SocialD

The problem with that model is actually having people to swap. Many squadrons are currently not very well staffed...some squadrons have a shockingly low number on the LOX's. So a 6 month trip with a 90 day swap isn't going to do much when you don't have people to swap with...guest help only goes so far. This is compounded when you still have an alert mission to fill back home. 100% agree on your last sentence.

Fighter bubba here, but we're basically sitting at 100 days gone every 19-22 months. We don't have enough swaps to allow everyone a swap, but it's over half. If they ever took that away, I see our manning going to shit in a hurry...especially if pushed further out to 120+ days. What's the cost savings when all your experience walks out the door?

Likely the most honest answer. Like so many things in the military. I've recently run into a few interesting examples of this where some places can do things while others can not do the exact same thing...all because of who is doing the auditing and how they are interpreting the laws. Beyond ridiculous!

Lol right! But seriously, we've been converting our techs to AGR for quite some time. Very few pilots want tech anymore...even with the pay raises. It's tough to entice AD guys with techs jobs. It's also impossible for airline guys to come back to help unless it's some kind of mil status. In my squadon, the more AGRs the better. Now if we can just get the big bonus down to a year in the ANG.

No swaps allowed? How often would an individual have to deploy? Interesting they think it won't have an impact on your manning, I guess time will tell.

Because the .govs red tape works at the pace of a tortoise. When we get the "new and improved DTS" in 16-19 years, you may be able to use these "new" and convenient things like orbitz and Turo.

Yes mother Delta has some heartburn with dudes logging pay cards while on reserve or even on a trip. They don't seem to like the idea of having two masters in the same day and the few reasons I have been fed are completely illogical and it's utter BS. WRT Threeholers post, I haven't seen anything that says it's illegal, but I've honestly not taken a deep dive into the rules on it. That said, I've been here over 4 years and have had zero issues wrt MLOA, of which I've taken a fair amount. In my experience, they get the dynamic nature of mil duty and occasional stuff here and there isn't even on the their radar. What really seems to burn them is consistent, strategic use of mloa to enhance your schedule. I was chatting with a tanker OG (AOO) today that has lots of part timer airline guys all over place. His anecdotal evidence pointed at Delta and FedEx as the most strict about MLOA, based on which company he heard from the most. Break break With respect to above posts about working mil around the airline. I found that on the NB, I needed to drop a trip or a few days of reserve a month to keep from feeling like I worked the entire month. Now that I'm on the WB, my schedules is so cush that I simply work at the Guard on my off days. 2x6-day (or 4x3-day) trips at DAL, then 4 days at the Guard. Living in base for both gigs is extremely helpful.

Unknown on MPA. I think that's title-10, so I'd assume so, but I can't answer that question.

They lowered the limit from 3 years to 2 years for the big bonus. Small bonus remains 15k. They further limited the type of orders, you must be perm AGR and NOT ADOS or temp AGR (you can bet stat tours are covered though...). Getting out of the bonus is up to TAG...you feeling lucky? I'm not willing to go into a signed contract with full intention of breaking it AND counting on the hope that TAG will approve such a curtailment.

If you're going to take >1 year orders anyway, take the big bonus for 2 years...bird in the hand. AFRC staff asked for 1 year and got it...why didn't the ANG Staff ask for the same? I wouldn't hold out much faith that it will change next year.

It looks like the Reserves allowed the big bonus down to 1 year sets of orders. Maybe next year the ANG guys will pull their heads out of their asses and do the same, though I'm not very optimistic.

