firstmob

Any word or good rumors on new international flying for summer 2011?

NuGuy

Heyas,

After experiencing both systems, I have to still go with the APA system.

1) Base moves, every month
2) Easier to see which way the wind is blowing
3) No pent-up angst
4) Effects of missing or screwing up a bid are minimized
5) Provides an out for someone in a bad QoL situation because of a shift in flying. No waiting around forever.

Plus, Temporary Bids were the last really good deal at the airline. It also let you try out the base before you made a comittment.

Nu

Ferd149

AND, get a paid hotel room for commuters!!

Ferd <-------forgot about that great deal........except you were at the bottom of the bid list at the temp base

TOGA LK

And positive space Y1F6 must fly passes whenever you needed them.

TOGA LK

It almost just happened, hence the shift in AE award date.

TOGA LK

Exactly, when you are stuck in a sheat QOL situation, 210 days is a long dang time.

Mem9guy

In almost every case the freeze at NWA was 2 years, same as Delta. Only exception was an intentional lateral or downward bid that incurred a 4 year freeze.

firstmob

What's the status of our compensation from Boeing because of the 787 delays?

TOGA LK

Here's a scenario. You hold a line on the DC-9 (only other option being NYC). The company has said they will draw down the fleet end of summer so you keep your position and commute to a line (in lieu of 320 reserve). The bids are awarded and several months later, in June, the company draws 40 lines out of DTW well before they were going to park planes. Now you spend a summer on reserve on equipment you didn't anticipate whereas with the APA one could displace off DC9 line holder to reserve on something with better trips; essentially exercise seniority. Not with the APA system, stuck till you get your award 9 months later. Side note, called Crew Resources and Training and discovered that training within 210 days won't happen either due to backlog.

APA system= awarded, trained, paid and on with your life.
AE= Waiting to see if you get an MD before you convert to you last AE

1234

Base moves can only happen if there is a vacancy and you were senior enough to hold it (I sat a few months in DTW, never able to get back to MSP because there were no openings that I could hold). I will say that you do have better odds at getting a base move earlier under the APA system but again, it is not a guarantee.

How is it easier to see which way the wind is blowing with the monthly APA?

The effects of missing a bid, I get, but under the AE system, it is pretty big news that there is a bid out so if you don't know about it, you are not paying attention (or reading the popup in ECrew when you sign in). Not sure how it minimizes the impact of screwing up a bid. If anything, I think that the AE systems helps with that in the fact that your seat lock starts when the bid is published and you may not convert for 9 months thus effectively giving you only a 15 month seat lock.

As for the movement of flying, again, it would be dependent on the company to provide openings for someone to bid to.

YES, temp bids were great.

I really don't care which way it is, in the grand scheme of things, the same thing is going to happen with the same people whether it is monthly or how our system is now. Maybe would be nice if the company would say that they will do X number of bids every year (maybe one per quarter) so that it can alleviate some of the pent up "when is the next bid coming out" feelings.