AMR Proposal Highlights

[PCL_128]

The inherent head count reduction from PBS isn't from vacation, it's from month-to-month integration conflicts. Companies using traditional line bidding carry extra staffing all the time just to cover the higher needs during integration. PBS eliminates the need for this, since a schedule will never be built that contains month-to-month conflicts. Vacation doesn't have to be effected, though. It just depends on how you negotiate the rules.

 

[Andy]

The inherent head count reduction from PBS isn't from vacation, it's from month-to-month integration conflicts. Companies using traditional line bidding carry extra staffing all the time just to cover the higher needs during integration. PBS eliminates the need for this, since a schedule will never be built that contains month-to-month conflicts. Vacation doesn't have to be effected, though. It just depends on how you negotiate the rules.

You must have missed this:

There are several other PBS 'efficiency tweaks' that come out of the hide of the pilot; I'm just too lazy to do the research on it right now.

If you think that vacation 'efficiencies' aren't achieved with PBS, perhaps you can explain this: Vacation 8th - 20th. Awarded in advance of monthly line bid.
Pilot bids for and is awarded a line that has trips 5th - 9th and 19th-23rd.
What happens to those trips? They're put back into open time.
The pilot is paid for the line credit of all trips during his vacation.

With PBS, a pilot is now awarded a daily credit for his vacation time. Since PBS is aware of the days that the pilot is on vacation, it purposely builds solutions with no trip overlap.

PBS also allows for lower reserve coverage, further reducing head count.

 

[PCL_128]

There are plenty of solutions to the vacation problem that you bring up. ASA resolved it, although I'm not familiar with the details of how they did it. One way that it can be done is by artificially increasing the PBS credit (not pay credit) of the vacation block. For example, a week of vacation could be worth 40 hours of PBS credit. The system has minimum and maximum credit parameters (which can also be negotiated), so by artificially inflating the value of the vacation, you reduce the amount of flying that is put on the line. If a pilot then put a preference of days off on both sides of the vacation period, he could get two weeks off for a week of vacation, just like with line bidding.

It's all about how you negotiate the rules.

 

[Andy]

There are plenty of solutions to the vacation problem that you bring up. ASA resolved it, although I'm not familiar with the details of how they did it. One way that it can be done is by artificially increasing the PBS credit (not pay credit) of the vacation block. For example, a week of vacation could be worth 40 hours of PBS credit. The system has minimum and maximum credit parameters (which can also be negotiated), so by artificially inflating the value of the vacation, you reduce the amount of flying that is put on the line. If a pilot then put a preference of days off on both sides of the vacation period, he could get two weeks off for a week of vacation, just like with line bidding.

It's all about how you negotiate the rules.

That's correct. Now watch what happens to ASA's credit per day of vacation in future contracts. ... and you do realize that management wants to 'fix' that oversight, right?

 

[PCL_128]

Of course management wants to "fix" it. Management always wants to "fix" the things that don't work in their favor. That's true whether it's a line bidding system or a PBS system. That's why we set our priorities, they set theirs, and we negotiate. In the end, I doubt management will be able to wrest that feature of the CBA from the pilots, unless they're willing to give up on PBS completely. Management already has the problem that the XJT pilot group doesn't want PBS to start with, so it's an uphill battle from the beginning for management to be able to hold on to their system. Taking away the niceties of the system will make it impossible for them to be able to keep PBS. The CBA just wouldn't ratify.

 

[777forever]

Of course management wants to "fix" it. Management always wants to "fix" the things that don't work in their favor. That's true whether it's a line bidding system or a PBS system. That's why we set our priorities, they set theirs, and we negotiate. In the end, I doubt management will be able to wrest that feature of the CBA from the pilots, unless they're willing to give up on PBS completely. Management already has the problem that the XJT pilot group doesn't want PBS to start with, so it's an uphill battle from the beginning for management to be able to hold on to their system. Taking away the niceties of the system will make it impossible for them to be able to keep PBS. The CBA just wouldn't ratify.

Spot on. ASA has a vacation low feature of PBS that bumps up the PBS credit so you can maximize vacation. The only real down side is you only get min guarantee vs line bidding whet you still get paid for the conflicts dropped.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[PCL_128]

The only real down side is you only get min guarantee vs line bidding whet you still get paid for the conflicts dropped.

There aren't too many contracts left that still give you credit for dropped touching trips.

 

[HighSpeedClimb]

This is of interest..

http://www.nycaviation.com/2012/03/...deal-if-domain-name-purchases-to-be-believed/