gearhog

More productivity is good for the company because labor is the biggest single operating expense. If the company wants to reduce cost, they increase the productivity per unit of labor. But a cost still exists, so who's paying it and how? The employees are paying it with a different resource: time. That's because the company would like to keep their pilots in the seat more hours of the day, more days of the month, while reducing the employee opportunities for absenteeism. Of course, there are lots of people who are fine with flying their ass of for a big paycheck. And I'm sure there's no shortage of stories of PBS pilots who worked 3 days a month. But let's face facts, that's not the status quo. You're right that the unions committees and the voting memberships are responsible for the details of the scheduling section of the contract and the specifics very greatly from airline to airline. However, the two distinct categories of schedule management, line bidding and PBS, remain very different. PBS came into being during a period when pilots were a dime a dozen and the economy was poor and sold to the membership as a mutually beneficial plan to mitigate the threat of the company folding. As I understand it, every airline that does not already have PBS recently opened the last round of negotiations with "We want PBS" and their unions said "Absolutely a non-starter." Why? Because the union committees studied every other airline contract in the industry upside down and inside out and determined they have leverage and it's a regression in work rules. That is, if the membership values seniority rules and schedule flexibility above sacrificing personal time for productivity. And of course, not everyone does. There are good things about PBS, but when you compare the sum totals of the benefits of drawbacks of each system, there's a reason why the most financially stable airlines over the last couple of decades do not have PBS.

Congrats on your retirement. I'm a few months behind you, and also trying to cover all the bases.

Until you get burned a few times by having the TDY cancelled last minute by the Guard Bureau (after you've taken military leave) due to lack of funds, cancelled by the Sq due lack of interest from other crewmembers, or cancelled by MX for broken aircraft. Then you sit around the Sq all week trying to recoup a fraction of your lost airline pay by logging doubles doing CBTs and OPRs if the network is up. I sure hope I don't sound bitter.

Of course. What TSA employee wouldn't rather go to an airfield, impede productivity, annoy crewmembers, and hate their job for slightly better benefits?

While the Guard is better, it is not a solution. The Guard is also deteriorating. It's become Active Duty Lite. However, in the Guard, when people get pissed, they simply don't show up. Try getting anything done on a base with poor morale. This is a very recent change. I cleaned out a desk drawer the other day an on top was a document that referenced Air Force Basic Doctrine: Centralized Control, Decentralized Execution. I thought, Big AF is applying this doctrine not to war fighting, but nearly every aspect of the organization. Many of the daily stressors that I hear about in the squadron pertain, in a very large part, to the ceding of control and authority to "data collection" organizations off base. Finance, Persco, Comm... I went down to the Comm Sq last week to raise hell. I sat down with a TSgt and just asked why everything seemed broken. "Lack of manpower, lack of funds, lack of authority to fix anything, higher level organizations do not respond." It was the same when I stormed over to Finance demanding answers recently. My anger turned to apathy when, through conversation, I realized it really wasn't all their fault and there was little they could do, even if my issue became their full time job. It's the same shit everywhere I go on base. People want meaning in their work that comes through giving our people the means, flexibility, and responsibility to make progress. Nearly all of that has been removed and given to central authorities. The production order comes down from on high and you merely execute. We've all been relegated to double-shift factory work and few find satisfaction in that. Trying to work through this and checking myself for both pessimism and optimism, and allowing only realism - there's no way to untangle this mess without a comprehensive overhaul that likely will not happen until the most dire of circumstances.

Bingo. Every airline wants more productivity per employee, less absenteeism, and greater control over costs and scheduling. Every airline wants PBS.

Priorities for the next generation warfighter: Avoid conflict. No outward expressions of sexuality. No jokes, criticisms, or judgements. You must kill without glee, and also without question.

Using this logic, if we all get some sharpies and draw dicks near the offices of toxic, chickenshit Air Force leadership - they'll be fired!

