TonyC

Watch my right hand.

Pay no attention to what I'm doing with my left hand.


So, really, what is the sin being committed here? Is it the use of automation? Is it the advantage some people have over others with particular types of automation? Or is it the saturation of company resources?


We casually toss around terms like "bot" and "hackers" and "rogues" and "cheaters", but what we really mean is that some people have used technology to gain an advantage. The truth is, if we all had the same "bots" or "hacks" to level the playing field, there would be no complaints. Those bots would be OK if everybody had one.


A recent complaint from The Company is that computer transactions are being conducted when pilots could not possibly be at a computer to conduct them. So what? That's been going on for at least 15 years, and they weren't complaining then. Who remembers MagicDisk? A precursor to a current product, it was meant to be a user-friendly interface to the "Green Screen", which at that time was the only way to access schedules, pay information, jumpseats, etc. One if its biggest selling features was its ability to log on to The Company's computer, synchronize your computer's clock to The Company's clock, and submit your Jumpseat reservations "on the hack", even while you're asleep or flying. The same feature was used to submit Trip Trade requests at the very second that Open Time becomes available for the following month. You didn't have to be at your computer to submit the trip trades -- Magic Disk did it for you.

Did The Company complain then? Nope. They made available a place in the locker room where Curt could display his product for all to see. Did pilots complain? NO. Anybody that wanted a copy of the program could pick up the floppy disk, install it, and send Curt a check. That's how he put his daughter through UC Berkley. He wasn't sneaky about it. He was completely open, worked with The Company, and The Company condoned it -- even the part that allowed me to reserve a jumpseat in my sleep and submit my trip trade request while I was airborne.

I submit that the issue of submitting those types of requests while one is otherwise occupied is a red herring. In fact, I think the restriction is unfair to people who are flying when Open Time becomes available. I think it's unfair to a pilot who is flying when the Jumpseat reservation he wants to make becomes available. I also submit that making those types of transactions while flying is NOT a violation of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA grants us access, and it does not place arbitrary limits on that access.

The biggest culprit is the Trip Trade system. You never know if your Trip Trade will be approved. You never know if your Trip Drop will be approved. You never know if your Request to Move or Drop an R-Day will be approved. And you never know how long you'll have to wait to get an answer. So you submit another request, and another, and another, until you run out of options or time. The system thusly gets bombarded with requests that have to be processed manually -- a problem of The Company's making that causes us all to suffer, and wastes bandwidth.


I think the real issue is the bandwidth which is consumed. Rather than fix the core problems, The Company is attempting to erode our access. They add layers of nuisance to the access to make it more difficult. They implement arbitrary policy through FCIF, e-mail, and the threat of disciplinary action.


And then they chuckle when we start going after each other with fingers of blame extended at our fellow pilots.


When I send a package via FedEx, I can log on to fedex.com and track the package. I can set my web browser to refresh the webpage every second. (My computer can't keep up with that, but that's not the point.) Never, NEVER have I gotten a warning from FedEx as a customer to stop using their computer resources so much. Why am I being harrassed as their employee?



They need to fix the Trip Trade system.


They need to add bandwidth.








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appDude

Tony -
You are way off base this time.
It has been against company info sec policy for a long time to give anyone else your password. It is unfair for any of us to take advantage of the others by doing this.
Same as having a computer logged in and auto trade.
Same as hacking the CAPTCHA, which has the stated purpose of having a person and not a computer read the challenge.

Instead of telling us to all be sheep in the name of unity, why not use this to unite our force. It is the one percent who are breaking the rules and cheating on the rest of us, why not let the 99% unite on this issue?
This does not have to affect the negotiating table in any way at all.
Now quit preaching unity means silence and let guys that have valid beefs express themselves.

flextodaline

Simply said, we need to police our own......Somehow, I always thought that was part of what my union dues were for......are you listening, Pro-Stan?

TonyC

Nowhere, never have I said or implied that unity means silence. What I DO believe is that we ought to be pointing our fingers at the REAL enemy, and it's not each other. The problem here is The Company, and we're defending them.

I am not advocating giving your password to anybody else. There is no prohibition against storing your password and your e-grid on a secure computer. I'm willing to bet you have yours stored.

