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I'll derail the hate for a moment with a thought and a question.

Good ole SWA is a changin' and I don't like all the changes I've seen here in the past year or so. Our Flight Ops has gone from counseling to ball busting and Gary Kelly has publicly stated that he has no problem furloughing SWA pilots while codehsharing with the likes of Volaris. The upside is they are replacing the peanut butter jar by adding flights back to March 2008 levels.

My question is - what are your major complaints with your (AAI) operation lately. I know you guys STILL don't have a contract but what else?

In summary I'd rather NOT see a merger/buyout of any kind but I'll run with the thread.

Gup (pre 9/11 hire) ;)
 
GuppyWN said:
My question is - what are your major complaints with your (AAI) operation lately. I know you guys STILL don't have a contract but what else?
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It's basically old-school style management. Threats and intimidation, including political terminations, are the order of the day. Then there are the constant contract re-interpretations, and let's not forget the outsourcing to SkyWest. Lots to complain about.
 
redflyer65 said:
Really Genital?

Our payscales are a bit higher than Airtrans?

You mean a bit highert than Delta's right?

Funny stuff buddy.
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Yeah, that's great, but you fly like a regional, and have intra Texas stuff that would make most people puke. Great pay on one type of equipment forever doing 25 minute turns forever doesn't sound worth it. Do you ever say to yourself, "If I have to go to El Paso one more time this trip, I am going to puke"? I bet you do buddy. But don't worry, after a day of all intra Texas stuff, maybe then you can leave ELP and still go onto PHX, then LAS, then SMF, then PDX, followed by BOI. Enjoy it, and make sure you treat your future AAI brothers right.


Bye Bye---General Lee
 
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My biggest gripe here at AAI is the miserable RES rules. We get our credit up to 85 or 90 hrs then scheduling at their whim can take any days left that month away and the associated pay. We also have no way to trade or drop RES days. We have zero schedule flexibility. (RES) Did I mention that RES sucks here.
 
27 driver said:
My biggest gripe here at AAI is the miserable RES rules. We get our credit up to 85 or 90 hrs then scheduling at their whim can take any days left that month away and the associated pay. We also have no way to trade or drop RES days. We have zero schedule flexibility. (RES) Did I mention that RES sucks here.
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What caused the company to stop allowing us to drop reserve days, was the pilots who were dumping their whole reserve schedule and MAYBE picking up a few cake 3 days during the week if that at all. I heard one pilot didn't fly the whole month, what a deal, huh?!? The company realized, "hey, why don't we have coverage on the weekends?!?!", and quickly figured out what was going on. True to their M.O., they decided to punish all of us for the actions of a few. I have flown with a few of them, I love the rationalization, their point was that the company should have caught this in the first place and not allowed it to happen.

As far as the URPing goes, it sucks but contractual they can do it, just like sometimes they have to pay you for 100hrs when you only fly 40.

See you on the couch!
 
27 driver said:
My biggest gripe here at AAI is the miserable RES rules. We get our credit up to 85 or 90 hrs then scheduling at their whim can take any days left that month away and the associated pay. We also have no way to trade or drop RES days. We have zero schedule flexibility. (RES) Did I mention that RES sucks here.
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Then when you become a lineholder, you have no scheduling flexibility because the company decided to turn OFF the automated portion of SAP 1 and 2 (Scheduling Adjustment Period where you can trade/drop trips just after the bidding process is done but before daily open time is available and before the month starts, for those who don't work here).

This means only about 5% of the requests actually get done, because there's no way 4 schedulers can handle all the requests of over 1,500 pilots in just a couple, short days.

THEN, when the regular month is underway, the thresholds for trip drops and swaps is so artificially high, that most of the time you can't adjust your schedule then, either, unless they're vertical drops/swaps (same days that don't create the need for them to use a reserve if no one picks up your trip after you've dropped or swapped out of it).

All of this was put in place in the last 3 years, back when things started to get ugly. True that it was PARTIALLY done to solve a problem (part of what Kharma refers to and what REALLY started the FLICA mess is Christmas '06 where the computer wasn't set with the proper reserve thresholds and dozens of pilots dropped or traded out of Christmas). It wasn't like all those pilots got together and schemed to do it, just natural for people to want that off, they submitted it, got it, then the company reacted improperly to the problem rather than simply fixing it with realistic staffing levels.