Sure. I normally start with my company employee travel website first and that works 80% of the time. To find routes, I use passrider.com, flightlookup.com, rome2rio.com, flightconnections.com, expedia, kayak.com, etc. Apps: Flightboard for "right now" at the airport, StaffTraveler, and FlightAware. For international, myid90travel.com will give you a rough estimate of available seats, but I think you need a company provided account. To check specific loads and other questions, I normally just call the airline. Airline websites normally display seats sold, but don't show standbys. American Airlines Non-Rev: 1-800 933-5922 United Airlines Non-Rev: 1-800-359-3727 UPS Jumpseat: 1-502-359-1437 Yesterday, I got caught up in the mess around Chicago. Talked the company into releasing me from my deadheads early and had to get creative to get home. Passrider and flightboard got me home 18 hours early with one connection between United and Delta with near zero ground time.

Personally, I think travel is a chore and I treat it as such. I like free stuff so I'll make a list of options to get from A to B with the fam on Non=Rev. Prioritize the list according to seat availability, travel time, and number of stops. I keep a whole category of non-rev apps, websites, and 1-800 numbers on my phone. If I can save a few grand by Non-revving the entire family to Paris, that means better hotels, restaurants, experiences. It can be challenging, but there's always a way. That said, sometimes it's not worth the effort, but I'm more of a cheap bastard than most so I'll work for it. Always, always, ask the gate agent if they prefer Starbucks or Dunkin.

Holy S&!#! Chills.

The Air Force has a pilot shortage. The AFPC person answering the phone/emails does not have a pilot shortage. It makes perfect sense for them to wave a magic wand and make a fully qualified Guard guy an Active Duty pilot, but you're one guy in a gray area for which a process either doesn't exist, is used so little no one knows how, or is so complicated that the effort can't be expended. Are you aware of all the long term AD orders available around the world? If your unit is willing to allow you to become a free-agent, the possibilities are endless if you dig for them.

She's allright. I've had better.

Based on experiences and conversations with chief pilots at my airline, I don't think they feel threatened at all by military service. The pay and work related stress disparity is so great for the majority of Guardsman/Reservists now that the chief pilots barely notice the ones who are gaming the system. The incentives to take mil leave are rapidly diminishing. The insignificant few who are not legitimately showing up for military service during military leave aren't enough to influence hiring practices, and is indicative of a poorly functioning military, which only serves to drive more people out. Those who are showing up to military service, even during holidays, are still appreciated by management. Pilots are in short supply, so it's in the best interest of an airline to get their hooks into you now even if you aren't immediately productive... because you will be when you either quit, retire, or get smart and realize your airline gig is an all around better deal.

I don't think everyone will get behind this movement.

The math is simple. If around half of your fleet of aircraft is reliable at any given moment, you buy twice as many.

Hondas.

Yeah, that and there were no Daniel Boone memorials.

It depends on the value of your home vs. the mortgage amount, term of the loan, and principal remaining. If the 3% interest loan on the $58,000 car plus the rate of depreciation during the duration of the loan exceeds the difference in value of the home minus the remaining term of the mortgage times your monthly payment, you may want to use the principal payment to install an inground swimming pool to increase the value of the home instead. Otherwise, use it as a down payment to invest in a Caribbean sailboat in as large as your credit will allow. Purchase full insurance coverage on everything, just in case. Also, use coupons.

I can totally understand the "it's not about the money" argument, even though I don't believe many are saying it. If someone wants something out of life that the Air Force cannot give them (e.g. control, freedom, location, accommodation of family special needs, etc.), they may not be willing to compromise merely for more money. There are some things you can't pay certain people to tolerate. The vast majority of people I know who have left/are leaving the AF say "It's not only about the money."

You have to complete ACSC, then you have to wait on your ROPMA (assuming you're not applying for a unit vacancy), then you have to wait on your pin on date, then you need 3 years time in grade, then you wait to age 58-60 for an extra $400 or whatever it's worth 20 years from now. From a purely financial perspective, If you're working an average civilian job, it's worth it. But, if you currently hold a job at a major airline, the amount of extra money you could make between now and the time you get 3 years time in grade far exceeds the difference in your retirement paycheck.

I dunno. I kinda feel like the inconvenience of me always flying around that airspace far exceeds the necessity for someone else to fly in circles within it.

They don't "need" the overwater airspace as much as I need to fly direct from FLL or MCO to MSY or HOU.

Last thing the AF needs is to give a little authority to some hoity-toity Maj who thinks he can go fixin things that don't need to be fixed with all his fancy book-learnin'.