TV Report that American Airlines (AA) will be running short on pilots after Christmas due to awarding too many vacations. Scheduling pilots on their type rating and airplane types is very complicated. Not having enough pilots may cause some short haul flights to be cancelled for those planes to carry passenger on longer flights that have maxed out their available pilots. Of course maybe AA will get some relief from pilots ?
Just suspect but maybe AA has been short pilots all years and asked pilots to pospone vacations to later in year and shortage has caught up. ie use it or loose it.
Then if AA canceles in the NEC Amtrak will be hard pressed to fill the void.
The other option is to pay whatever pilots they can get to accept some form of payment in lieu of the vacation - I doubt they would bite for simple time and a half Overtime, however Double Time or Triple Time might get enough takers to keep their operation in the air.
The question is - Does AA value their customer service reputation (however good or bad that may be) or do they want to minimize payroll.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
They apparently had some sort of 'glitch' which allowed ALL of their pilots the option to take Christmas off. They're offering 1.5X normal pay, which probably isn't enough. Stay tuned.
Here is a NPR report. Paying some pilots more than others may cause all sorts of conflict in the ranks ? A real bucket of worms .
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/29/567286235/oops-american-airlines-accidentally-let-too-many-pilots-take-off-the-holidays
Computers are tools. They are not God. Tools require Management to supervise their use and the 'results' that they generate - in ALL areas where they are used.
Their use in 'Crew Management' which is the use that is creating this situation is one of the hardest to implement because of the multiplicity of labor contracts and the uniqueness of many of the contract stipulations. Such computer systems have to be continuously monitored to insure they are getting the 'right answers' - answers that are correct both from the employee side and the management side.
In this incident that Management wasn't keeping their eye on the ball, and this situation is showing Management's ineptness.
About 4-5 months ago made the decision to use Amtrak to travel back to Wisconsin from Dallas. I seem to remember that most railroaders have the 24th off and the Texas Eagle just flies down the line on that day. The train has to make several prolonged station stops to get rid of schedule padding because there is little to no opposing freight trains.......one of the better secrets of holiday travel on LD passenger trains. Timed my return for New Years Eve. :)
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