Right! - Does anyone in Ivory tower even listen to the commoners/step foot outside of their tower? - I'll give them credit for nixing the one big bonus per career. - I could work as little as 9 days/month at DAL (13 days/month counting Guard duty) and I would still be taking a 15-30k paycut to take the bonus. This even accounts for the tax benefit of mil pay vs civ pay. - Most of our Perm AGRs are filled by dudes still under a UPT contract, thus not eligible. - We utilize temp AGR and ADOS to bring guys back on orders...here's hoping they'll waive the Perm AGR requirement. - We don't need a 1:1 pay exchange. But if you want us to come back to computer systems that barely run, epic battles with DTS, a system that seems to always be fighting you and fly the same as a part timer...it's going to have to be much better than 35k to sign on for 2-years (I understand 35k is the federal limit...by why not 1 year). - Unless they waive the Perm AGR thing, this bonus will likely do very little to help my squadron. - I would have jumped at a 35k/1-year bonus. - My 2018 DAL W2 was 22k more than what I'd make if I took the bonus right now...and I only worked at DAL 9 months that year...

At all 3 of my airlines (1 regional) the only way they could work you on an off day via "junior manning" is if you actually answered your phone. At Delta our JM is called inverse assignment and can be quite a good deal. Same at DAL. It's pretty high though and there are ways around it. Some guys want to get rid of the loopholes but there are so many whores out there I don't see it changing. On the flip side, one of the nice things available to us is the ability to drop your entire schedule. I drop my schedule every month I bid a line because I'm not senior enough to get the trips I want during the initial bid. Then I just pick up trips I like as the month goes along. It's a gamble but I've had 100% success on getting plenty of hours for the month. Doing this generally allows me to fly the same number of days but make quite a bit more. Realize this strategy is subject to good staffing levels which isn't always the case on NB aircraft...almost never a problem on the WB. Way to many variables, and can change wildly based on your fleet within an airline. For example, I was recently able to work 9 days for 74 hours of pay. This is nearly impossible to do on any of our narrow body fleets. I left one legacy for another based strictly on my ability to sit short call at my house (ie...not commute). This is worth so much more than any amount of money. Apply everywhere, take the first offer, then decide. Shack. We've recently had 3 relatively junior guys split to the regionals so they can get their Total time up ASAP. All of them were mid-level Captains or junior majors....we just don't get many hours in the fighters. I just had another friend call me yesterday and ask how to go about starting the process of applying to the airlines (likely a regional due to their low hours). DAL for me because I've already flown regional flying and the 737...putting them together for the rest of my career sounds terrible. Having options in types of flying is key for me...now that I'm flying on a WB, I can't imagine not having this option. It's like an entirely different job.

This. It doesn't hurt you to go this route if you think you'll be anywhere near the limit. Just be cognizant of the pro-rata rule if you already have money in a traditional IRA.

Oh man lol, you reminded me. If nothing else watch from 1+15 to 1+30.

Oh man they actually have guys going through with that? They talked about that here (ANG) a few years back and we all agreed that it's really not enforcable and why would we do that to our own guy's. If seasoning days aren't enough then they should be pushing for more orders...not putting a band-aid on it by giving their bros a paycut.

LOL, perfect...I guess I've personally stopped 6-9 months worth of kickbacks for my base. Well not me, finance and their inability to unfuck themselves and actually pay out my vouchers. Made even more funny by the fact that they had to amend my vouchers to pay for the late fees.

Ya I know, I just meant it seems like he personally gets them based on how he acts. Honestly, I couldn't care less if they get their kickbacks or not...and it's fucked up that this is the real reason for all the threats wrt using your GTC and paying on time.

Nice, I wish we had your FM. I think our FM gets direct kickbacks from citibank based on how militant he is in threatening us about not using your GTC. We had a few guys get to the hotel and their citibank card wouldn't run so they used their personal cards. Since we were out there for 90 days, our stuff was being uploaded every week. Within hours of those guys having their receipts uploaded, he sent a manifesto (maybe a little hyperbole) to our deployed SQ/CC accusing his pilots of fraud and threatening them with UCMJ action (not hyperbole)....didn't even bother ask questions. Of course, this is the same guy who once told me that over 15 other Guard FMs were wrong and he was right in NOT paying us DLA when we PCS'd back to our Guard base.

