Pilots at Airtran pick up open time???

[PCL_128]

they get what they negotiate for just like us.

RV

The difference is that they're negotiating with their golf buddies who give them whatever they want.

"Hey guys, can I have a 20% raise this year?"
"Yeah, sure Bob. When we hitting the links?"

 

[Secret Squirrel]

SS... Now your just being dumb.. Have you seen the ticket prices?? Have you seen the news articles?? Ticket prices have come up a ton.. Just look at the prices from the east coast to the west coast. AAI has raised ticket prices a lot.. Do they still offer ticket sales?? Yep.. But last year you could buy a ticket from SEA to ATL for $99.. This year that same ticket has been around $180 during the cheap fare sales.... BTW... Nice cop out on telling managment its thier job to hedge fuel... However, you still never answered my question.. At what price do they hedge.. You seem to be so smart except when it comes to actually throwing out a number... Ok Ill do it.. If oil get into the $70 a barrel range AAI should hedge.. But not until then.. AAI can make money at 100-110 a barrel suposidly.. So now would be a bad time to buy fuel hedges......... BTW... Nice try on the article about SWA not hedging in a few months... That article doesn't show a date.. I will try and find the article that does, but I might not be able to... BTW... IF SWA has been heding in the last couple months they are really screwed and not as smart as youd like to think..... The SWA ride will end and they will eventurally be in the same boat as everyone else.. No airline has ever sat at the top for ever.. SWA will be no exception.. They will make their mistakes and it will be just like pre 9/11 when guys were bailing from SWA to fly for UAL, DAL, NWA, etc... How quick you forget the past.... Remember when Eastern was the highest paid pilots in the industry????

You better be careful throwing around terms like Dumb. Your posts reek of it. First The average ticket price for the second quarter 2007 was $93.33. Do you know what the average ticket price was for the same quarter this year? $99.99. Ok, I was wrong. So that is an increase of like 7%. But inflation over the same term was over 5% (and inflation in the airline business more than that). Jet Blue for instance was able to raise their average seat price by 18%. Where are your huge increases in ticket prices. I am getting my information from the 2Q report. Where are you getting your information?

Now lets talk about fuel hedging. The first problem is that jet fuel is not publically traded so companies have to trade oil or heating oil futures. The market fluctuates, and in the case of oil and heating fuel it fluctuates pretty regularly. GOOD management hedges fuel this way. They invest in oil and heating oil futures when it is at the bottom of cycles (buy when low) and they use the profits from the sale of their contracts to supplement the purchase of their fuel (Jet Fuel is not a publicly traded commodity). It takes the uncertainty out of their fuel costs and helps them price their product better. They hire experts to manage these accounts, not ask pilots, and they are very successful. There are other ways also. But my point in all this, and the answer to my question is that GOOD management decisions would have us hedging fuel all along so we would have not been exposed to this spike in fuel prices. Southwest, Alaska, and to a lesser degree JetBlue made good decisions about one of the major costs in their business model and they are benefiting from those gains. But what our management did was reactionary and will cost us more money than if they did nothing at all. As oil prices went up the cost to hedge fuel also went up.

All right I am done. I like a good debate. I think I won, you think you won. But in the end managments decisions have led us to the place we are. Employees have done everything they can to make this place successful. In the end they are being punished for their hard work with threats and heavy handed tactics. I personally think it is disgusting. I guess you think it is the cost of doing business and employees should just take it. We will just have to agree to disagree.

 

[maxblast72]

Having a bunch of pilots sitting around doing nothing cost a lot of money. I laughed when everyone said the LVI would drop to 70hours.. That doesn't help the company at all..

Building 85 hour LVI lines and then having 80 reservists that actually earn 40 hours of credit but get paid for 70 is more expensive than 70 hour LVI and only having the normal 45-55 reserve lines (there would be less soft pay).

Since you want your pilots to fly alot, you reduce the workforce until you have enough pilots to fly 82-85 a month in the heaviest months (May-Aug, Nov, Dec). Then in the slow months (Jan, Feb, Sep, Oct), you reduce LVI to reduce overall pay, not increase the amount of reserves (not actually "earning" their full 70 hours of pay). The soft pay enters the picture when you have too many reserves sitting at home still getting paid 70 hours.

We flew over 50,000 block hours a month this summer. With the aircraft sales we will be completing this fall, I doubt we will flying over 50,000 block hours a month until we get back up over 140 aircraft. Unfortunately until that time, we won't need 1650+ pilots.

