Your thoughts on OPEN TIME

You know, PBS is incredible if you're super senior. But if you're not super senior, it bites monkey butt in my opinion.

The company love it because they can cut staffing down to the bone. And when staffing is too low, just wait until you discover the joy of "unstacking".

"Unstacking" is more or less, "The bids are done, but we've got too much open time" so it starts assigning stuff to people that they really didn't ask for.

Basically assigning junior man flights at straight pay. Welcome to SKywest Airlines.
 
My company is not properly staffed and until they hire more FO's and start upgrading I will not pick up open time or accept JR mans.
 
That, and it means the end of turning 10 days of vacation into 20+ days off in a row.

I dunno, Bill's done pretty well with his vacation for March! He just put in to be 'off' on his days before & after vacation, and it worked fine ;)




Bill worked under PBS at TWA. It was a system that was purchased, then tweaked by a commitee of people from the company and the union. It was a great system. TWA guys saw the very best of what PBS can be.

Delta bought an over the counter product for their express guys in MCO, and implemented it with no tweaking. It sucked. BIG TIME. The express guys in MCO saw the very worst of what PBS could be.

That's why most DL guys panicked and fought so very hard against PBS. The ones who'd come from TWA tried to tell the people in charge how it could be good, but no one wanted to listen. The PBS that's in place now is not as bad as MCO's was, that 'unstacking' issue that Doug mentioned is really the worst part of it.
 
You're motivation for that again was....?
I could say it was to discuss the topic civilly because it's an issue that comes up, I dunno, everyday while we're on a trip, but that sure as heck makes too much sense and it's just easier for you to think I did it to piss you off.
 
I pick up open time if I have stretches of days off and have nothing going on one day. I'd rather pick up an advertised trip as it gives somebody the day off and the company ends up paying the same amount. But in the end I need to be pulling off 90+hrs a month. If we had furloughed guys out there it would be a different story...
 
I'd rather pick up an advertised trip as it gives somebody the day off and the company ends up paying the same amount.

What's the difference in a trip being "advertised" and "not advertised"? I was thinking all open time is "advertised" (or should be...that's a different story...) ie it's published and you pick up what you want.

Also, our open time pays at 1.5x pay, so if they gave it to a reservist it technically is costing the company a minimum of 50% more - if a 2nd year FO picks up the trip it'd be double what it would cost to put a first year reserve FO on it.
 
I think what he means by advertised is that the trip currently belongs to someone who's 'advertising' to try to drop it.
 
I think what he means by advertised is that the trip currently belongs to someone who's 'advertising' to try to drop it.

Wow, so XJT allows a pilot to drop a trip and then allows a line pilot to pick it up at 1.5x pay? Damn! I wish we had that here. We'd all be dropping our schedules and having others pick them up. Instant 50% pay increase :D.
 
Wow, so XJT allows a pilot to drop a trip and then allows a line pilot to pick it up at 1.5x pay?

Actually, no. If a trip or portion of a trip is *advertised* and someone else picks it up, that person is paid only what the trip is worth. So if I pick up someone's advertised turn that's worth 2 hours, I get paid 2 hours. (There is an exception to this, but it's a rare occurrence.) If someone *personal drops* a trip or portion of a trip, it goes into open time. (And we can't just personal drop whatever we want. Scheduling has to believe that there will be sufficient reserve coverage to cover the drop(s).) If someone then picks up that trip from open time, they are paid a duty period minimum of 3.75 hours for it. So if I drop a turn worth 2 hours, and someone picks it up, they are paid 3.75 hours for it. If I drop a turn worth 4 hours, and someone picks it up, they are paid 4 hours.

Now, we do have "red flag" days that can be designated by the company when they foresee potential reserve coverage problems. Any *open time*, not advertisements, that are picked up on those days is paid at 150%.
 
Case in point: my line in March is a whopping 88 hours. Not what I wanted, and I'd like to get more flying out of it. So, here's what I plan to do on the FIVE DAYS OFF I have in a row: #1 see if another FO in MEM is looking to get one or two of those days off #2 see if there's any open time I can cover. Yeah, my airline is understaffed, but if there's open time, someone beneath me (or me in the first place) is gonna get tagged to fly on a day they don't want to. I'd rather someone who WANTS to fly get the trip than someone who's gonna have their day ruined by a call from scheduling. We can "not accept" a JM. If they call and you answer, it's done. If they can't get anyone to answer the phone, they'll start grabbing FOs that are getting off work to cover the trips. "Sweet! I'm glad that 5 day is over." <Selcal SelCal> "WTF? FO call scheduling? DAMMIT!" We do get one extension refusal a month, but who wants to use that in the first week?

