Allegiant Pilots Picket

[SmoothLanderJ]

I'm pretty uninformed which is why I am asking but who do Allegiant pilots compare themselves to when asking for a pay raise? Do you compare airline to airline pay or is it equipment to equipment pay? Does in go more in depth into such things as monthly guarantee hours, per diem, etc?

Good question! Maybe Spirit or JetBlue rates + ?

 

[bc2209]

Good question! Maybe Spirit or JetBlue rates + ?

Yeah I was pondering that.

 

[BobDDuck]

I'm pretty uninformed which is why I am asking but who do Allegiant pilots compare themselves to when asking for a pay raise? Do you compare airline to airline pay or is it equipment to equipment pay? Does in go more in depth into such things as monthly guarantee hours, per diem, etc?

In general you use whatever makes your position look better (underpaid) just as the company will build an "industry" around what makes you look overpaid.

You can use similar or same type of aircraft (for example, 330/777, although don't tell the Delta South guys!) or 737-800/900 and Airbus 320/321. You could further slice it down to similar type of operation meaning that even though Virgin America and Delta both fly A320s, they fly them in very different networks in very different ways. Should Virgin ever unionize you can be damn sure they will want to include Delta rates in their "industry average" computation where as the management will argue that it's very different flying and not comparable.

Then you have to add in the confusion of airlines that have a payrate on the books but don't actually fly that aircraft. Should Delta and American consider United's A330 rate, when they don't actually fly any of them? Sure, they fly the 767-400 for the same rate, and it is a "similar" airframe, but is it the same? When I was doing the PSA negotiations we fought (unsuccessfully) to keep Mesa's CRJ 200 rate out of the industry average formula (because at the regional level where you are fighting for FFD contracts, everything is based around the average) because it was a terrible rate and at the time they had 3 of them based out in Hawaii flying as Go!.

Negotiations is kind of like making sausages. People often like the final product, but nobody really wants to see how they are made.

 

[HVYMETALDRVR]

I'm pretty uninformed which is why I am asking but who do Allegiant pilots compare themselves to when asking for a pay raise? Do you compare airline to airline pay or is it equipment to equipment pay? Does in go more in depth into such things as monthly guarantee hours, per diem, etc?

Although there are some big differences, we're kind of a mix of SWA and Spirit. The big thing is that our operational model is mostly based out and backs from vacation destinations, pilots are based in said vacation destinations (Florida, Vegas, Hawaii) and do out and backs to northern blue collar cities. This mostly avoids overnights for pilots and hotels (except for Hawaii stuff and the floating VBD base), we also sell full vacation packages to our destinations. We also charge for everything but the bathroom on the aircraft. This has made the company an astronomical amount of money. The company fancies itself a "travel" agency" vs. a true airline. This has been a huge piece of ammunition for us in negotiations.

All that said, I know Delta pay rates have been laid on the table, our CEO said he wouldn't have a problem with our CA's topping out in the $225 range. But everyone that's experienced in this industry knows its not just the hourly, it's all in the soft pay, work rules, and days off. Our work rules are practically non-existent, everyone is on min of 11 days OFF, the company throws RSV days in our schedule when they want, per diem is $1.00/hr along with a laundry list of other problems. Our CEO unfortunately, is hell bent against soft pay and work rules, which like I said, is exactly what we need. On APC there's a 100+ page thread explaining our situation in detail.

So where does this land us at? I'm hoping for at least something on par with Jet Blue pay and work rules. My biggest want (even more than 200+ hourly's to brag about) is to be able to bid 16-18 days off per month as a senior line-holder.

The next few months here will be should be very interesting.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

I've always felt picking to be a pointless waste of time.

The company could care less, as could the public.

Flying extremely safely is about your only leverage.

Trust me, management cares. A lot.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

The rat is terrible.

That's almost was effective as "SHAME ON" signs.

Don't tell Puppy that! He loves the rat. It's one of my favorites, too.