Southwest to ‘trim headcount’ after growth in costs

[crxpilot]

DSM to LAS. Oct 31

Allegiant $110.80 plus bag ($25-35). Total. $135.80-$145.80. Nonstop

Southwest $139 no nonstops, gonna get an extra 3-4 hour tour of chicago midway for +/- $5

 

[tzskipper]

Don't let 'em fool you....

If nothing else, SW is brilliant at marketing... Note that SW collected more fees in 2011 than USAir.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Airlines-collect-$22-6-billion-in-ancillary-revenue-in-2011/

"United Continental collected the most: $5 billion, nearly twice what Delta collected, about $2.5 billion. American followed with $2 billion. Southwest collected $1.14 billion, US Airways collected roughly $1 billion and Alaska Airlines collected nearly $600 million."

S

 

[ATLplt]

If nothing else, SW is brilliant at marketing... Note that SW collected more fees in 2011 than USAir.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Airlines-collect-$22-6-billion-in-ancillary-revenue-in-2011/

"United Continental collected the most: $5 billion, nearly twice what Delta collected, about $2.5 billion. American followed with $2 billion. Southwest collected $1.14 billion, US Airways collected roughly $1 billion and Alaska Airlines collected nearly $600 million."

S

I'm thinking a lot of that was from AirTran's change and bag fees, business class upgrades, wifi, etc... but I could be wrong.

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Ah, good ole' Marketing.

Southwest sets the market price...AKA " the Southwest effect" and charges an honest price that already has their costs and fees associated with it.

Airline "X" comes in with their brilliant ploy...Charge less for the ticket and hit the customer with baggage fees at the airport if they aren't savvy enough to read the fine print/fees schedule. This BTW is a large part of the traveling public. The folks who fly once every 2-3 years or so.

Great, they captured that segment of the customers for THAT flight.

Most people then realize ( when they get hit with the baggage fees) that the actual price was the same or very close to what they would have paid on SWA...and they feel as if they have been lied to.

They are NOT return customers. Ever. Next time, they pay to fly SWA and learn that not only was the price almost exactly the same, the service, people, and product are just that much better.

Those folks tell Milly and Bob down the street ALL about their experience with the two different airlines...and the following year when they go to see the new grandkid in Des Moines, I wonder who they are calling to book their flight?

The airlines that play the baggage fee game don't REALLY recognize ANY additional revenue(s) over what SWA did or does on the same flights or in the same markets.

They just move the Peas around among the Walnut shells in the accounting office and slap each other on the back while they blow smoke up each others arses and gloat over the "additional revenues" their brilliant bag fee plan has showed....in the "TPS Reports".



Meanwhile, back at the Ranch in DFW, the SWA people sit and smile and say " Hey, Thanks for a great Marketing gimmick. WE can do just the opposite, garner the same revenue ( in every market where we set the price anyway ) AND make people think we're the Good Guys who aren't trying to rip you off."

"Bags Fly Free. "

Perfect.

I'd bet my remaining testicle....that SWA NEVER plays the baggage fee game.

EVER.


YKW





.

Ya know.....the same can be said about Cattle car seating. They feel lied to and never return......ever!!!

 

[Whine Lover]

True....some people just can't stand the thought of not having their seat assigned.

But, it really doesn't bother most folks.


And, speaking of cattle cars..I flew Spirit ONCE....man, those seats must have about a 20 inch pitch, and they do NOT have a recline function.

Unbelievable. But, the krappy seat was assigned and they did charge my company for my carry-on bag.


" Mesa Sucks? " I have a new contender....



WL


P.S. - "Spirit's A320 aircraft feature seats with no recline and 28" of seat pitch - the least amount of space of all US domestic carriers."

Okay. But , it feels like 20" without the recline! ( SWA is 32-33" )

 

[easydoesit]

Some of the bigwigs had JUST flown back in from Dallas as we were finishing recurrent ground yesterday and they stopped by class. Of course, that's the first question I asked, what the heck does he mean by that?

The answer was pretty simple: there is a LOT of overlap in ground operations personnel throughout the entire system now, especially in cities where we both had a lot of presence but may trim back slightly and re-deploy the assets other places, for instance, MCO-BWI where we overlap quite a bit of traffic and don't need to.

