MKUltra

Once we lose a few more captains to outside the flow they are going to have too. I'm sure another "retention" bonus is on its way. Would be better if they could just increase the pay rates.

With many captains making over 150k here, when does the economics support the mainline carrier doing the flying?

MKUltra

My july dash schedule isn't that bad.. that being said, I live in base and I enjoy working.. we will see if things get better.. hopefully we will get a duty rig to discourage the company from fibbing us 4 hour sits.

Otterbox

When 300% critical pay becomes a permanent thing...

Management doubtlessly views critical pay as a temporary thing to counter a staffing shortage... right now critical pay is viewed as temporary and critical to keeping flights staffed during the transition and during expansion... they willingly pay it because it allows them to keep getting jets, and allegedly Mainlines wants them to start taking 3 a month if they can get staffing to handle it.

When the airline becomes permanently understaffed due to the pilot shortage, American will look at the cost effectiveness of mainline staffing for the lift.

Theaveragejoker

It's not just the pilots that keep a regional's economics cheaper. It's FA's, mechanic's, dispatchers, rampers, etc. Plus reduced training costs associated with smaller fleets with only one or two type aircraft.
I think they probably won't get rid of the regional model as long as it's still making money, even if pilot pay is par for mainline.

MidLife

^This^ Regional model is strictly $$ in v $$ out... If it is not cheaper to run the regional, then having a second set of management is going to no longer be meaningful What happens then? I dunno. The regional model is 20,000 pilots total. Would take a while to suck into mainline, but in 5-10 yrs - could happen. There arent many regional pilots that wont take a mainline job
I guess it comes down to who eats up Skywest/ExpJet Republic and Mesa. The others are either WO or smaller.

Lvlng4Spd

Of course you have an advantage at the moment. Things take time to improve though, and you have to have some patience. Don't go full millenial on me...nothing happens snap snap just because you think or say it should. Things have gotten drastically better here over my 6 years, and you can expect the trend to continue, slowly.

MantisToboggan

It's not expecting it to happen snap snap... The union brought it up with the company and said we would have had to give up some advantageous vacation language to get half decent schedules, so they let it go. Essentially they valued their multiple vacation spots (PDT lifers looking out for their 4 vacation slots, not the current and future pilot group's best interests) over a good quality of life and more days off per month. Because getting 17 days off a month during your vacation months is WAY more important than getting 15 days off every month, if you so choose

TheWrightStuff

This is quickly becoming the mentality of a significant chunk of the pilot group. Having good vacation rules is great, but every other company seems to get along fine with electronic scheduling/bidding software. The union reps do a lot for this company, and it's appreciated by all of us. However, for them to tell a pilot group of transplants from other airlines that we have great work rules and need to deal with the negatives is not an acceptable answer. There are far too many loopholes that can and should be addressed sooner rather than later.

BSOuthisplace

These loopholes you mention should be brought to the attention of your Rep. We have an opener in the contract in January. This will be the time to address these issues.

A lot of you seem to think that the NC and MEC can just go screaming to the company for these things at any time, and if we scream loud enough we'll get them. That is not the case. My advice, talk to your reps, talk to your NC members and make your concerns known. They will be addressed.

There's this idea out there that PBS, FlicA, CrewTrac access etc. will somehow magically fix our schedules and QoL. I can tell you that is not the case. Although some more transparency would be nice when it comes to the scheduling of the pilot group, the introduction of new technologies won't change where and when we fly. Many of you came from giant regional airlines that served multiple hubs sometimes for multiple mainline carriers. This generally makes for more efficient schedules. PDT flying, especially on the 145, is mainly PHL roundtrips. This makes for horrible pairings which won't change with PBS. So this notion that bringing in PBS will solve our woes is dangerous in my opinion to the bargaining power of the union. PBS has it's benefits for the pilots but it benefits the company more because it allows the airline to be staffed with less pilots.

I would love to see the technology of this airline brought into the 21st century, but honestly it's not something that's essential to the QoL improvements most of us seek. The things that are essential should be addressed starting in January.

Flyjustin

It's not just the line credit that a scheduling software can fix. The union can set parameters. Like how about we join the rest of the airline world and have 12-15 day off lines. Annnnd not allow scheduling to manipulate our transition. sure the credit might still suck but most of us now are commuters and would prefer days off.