Any "Latest & Greatest" about Delta?
05-11-2012, 11:04 AM
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Don't want to stir the pot any more than it needs to, but I just saw the new Delta ad on I-85 South. It has a picture of an EMB-175 and says size shouldn't outrank service, UGH.
05-11-2012, 11:21 AM
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A little off topic, but does anyone know of a crash pad near Penn Station? I've been commuting to NY for several years now, and I'm tired of Kew Gardens.
05-11-2012, 11:25 AM
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05-11-2012, 11:26 AM
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Hah, no crash pads in Manhattan. I've never seen one, good luck with that, considering the rents on the "big" island.
05-11-2012, 11:31 AM
seeing the large hubs...
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I agree some of the parts of the NN are concessionary, but let's also remember that a lot of the people on this board are reserves at DL. It affects them, and that means it is very vocal. Reserve issues affect people who are junior, and those same issues may not affect regular line holders. Sure, those line holders may upgrade and become reserves, but people saying losing an X day here, or talking about how much they may work on reserve in the future will probably move up to a line holder anyway, and some of these issues won't affect them as much. They are important issues, but reserve does not last forever unless you want it to. Unless you are the plug in a category you can't get out of or the plug at the company, you also have to look at issues as a possible and probable lineholder.
Reserve, while an option like anything else here (commuting, type of trips, etc) doesn't need to be a crappy option that keeps funding the rest of the contract.
05-11-2012, 11:35 AM
Can't abide NAI
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Never mind
05-11-2012, 11:50 AM
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05-11-2012, 12:01 PM
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I agree some of the parts of the NN are concessionary, but let's also remember that a lot of the people on this board are reserves at DL. It affects them, and that means it is very vocal. Reserve issues affect people who are junior, and those same issues may not affect regular line holders. Sure, those line holders may upgrade and become reserves, but people saying losing an X day here, or talking about how much they may work on reserve in the future will probably move up to a line holder anyway, and some of these issues won't affect them as much. They are important issues, but reserve does not last forever unless you want it to. Unless you are the plug in a category you can't get out of or the plug at the company, you also have to look at issues as a possible and probable lineholder.
Telling pilots “you’ll be line-holders someday” is a diversion and not a proper response to concerns about a negative impact of reserves’ quality of life. Reserve isn’t a “junior” issue as there are pilots across the majority of the seniority list on reserve. the issue becomes even more pressing when considering the impact lower manning will have on retarding a reserve pilots ability to advance to line-holder. Parts of the proposal will effect line holders as well in having reduced ability to green slip and a higher ALV...
My own personal experience isn't all that great. As a five year Delta pilot I am still on reserve -- certainly not what I would have expected -- and as of the first of the month I am not even in base but commute to reserve.
My own experience pales however when I hear the stories from the captains I fly with many with 20+ years at Delta barely hanging on to the Left seat. Quite a few moved back to FO positions, perhaps that can be seen as a career advancement because now they are "senior line holders" with a 25-40% pay cut...
Shouldn't our motto be:
"When one Delta pilot has a problem we all have a problem?" oh, wait...
Cheers
George
05-11-2012, 12:03 PM
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Max reserve changed from ALV to ALV + 15:00, reserve "full" at guarantee... Under the new rules the extra flying is mandatory and doesn't result in increased pay or days off until reaching 80/95 hours. Scheduling will be able to place up to 23:00 of additional flying per reserve before needing to resort to green slip coverage. The effect for all pilots, will be fewer green slips and reduced availability of double pay for line-holders and payback days for reserves.
Always enjoy your posts, because they're informative and well considered.
I've been struggling trying to see how the Reserve language would work. If I understand correctly, you're still full at Guarantee, which I guess could be as high as 82 hours in the summer (based on a rumor elsewhere that Reserve guarantee = ALV - 2). Scheduling would be able to take you to ALV + 15, or 99 hours, but they have to do this in one trip, right?
IOW, if they send you on a two day, 10:30 trip when you're at 72 hours for the month, you're at 82:30, and you're done. Of course, there can be a guy at 81:30 that gets sent out for a 17:00 3-day, and will hit 98:30. But how likely is that? If he has that much time under his belt, it's likely he's going into X-days, or he probably just flew.
If you think about practical applications, and think in terms of days off, and FAR's, I can't really think of a way you'd run every Reserve anywhere near 98:30 in the summer. Is it worse than now in terms of summer utilization? I'm pretty sure you're right, and I have a problem with this. So you're right about it being "up to" 23 hours extra, I think, but when calculating how many Reserves you'd lose, you can't assume they can get 23:00 out of every Reserve. It's not even going to be remotely close.
Of course, I don't know how to calculate the actual impact on staffing, but I agree there will likely be an impact.
Another observation: this would also make Reserve go silly junior in the summer, silly senior in the winter.
05-11-2012, 12:12 PM
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Sincere question? Of course I have. I have been around here for several contracts, and I have learned that any conclusions drawn based on summaries or bullet points provided before a TA is reached are misguided at best and often just plain wrong. The devil is always in the details. There is an awful lot of chest thumping going on around here and not nearly enough information to back it up. My favorite is "Not one more 76-seat jet or I vote NO!" Our scope is full of some really ugly loopholes regarding codeshare and jets below 70 seats. We sell seats on some international airlines most people have never even heard of. Alaska has taken away most of our west coast flying. Our company has pumped $100 million into Gol Airlines. I'm not making any decisions until I see what has IMPROVED in Section 1. Personally I would be willing to consider an increase in the number of 76-seaters within the 255 70+ seat total in exchange for meaningful enforceable restrictions on codeshare and permanent phaseout of ALL RJ's (and turboprops) other than those 255. You notice I said "consider." I don't have enough information to make that decision yet, and neither does anyone else.
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