The big spotlight is on Dallas... with the training center personnel combined, schedulers, dispatchers, I.T. (although a LOT of our I.T. people have been bailing since they're non-unionized which is unfortunate since our I.T. dept has been pretty decent, all things considered), and other office administration, the overhead from all that is quite a bit higher than it really needs to be.

As a result, as more departments are incorporated to Dallas, those who don't want to make the move and resign will not be replaced. Additionally, people in Dallas who resign will not be replaced and if it shorts a department, they may offer incentives for people to switch from personnel-heavy departments into those that were deficient, thereby "lowering the total head count".

With SWA still quite profitable from a yearly Net income perspective and that only improving as we connect the dots via code share next year, continue combining operations, and reducing overhead as mentioned above, that profit is only going to improve, barring further increase in oil prices or a further downturn in the economy. (did anyone else appreciate his comments aimed at the Presidential election regarding the worsening economy? got a chuckle out of me...)

Therefore, with profits in a livable range and only improving, no one should be worried about furloughs. We also asked how the they intended on getting all of us through training by 1/1/15, and they stated that they can train 1,096 pilots per year. I then asked how they planned on doing that when the most they had ever taken in one month was 48 and which we heard was running the sims non-stop between those and recurrent people and stressing the check airman program. They simply said those were the numbers the training dept said they could handle.

We also asked what the exact fleet numbers were over the next two years, including the 717's being sub-leased to Delta. We are sub-leasing 88 717's to Delta. SWA is taking delivery of 36 replacement aircraft this year, 20 next year, and 30 in 2014, bringing the hull numbers to 86 replacement 737's by 1/1/15, which coincides with "flat" fleet growth. In addition, attrition will drive around 300 retirements in 2013 and 2014 which corresponds to about 1,000 total SWA pilot upgrades in the 3 year period of the transition, or about 1/3 of the pre-merger SWA F/O's, over half of those upgrades were not planned before the acquisition.

After that, the list will "normalize" over a 2-3 year period, re-upgrading all our displaced CA's that can hold it by seniority (which by 2017 is close to 450), and then (2017-2018) the fleet will be re-evaluated (retirements/replacements of aircraft). They also said they are starting to put the new seats in the -300's, indicating that the airplane will be around at least as long as it takes to recoup that investment (5-7 years is what we heard before on that).

All this in the FWIW files.

What happened to the 717's that weren't going over until 2015? So what you are saying Lear, is that they plan on having all of us over to the SWA side by the end of 2014? Is that what the bigwigs said?

 

[Lear70]

What happened to the 717's that weren't going over until 2015? So what you are saying Lear, is that they plan on having all of us over to the SWA side by the end of 2014? Is that what the bigwigs said?

Yup. That's what they said. I still don't see how, but I just fly 'em.

 

[GIZMONC]

The only fees that SWA collects are oversized bags, third bag , um fees, pet fees and early bird boarding. Now on the FL side they collect baggage fees, seat fees, pet fees and UM fees. For the most part SWA only gets early bird on A16-30 and partial of B so it is not that many so max would be 300.00 per flight that is a far cry from bag fees. I think the reference from travelweekly was way off. I have found that many of these writers do NOT do their homework when they write articles like that.

 

[Bringupthebird]

If Southwest decides to sell it's tix on Travelocity, etc, then they will charge for bags. That's the only reason other airlines do it. They want to pop up as the lowest price and then add the bags etc,. later on.

If you've spent millions being the Official Airline of Everything so that you can drive business to Southwest.com, then you can charge whatever you like, provided no one comparison shops.

BTW, Southwest was the initiator of 5 of the last 7 fare increases. I suppose that's in preparation for a big fare sale.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Did the SWAPA contract qualify for a raise this year?

 

[Lear70]

Hey guys, quick question. Can't find anywhere to look at the individual bases. Can someone tell me if a 91000 number can hold a line in ANY of the bases right now and, if so, which bases and how far from the bottom?

Topic of discussion from some of our guys and I just didn't know the answer.

Thanks,

 

[j41driver]

Did the SWAPA contract qualify for a raise this year?

Nope.

