myrkridia

The turnaround on inquiries is much shorter than reports.

Ar Pilot

When did you submit? Usually when something like this falls through the cracks, it's because a pilot submitted a report and not an inquiry.

Feel free to message me a ticket number and I'll take a look.

tennisguru

Sounds like it's time for another primer on the oft-misunderstood F code:

First, as was said by someone earlier, the "less than 18 hours from report" has nothing to do the time between when ARCOS calls you and when the report time of the GS is. You can get an F code GS that reports 40+ hours from the time ARCOS calls you.

The F code is given when a rotation reports on a LC day at a time that you are otherwise not eligible for report. For example, today and tomorrow are VAC days with LC the day following. Today at 1200 you get called for a GS that reports in 2 days at 1600 (52 hours to report). Because you are coming off VAC you are not able to assigned anything before 1800 on your first LC day. So any GS that reports before 1800 would be awarded as an F code. This same thing applies coming off training (such as CQ) where you are not contactable at all and cannot be assigned anything prior to 18 hours after you resume LC.

Coming off a non-fly day (X day or assigned 30 hour rest), you cannot be assigned anything that reports before 10 hours after the start of LC, and anything between 10 and 18 hours after the start of LC must be on your schedule by 12 hours prior to the start of LC. So for example, today and tomorrow are X days with LC the following day. Today you get called for a GS that reports on your first LC day at 0600. This is an F code GS because you are otherwise not eligible to be assigned that rotation (note the word assigned, as in forced, as opposed to awarded via a YS). Once you hit the 12 hours prior to LC start point, then any GS rotation that reports within the first 18 hours of LC would be an F code since you are past the point they can assign you an early-report assignment.

Now, once you are actively on LC then the award/report time window starts to apply. If the first day of the rotation is a flight duty period then you need 10 hours from notification to report in order to be legal, so any such rotation would be an F code between 10 and 18 hours from award to report. If the first day of the rotation is DH-only, and thus not an FDP, then a reserve needs zero rest and can be awarded such rotation at or even past report time.

As for pay, an F code will pay the Block+DH+MU for the first duty period, or the duty period minimum of 2:00, whichever is greater, on top of reserve guarantee. I see a lot of people expecting 5:15 when they fly 1 leg ATL-BHM on the first day then lay over. (A 1-day rotation will pay at least 5:15). So be very careful and make sure you really understand the pay implications for acceping a GS that reports on a LC day. You also get no PB day for that day, and none at all if the entire rotation is over LC days. So it'd be a real bummer to blow G#1 for 2:00 extra on top of guarantee and work 2-4 days for it.

Remember that F#X = G#X. The coding is critical because the G code will never pay the first duty period above guarantee. Only the F code does that.

Bonus note: an OOBGS that reports on a LC day will always pay the first duty period above reserve guarantee no matter what because you are never eligible to be assigned that rotation regardless of the 18 hours from report guidelines above.

FangsF15

Wait till you find out ALPA was offered a price to outright purchase the ACE app, for a fraction of what 1 year’s cost had been. And they said “no”. Auto-ID would have worked instantly (in fact, was “turned on” 2-weeks before the contract ended to 100% prove to the pilot group that Auto-ID 1.0 was, indeed, ready. And had been for a year, obtw).

The so-called “billing dispute” was a total sham by DALPA, and I believe a false flag to let them terminate ACE.

There is always a little more to the story. That whole episode will forever leave a very bad taste in my mouth for the MEC chair and reps involved.

Viper25

What was the motivation to terminate ACE from their perspective?

crewdawg

This. And if there were Reps against it, why wasn't it blasted out to the group?

FangsF15

The MEC (or more accurately, a controlling group of reps on the MEC) saw the year-over-year recovered hours via ACE down somewhat dramatically. They felt it wasn’t worth what they were spending to “rent” the capability, and directed the MEC admin to either acquire it outright, or find another vendor from whom they could buy&own the software.

Initially, the company that developed ACE (and invested literally all of what they were paid back into improving ACE, and building out the backend of it, to include Auto-ID), they didn’t want to lose what they had built, and tried to negotiate. DH was having none of that, and IMO, suddenly ‘found’ an overbilling situation in a game of Russian roulette.

Note: the contract stipulated that ALPA would send monthly a list of the pilots, and would be billed on a per-user basis. The first contract with ACE was ~$5/pilot, and was renewed/raised to ~$7.50/pilot per month. Each month was therefore a slightly different amount. However, ALPA erroneously included some inactive, and or extra pilots in the list that they sent to ACE. But there was zero fault in ACE. They simply generated an invoice based on the rosters sent to them by ALPA itself. It’s that simple.

In typical shortsighted, and astonishingly shallow thinking, DALPA didn’t process the fact that the reason year-over-year recovered hours was down was precisely because ACE was working. It was only because ACE had its proverbial boot on the neck of management, that caused the company to stop violating the contract quite like they had been because it was costing them so darn much.

When an incredibly effective enforcement mechanism is removed, what did DALPA really think was going to happen? In the meantime, we are now nearly 2 years past the point where auto ID was ready for action. And there was much more in the hopper, being developed for offering an increased level of service to us pilots.

In the end, ACE was offered for sale to ALPA national for a total cost that was a fraction of what ALPA had been paying annually. And auto ID is still “somewhere” on the horizon. TBD. There are a lot of good people working the issue, but ultimately it was the (IMO) foolish decisions by DALPA leadership that lead us to where we are.

TALPAtalker

Because ultimately I'd like to be able to go to sleep and not have to worrying about my phone going off.

tennisguru

If that's a concern and you see a rotation placed on your schedule well in advance, just acknoweldge the rotation right away. That way you won't get a call but still get a SC period knocked out.

Thruster

Thank you much appreciated