Aero1900

I agree. The point of a job is to make money

CAirBear

It’s nice to have that ability. I’m a big cruiser. There are 30-45 day cruises that explore entire regions of the world that I plan on taking. Whenever that time comes, I don’t have to worry about getting back to back VAC weeks, and then trading trips away etc. I simply drop my entire month and all is set.

JoeFever1

You can get 30 days off by bidding a fdo line

Powderkeg

Please never volunteer for any position where you represent me when negotiating my next contract.

The last year has proven (to me) that I should strive to work less, not more. The ability to drop to zero may not be my highest priority in the next contract but our once beloved “flexibility” and “work rules” has gone the way of the Dodo so being able to drop to zero sounds like the ultimate in flexibility.

This is a joke, right?

Nailed it...

Maybe. But we are likely soon to be back to the days where we are short handed and scheduling is converting long call to short call, DH-ing RSV pilots to other bases, and sticking the long call folks with the red eye turns that nobody else wants.
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twebb

Just remember, if you can drop to 0 hours for the month, it means only a few people can drop to 0 for that month. The rest of the grid will be red and nobody will be able to have flexibility.

Xdashdriver

How so? Please explain.

Aero1900

Lol! Don't worry, I won't.

Powderkeg

With the end of Monthly Open Time, after the initial PBS award seniority is worthless. A daily open time swap takes one more click than an add so the reserve pilots have picked everything up before a line holder can swap. I still think people that believe reserves adding flying was a contractual “win” are short-sighted. So the only “flexibility” I have left is the ability to drop whatever I want. But without being able to drop to 0 hours that doesn’t do me much good. After June I have to finish the month with 70 hours of credit so if I drop anything from my 75 hour line I get a call from the CPO because there’s likely nothing I’ll be able to add to get back above 70. So now you have to sick call something if you need the day off. Do that one too many times and guess what? Another call from the CPO.

Then there’s the end of vacation drops, training drops, and transition conflicts. Also being displaced for OE rarely happens any more because training cherry-picks the best pairings before they can be awarded, a double-whammy. Being paid for 25% of the time you spend on CBT, not being paid at all for training required to learn new software, and so on.

I know I’m a bit of a Debbie Downer on the subject but we all got in the habit of saying our work rules and flexibility are so good I just don’t think people notice that it’s not the same world. Overall I think the contract is fine and I love being here, I just don’t like mindlessly agreeing that our way of life is superior to that of our peers’.

fcoolaiddrinker

I have a feeling the res pick up language might change a bit. If you want it to say so in the mid contract survey. IMO a 30 min time block for pickup is reasonable for the exact reason you outlined. Res pickup going away isn’t. I say that as a line holder. Also, try and look past this low block (especially on certain days of the week), high res coverage where thier not flying much period were in right now. It should improve as block increases and res % lowers. The worst thing to do is start tweaking language to fit a narrative that won’t last long.

chinookwinds

I couldn’t agree more. We have lost the once cherished scheduling flexibility. Once the garbage from initial open time is taken, it is next to impossible to pick up of swap any line holder flying on your schedule. While senior pilots are out flying their line schedules, reserve guys are sitting at home on reserve days, not flying and with an unfair advantage to pick up most all open trips that show up in the DOT folder.I feel that the language in our new contract, to allow reserves to pick up from DOT was one of the greatest traits to seniority rights here at Frontier. You are either a line holder, or a reserve pilot. It is and has been the normal career progression in this industry for years.Frontier Airlines is NOT the once stagnant airline it was for years. I think at a minimum, a 2-4 hour buffer should be in place to allow Line pilots the opportunity to add or adjust their schedule prior to a reserve pilot. In addition, the control the union has, to limit the number of min or max bidding pilots is a digression of seniority as well. If I would want to fly less in a particular month and have seniority over junior pilot below me in base, then the additional flying should be awarded to junior pilots as coverage award/unstacking if need be. Overall, I agree that our new contract is, for the most part a decent contract. I could mention other gaps from what was negotiated, but didn’t want to respond to this tread to complain about the overall contract.