 

[redflyer65]

Hey guys, quick question. Can't find anywhere to look at the individual bases. Can someone tell me if a 91000 number can hold a line in ANY of the bases right now and, if so, which bases and how far from the bottom?

Topic of discussion from some of our guys and I just didn't know the answer.

Thanks,

Yes. Easily hold a line in LAS, OAK, and PHX. How far from the bottom would take some time to calculate (get back to you later). We have 'Blank Lines' below the regular line and those can be good too. It's a secondary bid that comes out later. And that's the downside, they come out around the 20th.

DEN went pretty senior in the right seat, so I don't think so. Reserve in HOU, MDW, and MCO.

If ATL opens first or second quarter next year it would take alot of pressure off everything. That's just my opinion, of course.

 

[Lear70]

Thanks, Red. That's kind of what I figured. A few people thought DEN or MDW at that seniority (people right around my number) but I wasn't sure. Same for BWI?

I'm still hearing early 2nd quarter 2014 for the base opening in ATL, announcement sometime late 2nd or early 3rd quarter next year. All subject to change of course, but no real reason to add an ATL base until SWA takes over enough traffic in 737 markets that will overnight enough aircraft in ATL to make it worth having a base.

While we will be pulling down 717's in 2013, those destinations will be added on the SWA side with 737 classics (mostly short-haul routes < 2 hrs) while the new deliveries are freed up for higher-yield, higher-load-factor markets. It's moving the bulk of the last of our 737 flying and 717 flying that should have been on a 737 out of ATL that will necessitate an ATL base. That won't really start happening until 2014.

At least, that's the last I heard, subject to change of course. I'm betting an ATL base would go senior in the right seat. We have roughly 400 or so pilots (half of which are our CA's) that live in or close to ATL, not including your people who want to be there. While it would likely take the pressure off the other bases for the pre-SWA folk who were senior in those bases before our CA's started coming in, I'm not seeing a real improvement in base bidding out of it for people near my seniority.

Wondering how much of your original trips you can give away at that seniority and pick up out of other bases (MCO, MDW, BWI) and how reliably you can do so? I was figuring on staying until we turned the lights out, mainly because of where I figured I'd be falling in the bid. The pay would be awfully nice for the last 18 months of the draw-down, but not at the expense of having to work weekends and holidays AND a 4-5 hour commute.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[Ualexpress]

There are more than 400 AirTran pilots that live in and close to Atlanta. If you include all 1700 + pre merger AirTran pilots, I bet that number is close to 800.

 

[scoreboardII]

91,xxx in:

BWI/MCO 20 from bottom of 400

LAS/OAK 100 from bottom of 350

PHX would be about 60 from bottom of 400

DAL 4 from bottom of 300

At any of those bid numbers, you'll most likely still be weekend flying, unable to give much away, and DAL will be as a reserve. Maybe even MCO/BWI.

 

[redflyer65]

Thanks, Red. That's kind of what I figured. A few people thought DEN or MDW at that seniority (people right around my number) but I wasn't sure. Same for BWI?

I'm still hearing early 2nd quarter 2014 for the base opening in ATL, announcement sometime late 2nd or early 3rd quarter next year. All subject to change of course, but no real reason to add an ATL base until SWA takes over enough traffic in 737 markets that will overnight enough aircraft in ATL to make it worth having a base.

While we will be pulling down 717's in 2013, those destinations will be added on the SWA side with 737 classics (mostly short-haul routes < 2 hrs) while the new deliveries are freed up for higher-yield, higher-load-factor markets. It's moving the bulk of the last of our 737 flying and 717 flying that should have been on a 737 out of ATL that will necessitate an ATL base. That won't really start happening until 2014.

At least, that's the last I heard, subject to change of course. I'm betting an ATL base would go senior in the right seat. We have roughly 400 or so pilots (half of which are our CA's) that live in or close to ATL, not including your people who want to be there. While it would likely take the pressure off the other bases for the pre-SWA folk who were senior in those bases before our CA's started coming in, I'm not seeing a real improvement in base bidding out of it for people near my seniority.

Wondering how much of your original trips you can give away at that seniority and pick up out of other bases (MCO, MDW, BWI) and how reliably you can do so? I was figuring on staying until we turned the lights out, mainly because of where I figured I'd be falling in the bid. The pay would be awfully nice for the last 18 months of the draw-down, but not at the expense of having to work weekends and holidays AND a 4-5 hour commute.

