galley princess
Senior
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2007
- Messages
- 384
- Reaction score
- 263
Actually, IMHO if you took out all of the "at scheduling's discretion" and made the rules a hard stop, the T/A isn't that bad. This of course would eliminate the buckets/ groups/ cadres whatever from the equation. Straight seniority, the use of shifts, no more 3 hour days but the 5+15 minimum day, all that is workable. Just take out the grey schmutz.
The Comany and union could easily deal with a potential staffing shortage on any given day/ time period by just creating a tool where all F/As or reserves would be allowed to pick up extra time and either bank/ be paid for it. This is used at other airlines and it's pretty specific.
Example: Fom 12/19-12/28 fly as much as you want. There's always a few high timers that will jump in and eliminate the open trips.
The problem with our current system is that it allows overfly the whole month. All that does is allow the mega senior to fly over from 12/01-12/15, thus leaving nothing for reserves until they get slammed close to Christmas, that helps neither the company or the F/As. We still go out short over the holidays and the reserves are abused. The only ones who benefit are the mega senior. Leave the month alone and target the time where you know there will be problems. Incentives are cheaper in the long run than this lousy restrictive mess they've constructed.
The reserve T/A is unfortunately a huge representation of how MF and CA don't have to deal with scheduling anymore. Sure, they may hear anecdotal evidence of the shenanigans that scheduling pulls, but actually living it? Decades away, hence their naive belief that "to scheduling's discretion" will be rare and not de rigeur.
Reserve rotation is DOA. That's just a hard reality at US. The numbers won't vote for it. If you want it, you have to go to an airline that enacted it twenty years ago and it's part of the culture.
The Comany and union could easily deal with a potential staffing shortage on any given day/ time period by just creating a tool where all F/As or reserves would be allowed to pick up extra time and either bank/ be paid for it. This is used at other airlines and it's pretty specific.
Example: Fom 12/19-12/28 fly as much as you want. There's always a few high timers that will jump in and eliminate the open trips.
The problem with our current system is that it allows overfly the whole month. All that does is allow the mega senior to fly over from 12/01-12/15, thus leaving nothing for reserves until they get slammed close to Christmas, that helps neither the company or the F/As. We still go out short over the holidays and the reserves are abused. The only ones who benefit are the mega senior. Leave the month alone and target the time where you know there will be problems. Incentives are cheaper in the long run than this lousy restrictive mess they've constructed.
The reserve T/A is unfortunately a huge representation of how MF and CA don't have to deal with scheduling anymore. Sure, they may hear anecdotal evidence of the shenanigans that scheduling pulls, but actually living it? Decades away, hence their naive belief that "to scheduling's discretion" will be rare and not de rigeur.
Reserve rotation is DOA. That's just a hard reality at US. The numbers won't vote for it. If you want it, you have to go to an airline that enacted it twenty years ago and it's part of the culture.