We, as in my unit (ANG), hired copilots as 12's, but I "heard" that at one point the AFRC was using the GS-11 rate to hire newbies and it was being thrown around the ANG for a bit. Ah gotya. Ya we (ANG) used to hire wingman and Flight leads into GS-12s. Everyone is GS-13 for now...but I can see your assessment happening. I honestly can't imagine asking them to go into a GS-11, that's crazy.

Been in the Guard 18 years with 10 years in the squadron as a pilot. I would say it varies widly by squadron and even from year to year. 9 years ago, I would say our "camraderie" was rather low...today, MUCH higher. The big detractor is that most guys are from the local area (various burbs...with family/friends close) so we're kinda spread out all over the city, the kids are in different school systems and most of the wives have jobs. With that, everyone has their own thing going on and busy lives. Another factor is our average age is higher so most guys have older kids that have them going non-stop...not to mention many of us have other jobs. I don't think we could ever hold a candle to an overseas fighter squadron who mostly live on base and/or in the same neighborhood. That said, I've flown with the same bros for 10 years and they're truly like brothers to me. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Another unique thing about the guard is that many of us are prior-E and many people stay on the base for 30+. Our tightness is expanded grately outside the squadron. Example...when I was a SrA, I had an awesome E-9 who always took great care of us. Fast forward 13 years and I'm the projo for a a two week TDY. That same E-9 is my NCOIC for the trip...what a humbling experience to have that guy call me sir and be my right hand man for the trip. When I walk out to my jet, a buddy from my crew chiefin days is launching me out. When I walk over to the expediter truck, it's my buddy Bill and not just MSgt Snuffy. When we go TDY we ALL party together. We know our crew chiefs, weapons loaders and avionics guys by first name and we know their families. When we want to buy a car we talk to one of our part time AFE guys who manages a local dealership. When I need HVAC stuff done I know a guy in a Mx backshop who has a side business. If we want property management, we have a part time E-9. We even had an enlisted dude recently kill it on Shark Tank and is doing very well for himself. On the flip side, we can be like a small high school...everyone know everything! We're a giant family...sometimes a dysfunctional one, but a family nonetheless.

Wait, you guys hired pilots as GS-11s? I thought going from full time orders to GS-12 was bad enough (which is why I chose a regional over GS-12). Yikes!

This brings up a good topic of when we'll get our schedules for the next month, since we all like to plan our lives. Again this wouldn't be an item that sways my decision on where to go, but good info to know going in. What is FDXs timeline for bidding/results? At DAL our bids close at 1800E on the 11th and must be published by 1800E on the 17th. Generally they're published by the 13th or 14th (FO bid posted ~24 hours after Captains). This month is an outlier in that the Captain schedules weren't published until the 15th and we're still waiting on FOs (16th), and dudes are absolutely losing their minds. Info I got from my UAL/AAL brethren. UAL - Capts are publish NLT 0001 on the 16th and FOs NLT 0001 on the 18th. AAL - Bids close at 1200 on the 13th...schedules published NLT 1200 on the 16th.

Where the "hate" comes from is the fact that most places that have switched to PBS have also given up conflict bidding. Line/conflict bidding is HIGHLY inefficient, which is a good thing for pilots. Some guys also don't like the uncertainty of PBS, whereas with line bidding, even if you don't know which line you'll get, you likely have a good idea of what the line will look like. If I were at a place with line bidding, I wouldn't want to transition to PBS unless conflict bidding stayed. I most definitely wouldn't pick my job based on line vs PBS bidding....and again, what Weed said.

Sounds like the ANG bonus will be released today (or this week). Shortened the big bonus timeline to 2 years but also now required to be on permanent AGR (ie...no temp AGR or ADOS) to get the big bonus, which will likely hamstring many squadrons. I also think they dumped the only 1 big bonus per career bs as well. Until they up the big bonus, allow it for 1 year orders (any order) and allow guys still under their UPT ADSC to get the bonus, it's still a meh for me.