Thanks again for the info.

Scoreboard did the leg work before I could get to it.

Speaking of giving away, if you get a weekend line then you might be stuck with it unless you are a wizard with ELITT (trading with the company open time). This airline is very senior with everyone wanting Mon-Wed, Tues-Thurs, Wed-Fri. lines. It's just that way across the board in pretty much every base.

I'll never forget, I ran across a fairly senior FO once in OAK when I was doing weekends and trying to drop everything. I mentioned that if he ever wanted any of my flying that it was ALL in giveaway. He asked what I had, and I said Sat-Mon. He looked at me like I had three heads, then told me he doesn't do anything other than Tues-Thurs. I quickly got the message.

You feel like you've hit the gold mine when you start getting Sun-Tues trips, or Thur-Sat trips. A half a weekend off is big.

You can aways try and piece out (cut up) west coast trips and try to pick up in the East. If you get rid of something, you are free to pick up from any pilot in any base (as long as they are giving it away), more so in the summer of course. Just saw a union chart of the winter/summer flex. It was huge. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 650 pilot swing if you were counting just bodies vs. flying.

 

[Lear70]

Thanks guys, that's what I figured.

A lot of our people are looking at Jamie's seniority calculator and thinking they are going to be more senior than they really are, which is what prompted the discussion when I told some of them that I was going to wait until all 700+ of our F/O's who are junior to me get over there to "plug the hole" in other bases while some attrition moves some of your senior F/O's up to the CA seat.

They didn't understand why the seniority calculator isn't correct; it didn't take into account all our people who bid 717 CA becoming F/O's instead which changes their seniority pretty dramatically when you insert 550 or so CA's at the top of the F/O list by the time the transition finishes.

I still wonder if that's going to be spread evenly amongst the bases or if it will create more movement in some than others... For instance, if most of your senior F/O's are in one or two bases and that's where most of the upgrades are coming from, then that base changes more dramatically than others as upgrades occur. Will they therefore place more of our transitioning people in those bases when they first come over, to minimize base displacements later on, or would it matter? Don't know enough about how the vacancy process as upgrades happens affects the way the list moves with your bidding system...

Thanks again, guys.

 

[texman]

Lear are you bidding around a 91xxx number?

 

[Lear70]

Yeah, 9100x. Most of us on the 737 in MCO are in that range (except the bottom 10 or so people on reserve), from 908xx to 911xx.

Pre-merger list we're in the top 5-20% F/O's at AAI. It's a senior base and a/c. I'm currently bidding #9 in MCO since Linden came back and one of our peeps on Med leave returned. Will be #1 in MCO after the Jan transition bid in MCO (assuming no one else defers) and will be #17 in ATL in Sep when I defer and pass junior and go to ATL.

 

[AFcitrus]

Thanks guys, that's what I figured.

A lot of our people are looking at Jamie's seniority calculator and thinking they are going to be more senior than they really are, which is what prompted the discussion when I told some of them that I was going to wait until all 700+ of our F/O's who are junior to me get over there to "plug the hole" in other bases while some attrition moves some of your senior F/O's up to the CA seat.

They didn't understand why the seniority calculator isn't correct; it didn't take into account all our people who bid 717 CA becoming F/O's instead which changes their seniority pretty dramatically when you insert 550 or so CA's at the top of the F/O list by the time the transition finishes.


Thanks again, guys.

Even before the 717 announcement senior FO's were going over thinking they would have the seniority Jamie's calculator said. It wasn't until they got to the base bid part of training that you saw their eyes get big and they dropped the "F" bomb. They couldn't believe how much more junior they are than they thought they'd be because all those junior to them in the calculator who were still at Airtran. They got the raise but they're commuting from GA/FL to OAK/LAS to sit reserve - possibly making less than as a senior line holder in ATL.

