01110011

The mid seniority group got shafted the worst, flying with some of the double furloughees, the stories you hear 😬. Then you talk to some of these senior people who whine about the entitled youth when they themselves got hired at 250 hours, upgraded in a year, and never got furloughed.

Seniority should have perks but it shouldn’t be an ivory tower imo. And this is coming from someone who is 20% or so in base. You never know when you’re going to get knocked down a peg and reserve will no longer “be a choice”. Or maybe economic conditions change and you never get that 5 years of max payscale 787 captain the pilot a year senior to you did.

Furloughedboi

Listen man, you don’t know anything about me or my background. I have worked hard for what I’ve achieved (understanding it’s by the grace of God).
If I had ever gotten a participation trophy it would have gone in the trash.
Being senior at a company should guarantee basically one thing; you get the schedule you want. If you want a choice RSV schedule, why can’t that be? If you want a choice line, why not? Please explain to me how that translates to “everyone below me should get something WORSE.”
Or maybe stop thinking you’re more valuable than someone else because your number got called before the next guy after you. If all our pilots would accept that, we could raise the tide for all the boats.

I’ve flown with CA’s here who don’t hesitate to reveal they have no problem kicking out the ladder beneath them if that means they get a benefit. Pretty garbage really

ThumbsUp

Being here 1-2 years and being 20% in an extreme junior BES is much different than someone who is 20% elsewhere. You may have a different perspective as you gain system seniority.

01110011

I have very little desire to change BES.

My point is that if you’re in the top 1/3 of your BES life is pretty freaking good. I’d rather some negotiating capital get spent on the bottom 1/3 so if **** hits the fan or your fleet gets retired or even if you want to upgrade it’s not miserable at the bottom. No one is saying seniority shouldn’t have perks but it’s short sighted to only focus on top half gains.

hslightnin

Then sold out scope and pulled that ladder up behind them.

CousinEddie

As long as my PBS inputs are correct, my seniority gets me the schedule at or near what I want. Now, if I was to bid up that would no longer be true for a while. With time and patience though, it would eventually happen again. So what’s the problem?

NuGuy

Weird times. 7ER Captain, which at DAL is the 757 & 767-ER went uber junior. Last bid, ATL 7ER went to a pilot with one year on the property. NYC went to one that was even more junior.

ThumbsUp

The thought of improving reserve rules through negotiations really only affects one group--the new hires forced into WB FO positions. That's the only group that's getting a long term reserve shoved down their throats with draconian rules. And those guys/gals are what 27 on average? So why would we spend negotiating capital on what amounts to 2 years out of their potentially 38 year career? Wouldn't it be smarter to improve the aspects of the contract that will affect them the most over the course of those 38 years? If you want to upgrade, my crystal ball is that the time to upgrade to a line or under a better reserve system really wouldn't change for someone like you. If the reserve rules stay the same, you're probably looking at maybe 4 years to a line? If reserve rules improve and people flood the vacancies that have been hanging on for that, you're probably looking at the same to just upgrade.

I realize you weren't here, but those of us that got to experience reserve again during COVID for the first time in a while did not experience it in the way that reserves are used today. It was basically months off at guarantee. So if *** hits the fan and we're not flying, putting a large portion of the pilots on reserve again, the rules probably won't matter that much.

My point is this isn't a junior vs senior issue, its getting the most out of negotiations that will affect the most people for the most time. I don't see reserve rules as being very high on a list of things that does that. There are aspects of reserves, however, like wrangling in min levels & g-line manipulation, for instance, that affect everyone fo-eva.

01110011

The covid reserve was highly abnormal and not likely to come back in a recession. The company wanted to keep pilots on property. If furloughs ever occurred for economic reasons it’s unlikely we’d have people sitting around doing nothing, they’d trim the fat until they had just enough to ensure operational integrity

Plus very senior people are sitting WB Captain reserve. It’s something that can affect every single group here except for the insanely small percentage that can hold a WB CA line. Changing bases, equipment, seats, etc. are all hamstrung right now by terrible reserve rules, even among the relatively senior.

My point is that no one knows the next time they’ll end up in a BES they didn’t expect. Why not use some capital during the best negotiation environment in airline history to make it not suck as some insurance?

Hedley

The point is that staffing the airline is a company problem, not ours. They can fix their problems with contractual improvements or find other ways to deal with hundreds of unfilled vacancies. It’s not something to waste any time negotiating, which usually means trading something else that we want. They know what it will take to encourage upgrades. It’s their problem. Let them fix it. We should be focusing on work rule improvements, pay rates, and benefits. I’m not willing to trade those things for a company problem. If they want the problem fixed, they can fix it, but the cost shouldn’t be funded by us giving up other gains.