Originally Posted by sailingfun

I stated it was rumor only but it only takes one complaint to force action on the part of the company. Someone could follow up with a lawsuit. You are allowed 5 years of military leave on non exempt orders. Most mil leaves over the last few years have at least some of that time period on exempt orders. Personally I think any set of orders where its not voluntary should be exempt. I know some reservists for instance who were ordered to active duty when the did not want those orders. There is a decent sized group furloughed after 911 who had 10 to 12 years of active service prior. They are mostly now coming back since they have their 20 and the companies new program will have little effect on them unless the company demands orders showing status on their return. Many of these pilots begged to get any job keeping them on active duty rather then come back to Delta. I don't blame them and would have done the same thing. The benefits are enormous. You get a immediate retirement check and you are also made whole on retirement from Delta. Now if your a junior pilot who worked for Delta the last 12 years and finallly about to see some movement and 250 retiring military guys show up ahead of you you might not feel the same.
Mil leave as mentioned in the above post is certainly abused and abused more then many know. I saw it all the time before I retired. A pilot would go into a closed squadron to do a few hours of paperwork on 24 Dec to drop his 4 day trip over Christmas. I know one ER pilot in JFK back when the shortest trip we had was a 3 day who bid lines with 5 day blocks on call and put a Mil Leave day in the middle of every 5 day block. He then GS's like crazy on his scheduled off days. He did that for years. I even know one pilot who got hired while still on active duty then claimed he was recalled and departed after doing 3 weeks of ground school. He was actually on regular leave. He was a smart man who is very well situated today.
I have seen dozens of other mil leave scams. Its kind of sad because it eventually makes it more difficult for those who are serving their country and applying the mil leave rules as intended. Its not a easy life working for Delta and flying for a high tempo reserve squadron. Most of the abusers I saw were in very easy reserve jobs where their participation was when they wanted to schedule a drill and they only worked a few days a month. The guys in squadrons or billets demanding 8 to 10 days a month or more seemed to follow the intent of the rules.
It appears from SD letter that Delta is going to enforce the non exempt ruling only going forward so its really not likely to have much effect. I doubt the circumstances of the last 12 years will ever repeat themselves again and it simply wont be a issue.

Originally Posted by full of luv

Well your scenario is a little unpredictable for a few reasons.....
First, you need a DD-214 (out of the military) to get hired in the first place.
Second, you would need the reserves to go from undermanned to wartime quickly thereby offering you the option to go back to active duty after joining the reserves.
Third, said when was the last time anyone at DAL could "hold the left seat on anything" after 5 years?
So getting out of the active duty with 5 years to go just to get hired and go back to the military is a tenuous proposition to say the least.
Most were Furloughed and scrambled for a few years just to try to find a niche that they may be able to return to active duty, far from a planned evolution.
LUV

Originally Posted by Delta1067

You aren't getting it and what you quoted leaves our question unanswered. Where does it say if we are at the 20% threshold or wont we know until the final lines are published? We know that 20% reserve means the extra X day, where does it say whether or not we are at the 20% mark?

Originally Posted by Delta1067

You aren't getting it and what you quoted leaves our question unanswered. Where does it say if we are at the 20% threshold or wont we know until the final lines are published? We know that 20% reserve means the extra X day, where does it say whether or not we are at the 20% mark?

Originally Posted by Scoop

The "bad" behavior Sailing describes is fraud - pure and simple and should not be tolerated. But this behavior is not limited to MIL LV but also includes:

Fraudulent Scam Divorces
Faking disability
Fraudulent dependents
And probably a dozen or more scams that we can't even think of.

Look at the big picture guys.

Scoop

Originally Posted by iaflyer

Have you actually looked at the bid package in the appropriate section? Around page 19 or 20, there is a large chart with every category, and a column with YES or NO. It says whether there is an extra X day or not.

Originally Posted by Delta1067

Thanks. Found it. The initial chart you referred us to was the wrong chart so thanks for fixing your post and steering us to the correct place.

Originally Posted by TheTriColor

I'm sure this has been discussed at great length but a question for everyone.....I am on short call again tomorrow for the 4th time already. I have no problem with that at all since I understand it's my job, but the issue I have is that we have about 40 guys on reserve, and there are about 15 other guys in my 4 day bucket who have sat ZERO shortcalls this month!
What gives!? I mean, I thought they were supposed to have shortcall buckets as well...ie...if days of availability are the same, they won't give the junior guy 6 SC's before they give a senior guy 1. I have obviously misunderstood how this system is supposed to work. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by jabwmu

I've had this same problem. Are you on short call today? If so is it a later RAP period (after 9am)? Unfortunately they probably pulled the availibility list before you started your third short call. If you change your preferences to sit an earlier short call I think that should help.

I like later RAP periods so have to change my preferences as soon as I'm assigned my third short call. The system is flawed IMO. Hope that helps.