Lear, from my perspective the dropping trips and picking up in other bases as an FO looks good on paper but doesn't work very well. Maybe it works better as a CA. You don't "drop" anything. Someone has to take it from you - even if there is plenty of reserve coverage. And they can't take it unless someone takes their trip, and so on, and so on. Furthermore, one doesn't see a lot of trips in "give away" unless it's in the heavy flying months, when you don't want to pick anything up. Conversely, in the slow months like now when you want to pick up flying, few trips are available. It's like a catch 22. Now, there will be some movement as people look to pick up flying dropped around a vacation. But that is not the norm in my experience.

By the way, you can only trade trips in ELITT starting four days in the future. You can't even see available trips before that day. And when ELITT opens the 25th of each month, everything except the cruddy stuff is gone in 1-2 minutes. As for open time, well you can only see it 3 days into the future and can only bid for it starting the day before (in seniority order). I'm not sure why folks over here claim there is so much flexibility in the system, I'm not seeing it. Structurally I think we had a much better system at AT, if the company would have kept their hands off it.

Not saying there aren't some nice improvements here, just that I think the open time/trip trade system is over-rated. Oh, and that monthly 107 TFP, 17 day off average that was highly touted ---NOT.

 

[Lear70]

Even before the 717 announcement senior FO's were going over thinking they would have the seniority Jamie's calculator said. It wasn't until they got to the base bid part of training that you saw their eyes get big and they dropped the "F" bomb. They couldn't believe how much more junior they are than they thought they'd be because all those junior to them in the calculator who were still at Airtran. They got the raise but they're commuting from GA/FL to OAK/LAS to sit reserve - possibly making less than as a senior line holder in ATL.

Lear, from my perspective the dropping trips and picking up in other bases as an FO looks good on paper but doesn't work very well. Maybe it works better as a CA. You don't "drop" anything. Someone has to take it from you - even if there is plenty of reserve coverage. And they can't take it unless someone takes their trip, and so on, and so on. Furthermore, one doesn't see a lot of trips in "give away" unless it's in the heavy flying months, when you don't want to pick anything up. Conversely, in the slow months like now when you want to pick up flying, few trips are available. It's like a catch 22. Now, there will be some movement as people look to pick up flying dropped around a vacation. But that is not the norm in my experience.

By the way, you can only trade trips in ELITT starting four days in the future. You can't even see available trips before that day. And when ELITT opens the 25th of each month, everything except the cruddy stuff is gone in 1-2 minutes. As for open time, well you can only see it 3 days into the future and can only bid for it starting the day before (in seniority order). I'm not sure why folks over here claim there is so much flexibility in the system, I'm not seeing it. Structurally I think we had a much better system at AT, if the company would have kept their hands off it.

Not saying there aren't some nice improvements here, just that I think the open time/trip trade system is over-rated. Oh, and that monthly 107 TFP, 17 day off average that was highly touted ---NOT.

You're not the first of our guys who has gone over that I've heard that from.

It seems you really need to be in the top 1/3 (or be camped out in front of your computer for ELITT) to have any luck manipulating your schedule as well as we have been able to over here (when, as you mentioned, scheduling leaves the system functioning on automatic like they're supposed to).

There's not much available for open time right now over here, I was only able to SAP one trip for next month, but the rest of my line is decent anyway, weekends off, blocking 77 and crediting 84 on 18 days off and weekends off, Thanksgiving off from two days before until the Monday after.

I'm thinking I'm just going to camp out until all the junior guys go over. From what I'm hearing, it's only $1,000 a month more after taxes sitting on reserve versus what I make here, including crashpad costs, etc, and it's just not worth it for that.

 

[scoreboardII]

Top third? You need to be top 15% or your not much beter on bidding/trading unless you put lots of time into it.

Can you explain how the trip drop thing works? I can see being able to drop a trip back to the company for no pay, and only if the trip is below what the reserve pilot would be paid for sitting, and only if they have enough reserve pilots. Thats one problem here, usually to few reserve pilots, although, not lately.

 

[Lear70]

Top third? You need to be top 15% or your not much beter on bidding/trading unless you put lots of time into it.

Can you explain how the trip drop thing works? I can see being able to drop a trip back to the company for no pay, and only if the trip is below what the reserve pilot would be paid for sitting, and only if they have enough reserve pilots. Thats one problem here, usually to few reserve pilots, although, not lately.

