Crewguru:
Fair enough, I appreciate that not all Schedulers are out to get pilots and not all pilots are easy to work with (yours truly included
)
I have been around the block a few times and, like I said above, I understand that planes break, people get sick, and all of a sudden you find yourself with no coverage.
My problem is this (as I said above) the outright lies and deliberate contractual violations in scheduling. The examples I gave above are only a couple of incidents. At my company scheduling tries to convince SENIOR pilots of the most rediculous things. A few days ago I spoke with a 19 year Captain who bid reserve last month, he was unlawfully extended from a nap for an additional overnight. The general consensus of schedulers on this board is "tough, he should have known the contract!" And, yes he should have, but that's no excuse for sched. assigning him an unlawful trip, knowing he hadn't been on reserve for over a decade. I sat him down and schooled him on reserve rules and some of the tricks played by CS. If the Feds ever review his duty time, HE will be the one to burn, not CS.
I know the company tells you to fill the trips anyway you can, some schedulers take that to mean pull out the bag of dirty tricks, on the least suspecting people. Others, like yourself it seems, try to work honorably--believe it or not, I do appreciate your efforts.
When you are in a jam, if you took the time to explain why your short calling, extending, JM'ing, Drafting, etc....you would get much more cooperation out of pilots. It sounds like you do this already....many schedulers don't, if you question them you get "are you refusing this trip!!!" (That's when I hang up on them and go right to the CPO and ALPA) Again, even if I wanted to fly, the attitude and disrespect makes my blood boil.
When people on this board say "you only work 75 hrs. a month"---than it's my turn to through out the bullsh.it card. I may FLY 75 hrs a month, but that does not include the HOURS spent on the ramp trying to make this airline work, or the calls to maint., time waitng for a release, etc.,etc,. etc., In the Brasilia days a 6 leg day blocked for 5 hrs could easily equate a 13 hour day.--but hey I only worked 5 hours??? The actual flying time is the EASIEST part of this job, it's the crap on the ground the really pi.sses pilots (and FA's) off. Believe it or not, I do love my job and almost all of the people I work with...the glitch is that I don't see the struggling with CS as a part of my job.
Crewguru, all I ask is that Scheduling follow the contract thats been in place for years. If in doing that trips cannot be covered, then we are understaffed and Management needs to know that.
A new TA will go a long way at this airline, when there is a seniority based reserve system, a fly-don't fly list, and other things respecting senioirty--a lot of this galatic struggle will fade away. It will take time to build trust between CS and Pilots, but eventually it will make ALL of our jobs easier. This way, if I bid reserve or relief, I'll know you followed a list in inverse seniority and ended up at me. Right now, there is NO rhyme or reason who is selected for any given trip, and there is no accountability--this is WAY too much administrative power for CS and it lends itself to serious abuses. Pilots have finally had it and it IS going to end.
Having said all of that, I don't know if we work for the same airline or not. If so and I have been shi.tty to you, I aplogize. You said you have been in CS for a year, many of us have had CS salt rubbed in our wounds for years--yes, pilots can be ass.holes, but your fellow schedulers have to take their fair share of responsibility for the bitteness.
Good luck to you.
