Tomorrow at noon the displacement bid will close. Sometime after that a complex series of moves will be deconstructed by the airline. My status is being reduced by 3. Since I am the bottom guy I am probably going to be displaced. Why probably ? Well lots of moves can be played.
The other pilots in my status, all senior to me, can proffer to displace. This means they can change status and use MY seniority to hold something else. Why would they want to do this? Well maybe they are just 4 from the bottom and DON’T want to be the bottom guy. They can transfer to any other status MY seniority can hold. Doing so will save 1 junior pilot in that status from being displaced by that one move. Many pilots chose to proffer to displace to avoid QOL issues. This is just one move that can be played.
What I think will happen is the following. There are 20 Captains being displaced from one status. I believe they will displaced to my status (as they can’t hold a Captain anywhere else). That will push out 20 pilots in my status. We will all go to a new status and push out 20 other pilots and so on. It will get extremely complicated and is mostly done by hand. Hopefully the results will be out by the end of the week.
Last time I was displaced, my date for training for the new status was initially 5 months away. The date moved further away twice until it was 7 months from the day the displacement bid closed. The week prior to me starting training ANOTHER displacement/vacancy bid closed and I kept my seat. I have a gut feeling the same thing will happen again.
While I was on vacation another Jeppesen update came out. I spent the first 30 minutes of my airport standby shift updating charts. I also reviewed the bid packets for May. If I get my same afternoon airport standby shift I will get Memorial Day weekend off! Score!
I am 3 hours into my 8 hour shift today. The Captain who sits standby for my aircraft was sent out while I was updating charts. There are NO Captains left for his status. This means if another Captain calls in sick or is unable to make a flight, there will be no one to fly with me. There are a ton of delays today, mostly appear to be mechanical in nature. Nothing major, but the repairs are taking a while which causes several flights to be delayed. I think I will be used tonight….if they can scrounge up a Captain. There are two overnight flights where the original crews won’t return to base (due to delays) until at least 2 hours after the original departure time.
I am thinking of flying over to New York this weekend for the New York Auto show. The flights are kinda open. The hardest part is getting from the airport to the auto show and back. The process involves two buses and one subway ride for a total of an hour travel time. Hmmm we will see.
April 14th, 2009 → 4:12 pm @ Geek Pilot