Here it's not a factor of how much the trip is worth, rather, simply if they have reserve coverage above the "floor" on that particular day / series of days.

The reserve floor is a pre-determined percentage of how many people they need on reserve on any given day, which changes on weekends and holidays and by time of year (heavy summer months require more reserves for example).

Then they take the number of open trips on that day (or that fall into that day, for instance a 3-day started on a Tuesday but is still factored into Wednesday and Thursday's coverage because you have to have a person for each duty period).

If there are more people available than the coverage "floor" plus uncovered trips in open time, then you have flexibility to simply give your trip back to the company, down to 30 hours per month. If not, then your drop is denied.

Non-vertical trip trades are trading a trip you have with a trip the company has uncovered that aren't on the exact same day(s) you're trying to get rid of. Vertical trades are always granted, as long as it's the same base, because it doesn't change the coverage. Non-vertical trades do the coverage check and, if any ONE day doesn't have coverage and the trip you're trading OUT of falls on one of those days, your trade is denied.

Otherwise, adequate coverage gets your request granted, regardless of what it does to your credit, up or down, except you can't go below the 30 hours min per month. In SAP - your version of ELITT - you can't go below 70 hours which sucks right now because many lines are already right at 70 hours so you can't SAP unless you add time first.

The system works fairly well for flexibility, although it basically puts all the flying onto reserves for weekend trips and red-eyes. Few people want those, so they always end up in open time, unless there's nothing to pick up in its place for those guys who get those lines like November - very little movement in open time because there's only a handful of trips available to trade into and people don't want to go low credit.

As for your thought of giving back more than what a reserve guy credits daily on a guarantee rate broken down, the company really doesn't care because they know most of us are trying to pick up MORE credit over the same days, so the high-value trips go to line holders, leaving low-credit and uncommutable stuff for the reserves.

As a matter of fact, they'd prefer to pre-assign the high-credit stuff to reserves, knowing they won't break guarantee in most cases, but we got rid of that in the last contract, making them leave open time available all month until 72 hours prior to the trip, anything inside that is marked premium or MUST be assigned to a reserve, and we have two pilots who have full scheduling software access to see what's going on with trips. Half the time a reserve knows what they're doing if it came from open time about 3 days in advance. The rest of their flying is last-minute sick calls.

We also have a trade board where we can trade amongst ourselves, but it's not used much because most people aren't legal to pick up a full trip without getting rid of theirs first.

All in all I like the system, and would prefer a hybrid: what we have with the ability to break the trip up into pieces like you do in case a pilot wants part or all of it.

 

[scoreboardII]

OK, thanks, so you give a trip back to company you also drop the pay, basically give everything regarding that trip back to company.

I can see how that would work.

I couldn't see our scheduling guy going for that however, we have trouble getting them to have proper reserve coverage, and then they do crazy stuff like extra fly trips at premium with a few reserves still available, or worse split trips and export them out of domicile with reserves available, makes not sense.

 

[Lear70]

OK, thanks, so you give a trip back to company you also drop the pay, basically give everything regarding that trip back to company.

I can see how that would work.

I couldn't see our scheduling guy going for that however, we have trouble getting them to have proper reserve coverage, and then they do crazy stuff like extra fly trips at premium with a few reserves still available, or worse split trips and export them out of domicile with reserves available, makes not sense.

Our scheduling people do that, too. I think they get a certain leeway to make trips premium during tight staffing days, knowing the schedules were built that way, then they can retain some reserves for their OWN, ummm, "errors", when the crap hits the fan unexpectedly.

That's why sometimes you'll see (or we USED to see) premium time available with reserves left. They knew better than to use ALL their reserves days in advance so they kept a few for schedule integrity for last minute issues and paid us the premium to take the trip in advance. Sometimes they'd even split the trip up (VERY rare here).

Who knows, your scheduling people MIGHT be interested in doing that with as many reserves as we're going to have once everyone is over there, at least until the coverage evens back out to levels they're at now. Or they might not, not wanting to set a precedent.

Just nice to be able to dump your trip back into open time and someone almost always takes mine before they're given to a reserve, especially folks who live in base. 7 hour day trips are nice for guys who live there. Not so nice to commute to.