 

[gt1900]

Max... I don't believe we have a lot of reserves that are only earning 40hours of credit. Im on reserve and I currently have over 50hours of flying for Sept (btw.. I have only been assigned trips within 24hours of my reserve time). Thats 2 reserve periods and 50+ hours... At this rate I will time out at the end of the month.. I may be the exception, but I think the reserve guys are flying more then you think... Heck, I'm at almost 90hours of pay already (until they urp me)... This reserve thing is great.... just kidding

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Max... I don't believe we have a lot of reserves that are only earning 40hours of credit. Im on reserve and I currently have over 50hours of flying for Sept (btw.. I have only been assigned trips within 24hours of my reserve time). Thats 2 reserve periods and 50+ hours... At this rate I will time out at the end of the month.. I may be the exception, but I think the reserve guys are flying more then you think... Heck, I'm at almost 90hours of pay already (until they urp me)... This reserve thing is great.... just kidding

Must be nice. I'm on reserve. I have 6.5 hours of flying so far, and 61 hours credit.

 

[gt1900]

Just curious FF.. How do you only have 61 hours of credit??? Do you have vacation??

 

[DonVerita]

gt1900...you must be an F/O to have that many hours racked up so far this month.

We have 32% of our Captains on Reserve or BuildUp. A number that high reeks of management incompetence. There is no CA open time. All these guys are going to be sitting around doing nothing for the month and still getting paid 70 hr. guarantee.

Note to Union: On the next contract you better have a cap (8%) on the number of RSV/BU lines the Company can create. Oh, I forgot...none of you guys are affected by this since you are all so senior in your seats, so you probably haven't even given a thought to this idea.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Just curious FF.. How do you only have 61 hours of credit??? Do you have vacation??

I had a reserve line with 13 off. That's a credit of 59:30. One overnite, 1 RRR period and a stand-up assigned for later this month. Adds up to 62-ish credit. Including the future standup, I have 6.5-ish block for the month so far.

 

[maxblast72]

GT1900, what kind of pizzas are you sending to scheduling. Just kidding.

Like Flyfast, I have only blocked 6.5 hours during my first 6 reserve days. I need to fly a little more or my shoulder might fall off from playing so much tennis. Thankfully, my fiancee watches Suze Orman and listens to Dave Ramsey so she understands living within our means when I say the credit is only going be 70 hours for quite a while. The days of the 100+ credit reservists are gone, at least for Captains.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

GT1900, what kind of pizzas are you sending to scheduling. Just kidding.

Like Flyfast, I have only blocked 6.5 hours during my first 6 reserve days. I need to fly a little more or my shoulder might fall off from playing so much tennis. Thankfully, my fiancee watches Suze Orman and listens to Dave Ramsey so she understands living within our means when I say the credit is only going be 70 hours for quite a while. The days of the 100+ credit reservists are gone, at least for Captains.

Tennis did I hear? Do you live in ATL?

 

[zman]

In order for us to negotiate we actually have to get a union that works.

 

[twepilot]

alta members...?? I need to practice more. Anyone on the northwest side let me know.

RV

 

[Kharma Police]

alta members...?? I need to practice more. Anyone on the northwest side let me know.

RV

Maybe we should get ALTA to be our union?

 

[27 driver]

The companies know what they need to furlough to reduce costs to an acceptable level. I don't see picking up open time as keeping you on the street. Those trips are going to be flown no matter what.

Why shouldn't the senior guys still be able to fly as much as they want? Everybody always talks about the benefits of seniority but why should a senior pilot suffer? Its not his fault you got hired after he did.

F$%#ing A$$hole. Typical senior eat their young attitude. Picking up open time now will not only keep the furloughed on the street, it will set a precedent that you will be stuck with later. It may even lead to more furloughs because people like you will always pick up more time. It isn't all about you. I can't wait until you have to start over at the bottom somewhere. Lets see how your attitude changes.

 

[27 driver]

Take your emotion out of the argument. What I'm talking about is different from striking. I'm all for supporting brothers during a strike. I wouldn't cross a picket line.

I don't know of many, if any, companies that require all the employees to take a pay cut so they don't layoff workers. It happens, I'm sure, but not the norm. This is a different scenario and we all know it sucks for the bottom man on the totem pole.

Nobody wants you to take a pay cut. Just don't pick up open time. Each hour you pick up simply keeps one guy on the street.