It would be a lot different if we had furloughs or weren't hiring at a breakneck speed. I'd think a little before doing it. As it is, we're trying so hard to get staffed we're hiring people with temp Commercials and a pulse.
 
My company is not properly staffed and until they hire more FO's and start upgrading I will not pick up open time or accept JR mans.

:yeahthat:

Unfortunately we have some hour #####s here who sort of defeat the purpose of that.

(EDIT: hahah... I can't say #####s? That's a silly filter!)
 
I pick up open time if I have stretches of days off and have nothing going on one day. I'd rather pick up an advertised trip as it gives somebody the day off and the company ends up paying the same amount. But in the end I need to be pulling off 90+hrs a month. If we had furloughed guys out there it would be a different story...

Same way I feel. . .

If I we (the family) need the extra money, I'll most likely pick up open time.

But . . . if we have pilots furloughed . . . then I'll put the profession first in this case. But hey, this is just the way I feel right now. I suppose it could change.
 
:yeahthat:

Unfortunately we have some hour #####s here who sort of defeat the purpose of that.

(EDIT: hahah... I can't say #####s? That's a silly filter!)

There are several J4J captains who pick up open time or accept JR Mans quite a bit. They see the dollar signs and don't realize they're just keeping someone from upgrading.

Look for me in the crew room today, 2pm hot. WOO HOO!
 
I miss the opportunity to pick up open time. I kinda like it when the company is run a bit "leaner" than it is right now. I'm guessing summer will change that.

The only option here right now is to put in a request to fly on our days off, which basically is like a voluntary JM. You get the trips that the reserves would be assigned (lineholders get 1.5x pay over guarantee), although you can decline them. If they assign the trip to a reserve and you were legal, you get paid for it too. I heard one instance where they skipped over 6 CA's and gave the trip to a reserve, and it cost the company over $15k for that one trip. Oops.

That explains why I request first out on reserve... and don't get a SINGLE call in a five day sequence. I haven't flown the airplane for a month now (other than a deadhead, and a repo where I didn't even fly because the RSV CA hadn't flown in 3.5 weeks at the time) but someone with 12 days off a month can request to fly on their days off and get time and a half. Makes no sense when RSV's and LC people are sitting around doing NOTHING.

PBS from what I understand is good for senior guys, and people who don't commute. I think the only thing that would be a major change for us is vacation. I can imagine how much PBS would improve morale by making commuting even more difficult!!!
 
I'm looking at my schedule and what's the difference between being junior in PBS and, in essence, getting assigned open time for straight pay. I got awarded a 91 hour 11 day off line. The last day of reserve this period was dropped so I would be legal for the beginning of next month. So my schedule for the next 3 weeks basically goes 4 on, 2 off, 2 on, 1 off, 6 on, 2 off, 4 on. 5 days off in 21.
 
I'm looking at my schedule and what's the difference between being junior in PBS and, in essence, getting assigned open time for straight pay.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

That is the ONE, singular reason dad is dreading the upgrade.....At least it beats commuting to reserve. Going from bidding <10% to 83% will be quite a hit in the schedule department. At least most of the flying is commutable on both ends.
 
It's around 86 hours block for 91 hours credit, but the credit value didn't bother me as much as getting only 11 days off. Even at Colgan, lineholders almost always get at least 12 days off and that's with an almost constant 4 on 3 off cadence.
 
I'm on reserve, so it's a moo point. But, if I was a lineholder right now, I would definitely pick up open time. I could use the extra money, and normally the trips in open time are dumped into the system because of training, vacation, sick calls, etc. Especially time at 150%... I would grab that up.

We are short staffed. Many days we are junior manning, and reserves are getting abused like mad. I've seen many days where reserve coverage drops into the negatives. So I'd pick up open time to help out both me and the company. Win-win. They can't train any faster than they are now... if they tried to train any faster, we would have major problems on the line... things are going too fast for new-hires as is!

I don't feel bad about picking up open time. If people didn't pick up open time or advertisements, it would just means other pilots would have to get junior manned to work when they'd rather be at home. At least I'm volunteering to work for the extra money I really need.
 
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