calmwinds

The prime reason I believe we are short CA’s all the time. CA’s are being crapped on, and CA’s no longer care.

deltajuliet

Educated guess (maybe MagPBS would know more) - it'll be typical DFW flying except starting and ending in SDF with lots of 1 and 2 day trips to minimize hotels. Great if you live there, although efficiency remains to be seen.

Looking at the PBS Awards, tons of coverage awards around Christmas. My favorite is when you say "Avoid ______," and then the coverage award gives you exactly that, while other coverage awards would've satisfied your request.

MagPBS

1. Don't count pilots marked as IB.
2. For IAH? 54% of the Captains and 100% of the FO's.

MagPBS

Two things going on here.

1. A drastic increase in flying by the partners in the last 10 days of the month compared to the first 20. No open time in the front end to pair with excess trips in the back end.

2. Pilots bidding. Some of the unstacking going on is a direct result of how all the pilots in the base bid. Huh? you say. Example:

DFW CA. So shortly after PBS opened I did a base test run for DFW. What I got was 130 lines with 135 hours open, spread nicely. This is because all the software was using were peoples default bids. This shows that a decent month is achievable with little issue.

Fast forward two days. Same test (i.e. same parameters, only difference is 2 days worth of pilot bidding). 128 lines with 560 hours open. Direct result of pilots putting in bids where everyone is trying to get X-Mas off. Jump to the first run after close. 124 lines and 990 hours open.

Dallas Captain was run correctly for unstacking. This what it was written for basically (not what's going on in IAH with no pilots). Unstacking from the 23-26 was used to resolve the mismatch and have junior people work as they're suppose to. End result was 135 lines (yes, unstacking actually MAKES more lines).

Again, this answer is for DFW CA. However the block increase for the holidays is true for all the bases. Which actually gets worse because it's senior people (who are the line holders) that have X-Mas off as a vacation. Thus dropping even more open time into the holiday pool.

MagPBS

So I've gotten asked this no less than 4 times in the last 24 hours. so figure I'd pass it along to your people to hopefully to fix wrong-thought.

The 2 days off per the contract is not after each pairing, but instead, it's when you get days off you will get at least 2 days off. The FAA says you can work 6 (in the right circumstance 7) days in a row in any combination of pairings. This excerpt is from the PBS 101 document:


Note: This is not after every pairing, but when a day off is scheduled. The software can schedule you for any number of pairings back to back up to the FAR legalities (think 4-day plus 2-day, or 2 3-day pairings, or even 6 1-day pairings). But when a calendar day off is awarded it must give you 2 days (or 1 day if waived) off at a minimum.


So it's quite legal for the software to put trips back to back unless you bid in such a way that you tell it not to. To many people this month seem to think that it's 2 days off after every pairing and are having an issue with back to back pairings. There is nothing illegal about this and the software is working correctly in doing that.

calmwinds

Hopefully, training can get their butts in gear and churn a few more FO’s through IOE so there is plenty of reserve FO’s for Xmas.

MagPBS

Solve the Negative coverage? Yes. have "plenty of reserve" No.

calmwinds

“Plenty of reserve” is relative.... If your goal for reserves is to just avoid cancelling flights, upsetting United, and inconveniencing passengers, that is my definition of plenty. Given how unstacking happened this month, they are going to need whatever reserves they can put together.

MagPBS

I'm use to people talking about "plenty" meaning green grid. Don't see that happening any time soon.

calmwinds

I never see a green grid happening at IAH for Mesa. One has to have realistic expectations. “Plenty” in IAH is pleasing two customers: United and our passengers.