avi8orco

…and it’s easy to figure out who they are. They make sure you damn well know when they walk in the crew room they’re on VDA. Or it’ll be like the one I flew with this week who had a screen shot of his paystub on his iPad that he showed me…almost $380,000 so far for the year

SoFloFlyer

I’m assuming this is something y’all want changed to make it a bit more even for the rest of the pilot group? Couldn’t imagine never getting a single premium call just because of seniority.

The premium flying that pays 150%, are those trips in open time and need to be covered still, but there’s no reserve?

Roy Biggins

If there’s multiple trips in open time at premium, it means we’re in some type of IROP. If not generally, they’ll mark trips premium late at night that need to be covered early morning.

VDA is the same 10% of people that churn through it daily. Again, when the operation goes completely sideways, they’ll trickle down to lower seniority folks. This is also base/seat dependent. Ones that are understaffed obviously have much more opportunity than others.

it’s worth mentioning we also have RSA’s here. This is essentially a reserve assigned that pays 175% if you’re called to fly. If not, it pays a standard reserve day. Tons of these go out. First come, first serve.

With that said, the whole system is broken and out dated. I think it’s left over from the Neeleman days. It’s hard to describe the sheer stupidly we see on a daily basis. Yes, needs a complete overhaul.

I was inverted

correction to the above:
“Pilot not assigned a Pairing on an RSA day will be paid 4:12 at 150% of his hourly rate . This amount will be added above the Pilot’s monthly guarantee”

Roy Biggins

Thank you, I don’t do RSA’s and thought it was straight time 4:12 if you don’t get called.

AYLflyer

Yes x1000

Unless you're senior, you're not benefiting that much from it. Sure, you'll get the occasional VDA call if you're not super senior, but it's few and far between. The seniority thing is fine, but IMO once you get called, you should fall to the bottom of the pile until your name comes around again.

I was on a crew bus on the way to my car and was talking to a senior captain who commuted in a couple days early because we were in the middle of an IROP. Mid conversation he gets a call from scheduling for a VDA, accepts it, says he can be at the gate in under 30 min. 2 min later scheduling calls again, says the paring is cancelled. I don't know off the top of my head, but I think he got a % of pay for accepting the assignment, even though it ended up being cancelled. Literally 2 more minutes later, he gets another call, different VDA assignment, accepts it and this time actually works it. Same dude gets called twice in a 10 minute time span.

I've flown with other senior guys who show me their schedule. Day turns and 2 days that they drop week by week as they get called for VDAs, some of the guys were crediting near or over 200hrs/mo.

It absolutely needs to change to spread the wealth out.

symbian simian

NK has premium call order by reverse premium sofar for the calendar year, seniority if same premium. think that is pretty fair.

Bluedriver

Huge step in the right direction.

RiddleEagle18

I would possibly prefer a month to month reset but overall a better system.


I want to keep our ability to list in our home cities. Not sure if that is an option for you guys.

Tornado875

That would honestly be a massive win to add to the JCBA. Our current system is flawed.