Unofficial Company Manual
- Thread starter Mr_Creepy
- Start date
Alchemy
Well-Known Member
The only thing I would like to add to this thread is that you should not trust anyone to tell you what the contract says....read it and interpret it yourself. I was burned a few months ago by trusting a captain on a scheduling issue.
On this particular day (last day of a 4 day trip), we were delayed on our first flight of the day into the hub because of low visibility at the outstation.... it was fluctuating between 500 and 1000 RVR, I believe we needed 1600 to takeoff at this particular airport. Eventually we got the 1/4 mile we needed and took off.
In any event, we were delayed 2 hours in getting to the hub, and we were going to be late for our scheduled flight to Mexico by about 90 minutes. The company doesn't like to take big delays on international flights, so we were hoping that it was recrewed so we could go home.
Sure enough, on the ACARS reply to our in range report, we get HOTEL/TERM for all 3 crewmembers (It will tell you your next flight number and gate assignment if you're supposed to work another flight). The captain said we had lucked out, and I was pretty happy since I had plans for my days off anyway. We land, and I hop on my flight to commute home. I turn my cellphone off when I board the plane.
When I get home, I turn my phone on, and crew scheduling has 3 messages on my phone asking where I am, and that they were expecting me for the Mexico flight.
Turns out, somewhere buried in the contract is a clause that says if your schedule is modified in any way as a lineholder, you are required to call crew scheduling to verify the change...this almost never happens realistically, since crew scheduling is usually swamped with calls during wx events....you will be on hold for at least 30 mins if you attempt to call scheduling in these situations...you always just go where ACARS tells you to, and verify with the gate agent if it tells you to work another flight. Oddly enough, this is actually not a requirement for reserve pilots....if there is nothing on your schedule 15 minutes after block in, you can just go home without calling.
Well I got burned on that one, the chiefs didn't care that ACARS was inaccurate, nor did they care that crew scheduling admitted that they had "recrewed the flight at one point, but changed their mind". They put a missed trip on me....moral of the story....err on the side of caution, go ahead and call crew scheduling if you have a question about your schedule, because there will be no mercy if they think you're trying to take advantage. It's not doing anyone a favor, it's looking out for your own hide. Turns out they got ahold of my captain somehow and he ended up working that Mexico flight. I have no idea if what he told crew scheduling or the chiefs in some way hurt my case, but it sucks either way.
This "screw the company" mentality can end up screwing YOU if you take it too far.
On this particular day (last day of a 4 day trip), we were delayed on our first flight of the day into the hub because of low visibility at the outstation.... it was fluctuating between 500 and 1000 RVR, I believe we needed 1600 to takeoff at this particular airport. Eventually we got the 1/4 mile we needed and took off.
In any event, we were delayed 2 hours in getting to the hub, and we were going to be late for our scheduled flight to Mexico by about 90 minutes. The company doesn't like to take big delays on international flights, so we were hoping that it was recrewed so we could go home.
Sure enough, on the ACARS reply to our in range report, we get HOTEL/TERM for all 3 crewmembers (It will tell you your next flight number and gate assignment if you're supposed to work another flight). The captain said we had lucked out, and I was pretty happy since I had plans for my days off anyway. We land, and I hop on my flight to commute home. I turn my cellphone off when I board the plane.
When I get home, I turn my phone on, and crew scheduling has 3 messages on my phone asking where I am, and that they were expecting me for the Mexico flight.
Turns out, somewhere buried in the contract is a clause that says if your schedule is modified in any way as a lineholder, you are required to call crew scheduling to verify the change...this almost never happens realistically, since crew scheduling is usually swamped with calls during wx events....you will be on hold for at least 30 mins if you attempt to call scheduling in these situations...you always just go where ACARS tells you to, and verify with the gate agent if it tells you to work another flight. Oddly enough, this is actually not a requirement for reserve pilots....if there is nothing on your schedule 15 minutes after block in, you can just go home without calling.
Well I got burned on that one, the chiefs didn't care that ACARS was inaccurate, nor did they care that crew scheduling admitted that they had "recrewed the flight at one point, but changed their mind". They put a missed trip on me....moral of the story....err on the side of caution, go ahead and call crew scheduling if you have a question about your schedule, because there will be no mercy if they think you're trying to take advantage. It's not doing anyone a favor, it's looking out for your own hide. Turns out they got ahold of my captain somehow and he ended up working that Mexico flight. I have no idea if what he told crew scheduling or the chiefs in some way hurt my case, but it sucks either way.
This "screw the company" mentality can end up screwing YOU if you take it too far.
EatSleepFly
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what this means, but OK. My first post in the thread was made in jest (hence all the smilies) based on the fact that regional pilots make up the majority here, and then a $hitstorm somehow rolled in.mrivc211 said:
Personally, I like or dislike people for who they are, not what they do for a living or what they post on some internet forum. I have yet to meet a JC member I didn't like (and I've met a lot), despite any bantering that goes on in the forums.
I could care less anymore about SJS and all that crap. I think flying a CRJ (or any jet) would be really cool- I just don't want to fly for a regional.
I can totally understand where it comes from too- some of you no doubt remember I took a regional job at 900 hrs or whatever because it was basically my first real "out" of instructing. It turned out to be a big crappy disaster (partially my doing, mostly theirs) that left me confused, bitter, and wanting to quit flying altogether. I stuck it out though, and went back to instructing- once I got 1200 hours, got my first freight job and have been happy with that since. So anyways- sorry if I pissed anyone off, sorry for rambling, and sorry for going way off topic. For the record- I don't hate all regional pilots, and I don't care if you do get a regional job at X00 hrs. More power to you if that's what you want. Maybe it's just me misinterpreting, but there seems to be a lot of "holier than thou" BS around here- that's what torques me. I don't remember it always being that way.
Kingairer
'Tiger Team' Member
Alchemy said:
Very good real story. ALot of time crew members in crew room settings will do a lot of "screw that I wouldnt call, I never did"...but when it comes down to their own situation they might handle things differently when its their ass and not tough guy talk. There was a guy at one regional that got roped into tough guy talk when he was on probabation, a flight was canceled, and so was his employment.