soon as you can (to help the company).

Being fat in the junior seats (727 FO and SO) lets the company send some folks to training without needing to hire off the street immediately. This gives the company some flexibility. Being short in the FO seat before enough newhire SOs come in generates passover 12 months later. See below.

Starting this fall-winter the bottom 170 SO's will get 727 FO passover. This may reduce flexibility in the size of the bid (if the passover money is important). The next bid needs to be big enough to get them to the FO seat or it will waste quite a bit of Fred's money. And it has to be before the over 60 guys get the chance to go back up front.

But who knows?

FedExBusBoy

Got myself on the prefer to be called list for the past 2 months and havent been called since New Years Eve for a draft............

SNAFU

How do you figure this?

Purple Nugget

Deleted....

Gunter

Look at the bottom 50 on the 727 FO list.

During recent hiring cycles, in 2005 and again in 2006, the company put newhires into the FO seat after they put newhires in the SO seat (Between bids) and made passover a possibility. It will not kick in before year 2 and often is preceeded by another bid and 727 FO training.

This year, like last year, a few months of passover will be paid. Even longer if the 2006 hire SO's get to hold widebody FO. That training will be over 12 months after the bid.


And, oops, I realize I miscalculated. Much less than 170. They quit putting newhires into the FO seat before they hired the last bunch of SO's.

Sorry......