Originally Posted by NWA320pilot

Not entirely true....... If someone had a yellow slip in then they could be assigned the trip. As a FO on an aircraft that flies ALV+ trips I didn't see crew scheds having a problem assigning these trips. We have too many guys wanting to fly in excess of ALV!

Originally Posted by Herkflyr

The true reason for ALV+15 was the long 12-14 day trips flying to the Pacific that in the summertime frequently are worth 85+ hours.

Originally Posted by acl65pilot

I'm going to jump in on this one.

DALPA is very aware of what the deficit is, what it will take to be in compliance at the end of the measurement period, and what it will take to be in compliance a year later. (End of the Cure period)

The measurement period is three years with Air France/KLM/AZ. The contract does not have any corrective mechanisms in place before the end of the measurement period, and then there is a 12 month cure period after that. That means that even if it does not look like DAL will be in compliance there is no trigger to claim they are in violation of the contract until the end of the cure period. Good or bad, what we see today is a measurement and is not contractually significant. Until there is a true violation of the PWA, any action taken will be dismissed because no violation as yet to occur.

DALPA measures this constantly and is aware of the EASK balance.

*Of note labor laws in France just recently changed and the Q1 2013 pull down by Air France is quite significant. Apparently these changes to French Labor law allow AF more flexibility in their block plan. Again, your union is watching the EASK balance.

Originally Posted by Herkflyr

Contrary to many recent posts, I see most reserves are sitting at home getting paid to grow a beard. Most widebody reserves aren't getting close to half the ALV, much less to the ALV. "Yeah but wait till summer" you say. Well, hmmm..., isn't that how things always are in this industry? Summertime flying picks up and pilots fly more? Or did I miss something?

The entire ALV+15, while I admit concessionary, isn't going to be nearly as onerous as you think, due to those pesky things called FARs. There is no way a domestic pilot is going to be flying 95 hours a month except as a statistical outlier--it certainly won't be the norm. Further, the 7 short call thing only takes effect when the new FT/DT rules are in effect, which limits any short call (domestic or international) to 14 hours.

The true reason for ALV+15 was the long 12-14 day trips flying to the Pacific that in the summertime frequently are worth 85+ hours.

Under the old contract if a pilot sicked out of one of those, not one reserve in the entire airline would be eligible to be assigned it, even if he had 15 or more continuous on call days, because you could not be assigned a trip that would cause you to exceed the ALV.

In prior eras, DAL (south) rarely had such trips, but the NWA side always did.

I do not believe it is unreasonable for the company to expect a reserve with zero hours to be assigned a published trip completely over his on call days. Any reserve in a WB category whose line started out with 18 straight on call days (which is common in such categories) should be eligible for such. Apparently the thinking on this forum disagrees.

As for "reserves are going to be slaughtered." I disagree. Reserves flying a bunch over summer?...yes, but isn't that what the airline industry is all about? At least now they have the calendar day average going for them, which applies to reserves and deadhead-only duty periods. While not perfect, now a two-day trip is always worth at least 9 hours to a reserve, where it might have only been worth four before!

Originally Posted by Wasatch Phantom

Herk,

You make an interesting point, but if the intent was reserve coverage for 15-day international trips, why wasn't the ALV+15 concession limited to international categories? I surmise because DAL thought it had a domestic benefit as well.

To me, anyway, the combination of ALV+15, a seventh short call day and the 30 day bid periods in the summer months all add up to potential "reserve h*ll".

I've been on reserve when the company is short staffed and it's not fun. You're literally flying a trip, on short call or on X-days. And with reserve pilots getting different credit for the same trip - they work a lot of days.

I'm fortunate in that I'm senior enough to hold a "decent" regular line. Since last fall I've been voluntarily bidding reserve most months. However there is no way I'll bid reserve in the summer.

I realize some categories may not be getting much usage from their reserve pilots but that's decidedly not the case in mine (SLC A-320A). Just looking at the availability list for today: Five pilots available. Two in RAW group two. Two in RAW group three. One in RAW group four (and he's the most senior pilot on reserve this month, IIRC). Of the total number of short calls that could be assigned so far to this group of pilots 68% have been used. Guys aren't growing beards on reserve here...

Originally Posted by scambo1

Just so I understand what you are saying: During the 3 year lookback regardless of what the imbalance is, there is no violation. Then, DAL has a full year after that to "cure" the imbalance - still with no contractual teeth until the end of that year (cure period).

Originally Posted by The Cavalier

That's just it. There was never a provision that didn't allow a pilot to go above the ALV if they chose to. Now we force them to.

It's funny because on 3 different occasions in the past 2 years I have either hit ALV or come within 2 hrs of it. On 2 other occasions I've probably come within 3-5 hrs of ALV and the result was more less the same. This was all in a domestic category. So I don't buy this idea that reserves in those categories don't fly enough to see a degradation of QOL. I understand that the summers means working more but now that we've moved the summer months to 30 day periods now we're talking min days off. When you're working every on call day the added extra 2 days that you could look forward to were valuable.

The idea that you have to be ALV+15 to be screwed is flawed. Not being full is bad enough but there will a lot of ALV+5 and ALV+10 going on which is bad enough. Taking OPTIONS away from pilots is never a good thing. Furthermore if ALV+15 is a rule to cover 12-14 day trips, why not make AlV+15 a intl category only reserve rule?

Originally Posted by scambo1

Just so I understand what you are saying: During the 3 year lookback regardless of what the imbalance is, there is no violation. Then, DAL has a full year after that to "cure" the imbalance - still with no contractual teeth until the end of that year (cure period).