I am pointing out that The Company did not have an issue in the past with having a program to log on and conduct legitimate transactions while the pilot is otherwise occupied.

Why is it a problem now but not then? I don't believe that's the real problem at all. The real problem is bandwidth, and it is exacerbated by our ridiculous Trip Trade system.


So, you state the CAPTCHA "has the stated purpose of having a person and not a computer read the challenge." You imply The Company wants that function to be performed by a person and not a computer. Well, that's nice. There are a few things we want, too. Do you suppose they'll give us everything we want? I don't. Nor do I believe we should hand them everything they want. If they want it badly enough, let's see the CBA language they propose. Maybe we can bargain. As it stands now, there is no such restriction.

And as it stands now, The Company is using our jealousy to divide us.






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Gunter

I argue with Tony more than anyone but I think he has a point about our access taking a beating over time.

FedEx IT has been going backwards in time when it comes to our ability to trip trade. No one but crew dogs care because the rest of flight ops and the corporation is going the other direction. Thank goodness they upgraded our deviation system and e-mail. That was a serious problem

Failure to process trip trades increases the number of transactions that would naturally occur. What should be one transaction turns into many.

For example -

Several good trips look to be available in open time. You, and other crew members, put requests in for the best trip so that creates 30 to 100 requests. Probably more in the big bid packs. Then each crew member keeps putting in requests for trips on the same day because they don't know if they got any of their previous requests. If there are 10 trips available then you have just created about 1000 requests.

Not to mention Scheduling's answer to dropping R days. They say "just keep trying, the system might allow it as the day gets closer". Sure enough the algorithm changes at some point then you drop it. Not a hint of it until you get the approved message. Why not show some type of code so we can actually SEE the system change. This would eliminate tons of useless requests.

No matter what they say, the number of transactions is 100% the fault of scheduling. There are easy ways to reduce them to less than 10% of what they see now.

I think scheduling is afraid someone might be let go if they get more efficient.

MD11Fr8Dog

How about the company pushing OT when new trips pop open, rather than everyone pinging OT en mass, VIPS sends out 1 notice to all - options to subscribe or opt out can be included.

Gunter

Oh, nevermind.

appDude

That has been suggested more than once to the company. And yes, would be part of an overall solution.

Magenta Line

We could process open time requests at set intervals during the day and in seniority order. BOT problem solved.

We have 1% who are cheating on the rest of the crew force and most of the crew force doesn't know or much less care. I know & I care. I went to pro Standards, they told me to go to my block rep. I went to my block rep, he told me to go to the company.

CloudSailor

IMO, real-time fully-automated scheduler-free trip trading is the only way to solve this. I know that most airlines have been doing this for years now, some with much more sophisticated platforms than others. Most of these software products allow pilots to swap/drop/add with only a mouse on a single window display, compared to the multiple windows and manual keyboard entries we now need to navigate through for every single request. I have had the pleasure of using the more sophisticated systems. You find out, within 5 seconds, whether your swap/drop/add was approved or denied. And then, you can move along with your day, instead of inputing another 30 requests and waiting for hours to find out the result (as TonyC noted, this will obviously overwhelm the server). Those other systems I was able to use also had the negotiated transparency for Rday drop/move "algorithms". With that one is able to go in, look at the calendar, and figure out BEFORE making an input, whether dropping/moving an Rday is even a possibility. All of this was done completely automated. Zero scheduler input.

We could have a dedicated server, from a company whose sole focus is pilot bidding software development, take care of all our swap/drop/add requests. Then our incessant pinging of the server, which is independent from the server used for business, would have no negative effect on company resources. The negative side to this solution would be the outsourcing of FedEx jobs, never a good path to follow for the long-term. I just don't see our IT department being able to "patch-up" VIPS to make it user friendly and fully-automated. We have to start from scratch, or better yet, hire a company which is already doing this very well (FLiCA). Or, appDude and FlyByKnight and BidX-man, can revamp the system to something that works well for everyone .

In any event, let's beware of the real possibility of "here is the fully-automated trip-trading software, however it only works with PBS" (sorry I brought that up).