When I was on reserve. I regularly went in and dropped my entire reserve line, one week at a time, replacing it with reserve days that were mostly during the week with only 1 weekend day here or there (the limits in FLiCA very rarely let me have a WHOLE weekend off, even then, before the Christmas '06 debacle). I also watched my credit every day, dropping my own reserve days every time I got over 70 hours but where I wanted them rather than being URP'ed. That meant that every time I went to work, I was the lowest-hour guy on the schedule and always got a trip. It was a system that worked very well for me and I always credited around 70-80 hours with 14-16 days off a month (which for me is a realistic level for a reserve pilot) and only sat in the crashpad 3-5 days a month (this was also when the regular credit for a reserve pilot was averaging 90-100+ hours a month because of Twome/Casher - back before the company really ramped up their URP'ing). Guys like me weren't the problrem, we just got shafted along with the guys who DID drop their entire month. There should be an easy way to fix that in FLICA, but rather than do so, the company evidently likes keeping everyone pi$$ed off.

It's a company philosophy, really, when it boils down to it. Things the company TOOK AWAY from us with no real reason to do it except punishment for standing up and demanding a fair contract and not fixing it although it would cost nothing to fix (turning FLICA automation back on with reasonable coverage limits has no monetary value - they've already paid for the software) all underline a basic way of dealing with your employees that needs to stop. But it won't, as they want to take something that WAS ours, free of charge, and use it at the table as a bargaining chip to reduce wages or work rules, knowing that scheduling flexibility is a HUGE part of airline Quality of Life.

The EAL methodology doesn't work anymore. It's akin to beating your dog... eventually the dog will leave (which is what they want - they've said so, they don't want career employees, they cost too much - that's a quote from our VP of Flight Ops, btw), or if the dog is backed into a corner (there's nowhere to go in this industry), the dog will eventually attack back.

If I could point to one, single thing that's organized this pilot more than the pilot pushing, the illegal terminations, the refusal to bargain in good faith at the table, the removal of business class (if available) or aisle/window seat deadheads (which wasn't flexible language AT ALL in the CBA), all the things they've taken away, the ONE thing that has made this pilot group militant is the taking away of scheduling flexibility and the abuse of the reserves. That's the company's biggest, single mistake in drawing this out - it energized an additional 30-40% of the pilot group who, before that, had just been doing their job and patiently waiting for a contract.

Give them back a decent QOL and a reasonable wage, and I think you'd see a lot of happy guys and gals. I know my first 6 months here were surrounded by happy people, myself included. Great group of people, just pushed too far and now all you hear is us kvetching and gearing up for a STRIKE!
 
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General Lee said:
Yeah, that's great, but you fly like a regional, and have intra Texas stuff that would make most people puke. Great pay on one type of equipment forever doing 25 minute turns forever doesn't sound worth it. Do you ever say to yourself, "If I have to go to El Paso one more time this trip, I am going to puke"? I bet you do buddy. But don't worry, after a day of all intra Texas stuff, maybe then you can leave ELP and still go onto PHX, then LAS, then SMF, then PDX, followed by BOI. Enjoy it, and make sure you treat your future AAI brothers right.


Bye Bye---General Lee
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This guy sure is funny.
 
Lear70 said:
To keep people in,,, or out? ;)
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In the ATL case it would do both, it being the only AAI base.

As GUP stated, the LUV culture is changing significantly, and it could erode further after a merger of any kind. I know that compared to the current AAI climate it looks like Camelot, and probably probably would be
Camelot for a while, but it sounds like the gloves are coming off at SWA as well.
 
There are other possibilities...As Republic bought Midwest and Frontier...Perhaps, just perhaps...Skywest will buy AAI....After all, they can afford it.....
 
Genital is funny.

If you notice, he never answers the post. Likes to go off in the same "inter-Texas" bs. Guess what Genital, I don't do inter-Texas.

Your responses are tired.
 
That would be an interesting case. Similar to the Republic/SWA offers for frontier. Skywest makes a hostile takeover attempt for AAI. Then SWA comes in and makes a last minute take it or leave it offer, but it includes a staple. What to do, what to do. PCL?
 
Depends on the offer by SkyWest and what the attorneys think.
 
ALPA attorneys? I am not a black helicopter guy but in this situation I do not think I would trust that they would be impartial. Smells a lot like the TWA/AA case. ALPA might be going after the merger that would help tip the scales to bring in one of the pilot groups. I would think SKW would be closer to tilting toward ALPA than SWA. Never thought I would be a conspiracy theorist but this situation I would probably not put much weight on an ALPA attorney.
 
Related Topic:

Where is the growth for SWA going to come from anyway? Isn't domestic saturated by now? I mean, if not, what is left?
 

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