tcco94

Don’t bid airplanes for trips! It always changes.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230611-dlnw23inc

winter on the -400 seeing Barcelona, Frankfurt, Rome just a few. Switches with HNL occasionally. For a couple weeks they’ve had seasonal Maui.

330 variety outside of ATL/NYC is grim. That is a machine to the European and Asia hubs. But nevertheless, don’t count on trips staying the same on an airplane. Except for stuff that no one airplane can do, like the 350. Even that thought will see other bases come in and do some of your stuff and you will go to some other base.

GogglesPisano

DTW 350A will be the first "Super Premium Widebody" to fall to a 2007 hire. 5 destinations and 14-hr flights.

Dorfman

Just a reminder that 12/99 is a pre merger Delta guy. So equal to a 97 ish NWA guy.

TegridyFarms

Not just you. I’ve seen someone talk for 2 hrs out of a 3 hour flight about how they are thinking about upgrading on the next AE. Not 100 % sure but probably. Only to land and say “we call ground or ramp from here? Is there a ramp here? I’ll just call ground.”

GeneralLee

I have the same thoughts. It’s the entitlement mentality of many newer folks here along with a lack of patience. It’s the instant gratification era. I get some may be frustrated by the lack of AEs this year, but in the grand scheme of a career it’s barely a blip. We are in the good times right now. It will be interesting to see how folks react in a downturn again.

Gone Flying

honestly the fact we were able to get 18 hour LC while simultaneously eliminating the 7th SC and add pay for SC combined with things like 150/200% for all reroutes leads me to believe we could improve the AE system as well.

considering our AE process appears to be worse than UA or AA it seems like something we could definitely improve on that would be in the “zone of reasonableness”

I’m not on team “let’s mutiny over no AE for 6 months” just team “let’s identify and improve the weak areas of our contract” c2019/2023 improved the AE process but there is still work to be done.

NuGuy

WAY back pre-1998, NWA had almost an identical system for position bidding that DAL, it was even called something similar. Random bids, random training, and ugh, dual qual.

Yet somehow NWALPA convinced a notoriously cranky airline to completely upend the system and do something that was much better for the pilots, and better for the company. Not only that, they got rid of dual qual and vacation cancellation, to boot.

Was it a utopian dream? Maybe, maybe not, but you never, ever heard one person talk about it, because it worked so well, it just was. No one ever obsessed over bids for one second because, well, guess what? another bid was running next month. And the month after. And the month after that.

Do I think management will cede control to build some utopia? No, but I do expect them to consider improving the system for both parties and not just sitting like a grump on a stump because any 1) "Change is hard", 2) They don't know how to do it any other way (especially with plenty of other examples), or 3) Anything improving life for pilots is bad.

crewdawg

I don't understand how smaller, more frequent bids doesn't make more sense for them. You can really sharpshoot staffing and keep from have massive movements at one time. Even if you have a larger than expected movement from a particular category, you can quickly adjust it because there is a bid next month.

FlexManFlex

Exactly. I have discussed this with a few others and no one can come up with any reason to why the company loves large, very few AEs a year. I don’t get it. It’s like if they get the numbers wrong, oh well because it’ll be a half a year before the next posting

Buck Rogers

Just curious. Do you think the MASSIVE hiring after the Covid upheaval debacle is putting greater expectations/pressure on the group due to FOMO. I suspect when things get back to real world on hiring, there will still be AE angst but no where near the level of todays discontent.

And, yes there will still be room for improvement, but as Gunfighter said, more frequent AE's will narrow the gap closer to stove pipe(more AE's combined with slower hiring numbers). Some will applaud but some(the go-getter's) will not have the opportunity for the meteoric advancement of today.

BTW, about 6 months ago a friend of mine at UAL didn't get trained for so long(9 or 10 months) that he incurred no freeze and was within a week of getting paid and staying home. Only bring it up because it seems to be a sign of the times(Covid). UAL appears to be better manned than Delta currently, but it appears Delta is running full tilt at the training center. It may always be running hot at Delta, but eventually things will stabilize, GS will dry up(comparatively) and BES will return to more stovepipe. Just my WAG