HA - Latest System Bid

[HA25]

another west coast commuter here and it's very painless.... much like my schedule was when I was at the non-scheds.. Truth be told, the total lack of trip rigs and the "short call only" 12 day off reserve blows by comparison to what other Legacies have BUT we are about to go to the table and according to the chairman of the Neg committee, QOL and soft time are top on most people's list.. It will only get better, not worse is how I see it. With rigs, DAL FO's on the 330 are getting 15-21 days off.. here we're well behind that and so this costs us time away from home.. this will be addressed big time in Contract 2015.

That being said, I was interisland for a year, and the commute on that was a bit more painful.... but my light at the end of the tunnel was to bid off ASAP... now I believe you're looking at a 2 year seat lock sadly with the give backs we did for the 321 side letter..

Overall... especially if you live on the west coast at a HAL city, this is the most painless commute I've ever done.

 

[HA25]

Hats off to you guys that can tolerate a long haul commute. I get worn out doing my 1.5 hr.

9 out of 10 times, I'm sleeping in the LCRM (Lower Crew Rest Module) and get into HNL wide awake ready to rock! sometimes I operate the redeye that same night and feel more rested than if I just sat around all day waiting to do the same.

5 hours, 1 leg, with a place to lay down and sleep = heaven

 

[HA25]

This is NOT a commuter airline right now, although many people make it work.

it's worth mentioning that the attitude towards commuters at HAL is significantly more hostile than the actual commute itself.. Not sure why, but unlike every other carrier I know if, people here just don't seem to understand it. The "Why don't you live in Hawaii" question comes up very often.. even with the FAs.. The other day both the CA and I were west coast guys and the FA was very surprised and wouldn't stop talking about it.. but then like I said above, our schedules and lack of productivity leave much to be desired in terms of days off so yes, I can see why she might be confused...

It will only get better... can't get any worse and that is still doable.

 

[HAL]

... vacancy award cancelled... Does that mean no new hires either? very bare-bones memo saying oops, nobody told us at crew planning of the reduction of block hours, so as you were, boys and girls...

It's was a bunch of noise signifying nothing: The new vacancy bid is out, and it still has new-hires on it (14 instead of 19), and no furloughs. It's just the usual hyper-attention to staffing levels.

HAL

 

[Junkflyer]

Which means under staffing.

 

[HA25]

Which means under staffing.

Exactly! With guys bragging about flying 95+ hours at HAL, they have learned how to operate only lean.

 

[waveflyer]

How is trip trading at HAL? Schedule flexibility?

 

[Microclimates]

Yup, sorry hal... Just saw new vacancy in the inbox. Guess my pessimist a€€ jumped the gun on this one! So same same but different.

 

[HA25]

How is trip trading at HAL? Schedule flexibility?

behind the rest, but getting there.... new side letter for dropping to 60 only it requires trip trade and you cannot just "drop".. still must bid a 75 hour line to start with also. This was done outside of section 6 however and I expect in section 6 we will get A LOT of the same perks and benefits other carriers have. Like I said, guys here are hell bent on quality of life improvements.

 

[mdanno808]

We have flica, only it is not truly a trip dropping system. It is a trip drop requesting system, which still requires crew scheduling approval. I had over 80 hours last month, and tried to drop about 6 different weekday trips (4:10 credit) and was denied each time due to insufficient reserve coverage.

 

[waveflyer]

Can you trade your trips with company open time?
How about with other pilots?
Point being - what's the overall schedule flexibility in moving days around?

 

[HA25]

Can you trade your trips with company open time?
How about with other pilots?
Point being - what's the overall schedule flexibility in moving days around?

you can trade with other crew... not with open time and no moving anything around.. it is VERY limited at this time because it was implemented POST-section 6 via side letters and there will be no real flexibility until we negotiate industry style work rules into our next contract.

 

[waveflyer]

Ah, I always love that old management play book.
Flexibility helps management as much as us- most pilots I know will voluntarily fly more if they can manipulate their schedule to work for their lives. But management thinks like bean counters and will try and make you spend negotiating capital that will help them as well.
Good luck

 

[mdanno808]

That's why the company is always complaining about sick leave being so high. They fail to realize that little things like allowing more schedule flexibility will decrease sick leave. Most of our managers, particularly those involved in scheduling, are absolutely clueless.

 

[nethan]

you can trade with other crew... not with open time and no moving anything around..

I trade stuff around with open time all the time. It gets denied for staffing a lot, but the ability to do it is there. You just can't trade below 75 with open time.