Free Bird

I'm sure if I was in your shoes I would feel the same way. That being said, with the current system, when summer comes all the reserve folks will be flying. When things are slow (right now) some folks are not going to fly. Imo, the shared distribution of flying gave us a reserve system that did not honor seniority. Many folks have been complaining for years that reserve did not honor seniority, the survey confirmed that. This new system does a pretty good job of that.

I realize many folks have been sitting reserve for 5 years now and I know that sucks. To keep it in perspective, many late 2000 + 2001 hires (who are hardly senior to 07 folks) were furloughed for 5 years. This job has been a kick in the coins for lots of people, hopefully you'll be that senior reserve person in the next 12-18 months!

capncrunch

I find it hard to believe seniority came before increased reserve guarantee and same credit for same flight on the reserve survey.

MoonShot

What do you feel the buckets should be set at then? I feel that 80 is reasonable. Much lower than that, and it creates too many buckets and seniority is devalued (especially in summer when we are flying more). Don't forget, we are getting 5 points for each short call too.

There will be quite a difference between categories too. The bigger category you are in, I predict, the more you will be able to exercise seniority. In a small category, there just aren't going to be enough bodies to populate each day of availability, bucket etc...

We will see how it plays out, but I think that a bucket of 80 is reasonable.

Bucking Bar

Number one?

Where on the list did credit time for short call days fare?

I'd rather bid short call for a chance to over 70 than anything else and I've been on reserve in one form or another and one place or another since 1993 (because I chose to fly at mainline and I choose not to commute out of Atlanta)

Jesse

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Finger touching tip of my nose.

sailingfun

The problem with asking for more credit for short call days would be the companies response which has some validity.
DALPA: Pilots should get paid more for short call!
Company: It used to be pilots were on short call every day 24 hours a day. You complained about that and we gave you a long call system. Huge win for you! Now you want more pay for the 6 short call days left?

Having said the above I would like to see a system of short call lines that could be bid for more money then long call. Even that however has problems and there would still have to be a method for the company to convert long call pilots to short call depending on weather ect..
In the end I am convinced the only reserve system that most pilots would consider acceptable would be that they pick when and if they go to work. Somehow the company has to be able to put butts into seats.

Jesse

4 day trip: typically 43 - 45 RAW
3 day trip: typically 32 - 34 RAW
Still below 80 RAW; still in bucket 1. Just as before, when a pilot who volunteers for a SC he's not necessarily going to get it if there's a trip that needs a reserve pilot so his request for a SC goes unfilled and he gets the trip (no help with the 5 pts).

Next time he's available he gets another 4 day trip....finally into bucket 2, but after 11 days of flying while the other guy still hasn't put his uniform on, and may very well not have to even when he has to go to the sim to stay current.

This is better than what we had where the junior pilot (in a low demand month) would typically fly around 8 or 10 days and the senior pilot 3 days (if that)? Seniority was getting rewarded, and the changes that came along with the LOA were very helpful in giving more due towards seniority, which I applaud. But the bucket values are out of line. Just because it used to be even more skewed is not reason to justify this change. I'm sure a lot of pilots would love to have things the way they used to, but the givens are much different from what they were and thus the playing field is not the same.

As FTB pointed out, you don't see this kind of change taking place to further reward seniority for line holders.

Xray678

I was looking at the Crystal Ball feature on EZOpenBoard.com.

Right now I am about midway up the list in my ATL category. In five years........I will be about midway up the list of my ATL category.

That was depressing.

KC10 FATboy

Deleted

Many thanks....

hockeypilot44

The depressing thing is that there is no end to our stagnation.