dracir1

So, about these...

Logic would dictate that the more unproductive trips (like above) would be left in OT for use by the reserves - which is is exactly what happens. The company makes the most use of its pilots if all lineholders fly their schedules to the max extent AND NO MORE and the reserves fly up to but not over the 75 hour mark on the "unproductive" leftovers in OT. Max revenue (for the cost of labor) is a balancing act between the use of reserves for sick calls and the residual of OT.

To do this, the company MAY BE USING (I have no proof) a couple of "tactics." One is (obviously) construction of the unproductive like above - that we all know for sure IS happening. Another, is to "HIDE" trips. By having trips that would NORMALLY be picked up kept out of OT until after 9:30am the day prior allows them to assign a reserve to the trip. If there aren't reserves available, the company can still use the PAF. Am I the only one who notices these trips being added late?

I suspect there are multiple sources of the hidden trips. Perhaps some come from a pilot going out on FMLA/long term leave or leaving after receiving a line for the month. I also am somewhat suspect of the practice that perhaps some trips just never get put into OT after the line selection process the month prior which is a clear violation of the CBA. Some are "broken" trips that occur when pilots time out or become otherwise unavailable in a certain location short of returning to base. Let's say there's a 4 day trip out of DEN that overnights in IAH, CLE and MCO (yes, I know, very few of these but humor me). After getting to IAH, the FO gets a call for a family emergency - he/she calls the CPO, gets permission to leave the trip and goes home. Normaly a reserve would be DH'd out to IAH to continue the rest of the 4 day (which is NOW a 3 day). But, what if there isn't an FO available with 3 days of RES anywhere (this does happen). Well, then the trip is kinda piecemealed out to a couple of different reserve FOs - it's not uncommon for a trip to have a multiple RES pilots from multiple bases all be needed to fly. The company COULD take the last 2 days of that 4 day (which overnights in CLE) and offer it in OT - but this rarely happens. Ive often wondered what is cheaper - DHing people all over (and paying for hotels) vs. just putting the remainder of the trip in OT at a base and letting it be picked up. My real wonder is how this company will change when we eliminate short term reserve (like United and Delta did - Delta has an 18 hour call out).

Another tactic is what I call "selective assignment." I've long been suspect of the lack of immediate trip assignment in FLICA. If it were truly automated, it would take miliseconds to assign trips - yet it always seems to take a few hours (sometimes days). The explanation offered to me was that my request always seems to trip a "flag" and a scheduler needs to look at it. It's my thought process that the company assigns trips - to SOME degree (certainly not all the time) - based on who they want to have the trip the most. If 9 people request a trip in OT, it's supposed to go to the first request but I'm not sure if anyone outside of the company has visibility of this. I have heard MANY TIMES of stories of FAs who call in, ask for trips and somehow get rewarded with them. Lots of FAs know schedulers by name. I've heard stories of FOs requesting trips in aggressive reserve but weren't awarded - then they find out later their buddy who's also on reserve and DIDN'T request the trip was assigned to it. I've even been assigned trips and then had them reversed once someone "reviewed" it for legality. Yes, trips have made it on my schedule after I picked it up them removed hours later. I've also called into scheduling and asked when my pickup request would be approved (as it's been in there a while) to be told they will contact the FLICA approver to look at it. In just about every single instance, the trip was either approved or denied in the next 10-15 minutes (which indicates to me that ALL schedulers have FLICA approval/denial access and it's looked at on a workload basis).

Again, I have absolutely NO PROOF of any of this and the tactics mentioned above don't seem to be used all that often. It might be in the weeds what little savings it would create, if any. What might be a better explanation is that the schedulers just aren't that savvy and none of this is on purpose - it's just the inefficiency despite their best efforts.

I would suspect perhaps someone from the scheduling committee might chime in and explain that none of this happens, etc.

LibertyBiberty

Nope, you’re not the only one. I’ve noticed several of last minute drops in that can literally only be assigned to reserves this month in DFW. One popped in this morning too. Like you said though, maybe it’s a sick out or family emergency that turns to piecemeal..

BagMan

If that s true then how is there so many day turns in open time?
If I am doing the math it seems like for every three people whining about day turns there is one who loves them. Good for those people. It is a bright spot for the company. I hope you still feel that way if you get displaced... into EWR.
You might think your to senior but with the number of small bases we have and the way things are going. I think we may all be suprised at who goes where.

HSCompressor

Just a guess....

But probably bc the majority of our trips fall between Thursday-Monday.
Thursday-Monday is probably when the supermajority of people are working, minus the more senior people. Therefore, there's more trips, and more trips not being covered, and the people who have day trips are already doing something better.

Also, historically anyways, if you pickup enough trips you start to run into time/duty issues.
Also, you have the premium lovers who sell their soul to FLICA to pickup one premium trip so they can drop two normal trips.
Also, it's a lot harder to drop/swap multi day trips, again historically. Easier to drop day turns.
Also, it's the weekend. People are more likely to NOT pickup a trip just because they finally have a weekend off, and they value it.
Also, are they readeyes? Or "Normal" day turns?

I would almost guarantee there's no abundance of day turns in open time on Tuesday or Wednesday. I haven't seen it anyways.

JoeFever1

Exactly. Most OT trips in normal bases are early morning weekend trips or red eye turns.

BobSacamano

The reason there are so many day trips in OT is because all (95% plus) of our trips are day trips. There are hardly any multi-day trips in OT because there are hardly any multi-day trips. And of course there are hardly any trips in FO OT at all, even day trips.

Now, about day turns more generally. Sure, there are your commuters who dislike day trips. Often those pilots are still here because they’re either too senior to leave or they’re brand new and commuting to SJU or CLE or whatnot until they can be based at home or somewhere that’s livable. Neither circumstance is going to convince the company that it needs to move away from day trips. If that Denver resident pilot who commutes to another base (we’ve all flown with them) decided not to go to UAL a year ago when UAL was hiring essentially DECs straight into DEN, then that pilot is simply not at risk of attrition—even with day trips.

Me, I’ve commuted to day trips. The worst part about it was not being home at night. Just like…. ordinary multi-day trips. It sucked spending on a place to sleep, but I made the best of it and rented a room. Ultimately it was more comfortable than hotels and more convenient to boot. Not to mention I didn’t have ti check for bed bugs every time I entered the room.

People who claim to work in aviation for the “travel” boggle my mind. For every decent long stay hotel there were many more nights in the airport Marriott. That ain’t what I’d call enjoyable.

Nemack85

Don’t give up guys! You gotta fight , for your right, to flyyyyyyyyyy 😁

jokes aside, whatever time it takes the word is:
RETRO PAYYYYYYY