 

[funnyman12]

Im fairly junior and was able to drop a trip over thanksgiving, pick up a mon-wed trip, and now have 6 days off in a row over thanksgiving and the weekend off. I urge SWAPA to at least look at some benefits of our scheduling section. We do have some good things in our CBA that could benefit SW pilots. Also i have had EVERY trip, on BOTH ends, be commuttable for almost 6 years. This is not an exaggeration.

 

[scoreboardII]

But at what cost? Our reserve coverage was around 4-6 percent, now higher lately. Do you have long call short call out reserve? We only have 2hr call out no matter what.

 

[Lear70]

But at what cost?

Commutability costs in trip productivity.

On the 737 here, a non-commutable trip averages about 6.5 hours per day credit, equivalent to about 7.25 Trips per day, 22 TFP 3 days, 19.5 hour credit for us. Most of my trips are like this, but only average 18.5 credit because I bid the ones with 24 hr MBJ/CUN/AUA/PUJ or 24 hr west coast layovers on day one or two.

Commutable on one end but not the other (a.m./p.m.) is about 6 hours per day average for us. Commutable averages 5.5 hrs per day. So 18 days off working 4 3-day trips commutable is 66 hours credit if it's commutable on both sides drawing guarantee at 75/76 hours (30/31 day month). They tend to add a day trip here or there to those lines to get the credit closer to guarantee, but I drop them to stay around guarantee.

Sure I could get an extra day or two "off" if it were uncommutable on one side (am/pm) with the same credit, but I lose 4 days off with 4 commutes anyway, so two extra days off still leaves 2 days of commuting I don't get back. Commutable lines on both sides are worth the pay loss in terms of actual days spent "working" (which includes my commuting day - that's not a day off).

Our reserve coverage was around 4-6 percent, now higher lately. Do you have long call short call out reserve? We only have 2hr call out no matter what.

We have PLCR, LCR, SCR, and RR.

Pre-assigned Long Call Reserve took the place of our build-up lines, basically they take open time that's left over after SAP (ELITT) and pre-assign it to the PLCR pilots, and what days you're not assigned a trip, you're still on Long Call Reserve.

Long Call Reserve is a 12 hour call-out, you are phone available 24 hours a day, but once they call you they basically consider you "in rest" for that 12 hours you're getting to work. On day 1 you can't be called out any sooner than 12 noon (they try, you simply remind them of the limit and they call someone else).

LCR's are mainly designed to be used for trips that are left in open time that no one picks up. At the 72 hour mark, they put them on LCR pilots rather than make them premium.

Short Call Reserves are two hour callouts just like you guys. A LCR pilot can only be transitioned to SCR once per month.

Ready Reserves are on standby at the airport. We never see this in MCO and I'm told it's become much more rare in ATL as well. Primarily it's DESIGNED to be used as a tool to cover system meltdowns. They see a squall line of thunderstorms headed for ATL or a hurricane coming up from the Caribbean, they can activate some pilots to SCR to cover things. This becomes especially important because our pilots and F/A's aren't paired together for the trip or even the day, and you could have one airplane at a gate with pilots and no F/A's or F/A's and no pilots because their respective crews are sitting on the tarmac waiting for those gates to free up so they can park. With RR's, you can more easily pull and swap crews to get things done when ATL goes to hell in a handbasket, which happens 2-3 times a year.

However, RR's tended to get abused in the last CBA. Less so in this one.

LCR is nice, and goes QUITE senior in the months like Sep-Oct or Jan-Apr, because the odds of you getting used more than one or two trips a month are somewhat slim, especially with lots of reserve coverage (we're currently in the 40% range). LCR in MCO went to the #4 F/O and #6 CA the last few months. ATL is similar.

 

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That all sounds good for the junior, but probably wouldn't float due to not being voted nor seeked by the union, very senior oriented. Put another way, having a reserve pilot available is one less premium pay opportunity for a senior bubba. Especially PLCR or LCR.

What percentage of each of those different reserve slots are available? Like I said, we have run as low as 4%, contractually 6-8, and now running about 10%. I can't see the company agreeing to a more flexable reserve, we can't get them to agree to keeping AM and PM's split (you have a PM reserve and they can make it an AM second day or keep an AM pilot late last day into a PM line).