Does UA have a PBS?

[justin15e]

Does UA have a PBS?

Do the pilots like/hate it?

Is it easy to use/hard to use?

How different is using it versus the old preconstructed lines method?

Any UA guys/gals care to share?

 

[eaglesview]

Does UA have a PBS?

Do the pilots like/hate it?

Is it easy to use/hard to use?

How different is using it versus the old preconstructed lines method?

Any UA guys/gals care to share?

Yes we have it.

most do not like it, I do

Easy to use

Can bid in 5 minutes as apposed to sorting through hundreds of lines. There is never an end of month conflict.

 

[justin15e]

What kind of interface do you use to bid lines?

Those people that don't like it, what are the main gripes?

 

[chppr5]

When I was in the top 25% I loved it, now that I'm in the bottom 50% it blows.......

 

[densoo]

Are your absences (sim checks, vacation, jury duty, mil leave) loaded in before or after your monthly bid award?

 

[eaglesview]

Are your absences (sim checks, vacation, jury duty, mil leave) loaded in before or after your monthly bid award?

Yes they are. You will here a lot of people complain it is not good the more junior you get. In my opinion any type of bidding gets worse the more junior you are.

 

[densoo]

Thanks, but it was a multiple choice question. Are absences loaded 1) before, or 2) after, monthly award? Makes a huge difference. If loaded before, the line gets built around the flying with less days off, work on days off, essentially. If loaded after, absences get dropped in on top of flying, giving you more days off.

 

[flyguppy]

Thanks, but it was a multiple choice question. Are absences loaded 1) before, or 2) after, monthly award? Makes a huge difference. If loaded before, the line gets built around the flying with less days off, work on days off, essentially. If loaded after, absences get dropped in on top of flying, giving you more days off.

Kind of a common sense answer, being how they treat us these days.

Absences, training, vacation loaded before bidding opens. (With the exception of unknown absences/training/etc)

 

[densoo]

Kind of a common sense answer, being how they treat us these days.

Thanks. UAL must have taken it from CAL's playbook. Another question, CAL gets paid 2.5hrs/day for sim events, gets 1 hr pay for doing ground training at home, gets 2 hours for ground training in the classroom. IOW, they work a lot for free. How does UAL compare?

 

[ualdriver]

Thanks. UAL must have taken it from CAL's playbook. Another question, CAL gets paid 2.5hrs/day for sim events, gets 1 hr pay for doing ground training at home, gets 2 hours for ground training in the classroom. IOW, they work a lot for free. How does UAL compare?

I forget what we get paid for training if you're in class all month like during a transition or upgrade class. When I went to do a landings class a few weeks ago, I got paid 10 hours. The landings class was fly to DEN, do a sim, go to hotel, then fly home whenever I wanted the next day.

We don't get paid for doing training at home, but then again we aren't required to do training at home.

 

[densoo]

I forget what we get paid for training if you're in class all month like during a transition or upgrade class. When I went to do a landings class a few weeks ago, I got paid 10 hours. The landings class was fly to DEN, do a sim, go to hotel, then fly home whenever I wanted the next day.

We don't get paid for doing training at home, but then again we aren't required to do training at home.

Wow. Hope CAL can keep UAL's soft time pay like that. CAL's two day annual sim event plus one day of travel (3 days of work) pays less than 8 hours total. Then there are eight hours of CBT at home annually that pay 2 hours total. Then there's middle seat DH abuse, no IRO captains, and on and on.

Notice UAL's contract pays 5 hours for lineholder reserve day, CAL pays 4. UAL pays 2 hours for a reserve callout that gets cancelled. CAL not only pays zero, but they can call you out, you commute to the airport, checkin, and they can cancel you at any time to send you back home on reserve with zero pay.

 

[manflex srs rwy]

training day, like a vac day at UAL pays 2.8. Not sure how landings class works cuz I'm not that senior. Does CAL bid using PBS? How do you guys like yours?

 

[ualdriver]

Wow. Hope CAL can keep UAL's soft time pay like that. CAL's two day annual sim event plus one day of travel (3 days of work) pays less than 8 hours total. Then there are eight hours of CBT at home annually that pay 2 hours total. Then there's middle seat DH abuse, no IRO captains, and on and on.

Notice UAL's contract pays 5 hours for lineholder reserve day, CAL pays 4. UAL pays 2 hours for a reserve callout that gets cancelled. CAL not only pays zero, but they can call you out, you commute to the airport, checkin, and they can cancel you at any time to send you back home on reserve with zero pay.

I'm sure that there are plenty of things that suck about our contract compared to yours as well. We had some pretty crappy stuff that we "agreed" to (for lack of a better term) when we had the barrel of the bankruptcy judge's gun pressed to our head.

As an international guy now, I was really surprised to see the provisions you get on your widebodies for rest. We get bunks and 2 business class seats on the bunked airplanes. On the non-bunked airplanes we get a first class seat with a heavy curtain that goes around the seat to block out light and noise. I think at least your rest will get a lot better when/if we merge!

 

[densoo]

training day, like a vac day at UAL pays 2.8. Not sure how landings class works cuz I'm not that senior. Does CAL bid using PBS? How do you guys like yours?

CAL has PBS and it is good for top 20% or so, and mixed results for the rest.

Main issue is that it doesn't honor seniority in the traditional, strictest, sense. If you can hold a trip, but because of the need to assign all the flying to all lineholders, it can send that trip junior to you to satisfy an overall solution. IOW, someone junior to you can get a trip that you were legal for, it fit on your line, and put as your first choice. Don't know if UAL works that way or not.

Another issue is simply the way it is implemented. Absences should be loaded after the bid award, thereby dropping conflicting trips with training, vacation. Instead, absences are loaded first, then the line is built around the absences. It can get ugly. For instance, you can be scheduled for a redeye and then start your annual sim event later that day.

 

[IAHERJ]

I'm sure that there are plenty of things that suck about our contract compared to yours as well. We had some pretty crappy stuff that we "agreed" to (for lack of a better term) when we had the barrel of the bankruptcy judge's gun pressed to our head.

As an international guy now, I was really surprised to see the provisions you get on your widebodies for rest. We get bunks and 2 business class seats on the bunked airplanes. On the non-bunked airplanes we get a first class seat with a heavy curtain that goes around the seat to block out light and noise. I think at least your rest will get a lot better when/if we merge!

Good God I hope we keep your long-haul rest requirements. Lets keep it civil and work together to get a deal done on a joint contract before they get the merger done.

 

[ualdriver]

Good God I hope we keep your long-haul rest requirements. Lets keep it civil and work together to get a deal done on a joint contract before they get the merger done.

I can't imagine why we wouldn't get something like that in a blended company.

I know that our respective MECs have been talking in the past, and I would guess that if all this merger stuff is true that they're already talking. Unfortunately, I doubt our MECs will be able to agree on a joint contract/seniority list without an arbitrator. I fear that when we do try, per ALPA policy, that we'll likely just insult each other, which is going to stir the pot of "us vs them" which will then lead to some hard feelings. If I were king, I'd just go straight to arbitration.

I know the guys I fly with aren't looking for some sort of windfall, nor am I. The only CAL and UAL pilots I could care less about are our respective scabs. Too bad we can't staple them to the bottom of whatever list we come up with then furlough them.