United reaching out to ALPA FFD Carriers

We have been down this road before with PTO. I am totally in agreement that PTO should be able to be taken at any time, however: what happens when the entire seniority list PTOs Christmas?

It's almost as if they need to embargo certain days under PTO as "sick only with Doctor's note".
"Your request is denied due to insufficient staffing."

and

"A written sick note is requested for your absence on 25Dec. Please contact your Chief Pilot."

(I'm guessing.)
 
Does your airline have sick days? Most just have PTO. No reason needs to be given in order to use PTO.

IF the staffing supports it yes. But if the staffing doesn't allow the drop, then yeah you gotta call in "sick" or something (EMR) to drop the trip. For instance, for us if the day requires 12 reserves and there are 13 reserves on that day, you can drop a day with PTO no matter what your credit is, or without PTO (unpaid) as long as it doesn't take you below 70 hours. If it requires 12 reserves and there are 12 or fewer, you cannot. It's fairly straightforward.
 
Even in the rest of the world PTO must be approved in advance (it can be up to 30 days) and emergencies must be substantiated.

Imagine if every airline allowed pilots to just use PTO on a moment's notice! Yikes!
 
Even in the rest of the world PTO must be approved in advance (it can be up to 30 days) and emergencies must be substantiated.

Imagine if every airline allowed pilots to just use PTO on a moment's notice! Yikes!

At our airline FLICA allows drops up until 0700 the day of (I think). That's when open trips are assigned to reserves, so after that you're on the hook for it.

I think there's also a min time prior to report to, like 4 hours. But I don't remember exactly.
 
Dropping a trip because there is coverage is not the same as suddenly using PTO whether or not there is coverage.
 
Dropping a trip because there is coverage is not the same as suddenly using PTO whether or not there is coverage.

Understood. No one in their right mind thinks you should be able to just drop a trip for no reason at any time regardless of coverage. If they do, they don't really understand how the operation works.
 
A question on poaching:
I understand the history of it and the cost strategy, but anybody else thinking that with a limited number of applicants, the company hiring its own in large numbers lowers the upgrade time and ups their attractiveness to new hires.
Just sayin.
 
Notice that I used the term "pilot contracts." Not employee handbooks. ;)
In this regard, as I'm sure ExpressJet pilots who've had their vacation bought back/canceled/etc., the suck is rather the same. "Meet the new boss; same as old boss."

edit: The point, of course, is that staffing is staffing, and of course it's minimal everywhere.
 
"Your request is denied due to insufficient staffing."

and

"A written sick note is requested for your absence on 25Dec. Please contact your Chief Pilot."

(I'm guessing.)
Stuff like this doesn't work. How many doctors do we know actually work on holidays other than ER docs?

XJT has a good program for sick calls. We get three events a year. If we bring a sick note the sick call does not count toward an event. It still burns into our sick bank but once you have had some longevity with the company it wont hurt that bad. I know some guys with over 6 months of sick time saved up.

The last TA gave up the sick note policy. That is one reason why the XJT guys did not like the TA.
 
Stuff like this doesn't work. How many doctors do we know actually work on holidays other than ER docs?

XJT has a good program for sick calls. We get three events a year. If we bring a sick note the sick call does not count toward an event. It still burns into our sick bank but once you have had some longevity with the company it wont hurt that bad. I know some guys with over 6 months of sick time saved up.

The last TA gave up the sick note policy. That is one reason why the XJT guys did not like the TA.
I didn't say that it worked. I also didn't say it was good policy/contract language. I said that was how it is, or was, depending on where you worked.

Someone's got to work Christmas...

Acute Bovine Fecal Fatigue
Anal glaucoma.
 
Can someone tell me the dates in August? I can't find them for the life of me and I'm trying to bid my schedule.
 
Even in the rest of the world PTO must be approved in advance (it can be up to 30 days) and emergencies must be substantiated.

Imagine if every airline allowed pilots to just use PTO on a moment's notice! Yikes!

No, in the rest of the world you simply take PTO when you need to. It's paid time off, maybe its a sick day maybe its not. PTO is not a loan, you've already earned it, its yours.
 
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