Crew Scheduling Oddity

[ClueByFour]

Last flight of the evening, CLT-PIT.

As the crew is buttoning up, the gate agent runs in and ops calls the front end, both bringing news of a must-ride (CLT based) pilot to PIT, to complete the crew for the 0600 PIT-CLT flight today. As it turns out, record time was made (flight left 10 minutes late) and because we missed the majority of the bank, the guys upfront were able to obtain a relatively direct shot to PIT, thus ensuring an on-time arrival.

What struck me as stupid was as follows:

1. That there were no PIT pilots or reserves available. PIT is a pilot base still (is is not)?

2. Are they (scheduling) really out of bodies this early in the month?

Am I missing something fundamental here?

As an aside, I love it that gate agents in a city that shall remain nameless have the cajones to suggest that a late departure and sure misconnect on the part of a US Express (Mesa) flight were not grounds for an involuntary reroute, but that's another rant.

 

[ilg30/7]

Clue,

Without knowing the specifics of the case you mention:

1. Crew Scheduling is ALWAYS tight on pilot coverage. In the old days, typically we would have more pilots avail to fly at the beginning of the month and less at the end. These days with reserve time balancing time of the month is not as important. Quite simply, pilot coverage is tight every single day.

2. It is entirely possible that PIT ran out of a specific seat (Cap, F/O) in a specific equipment (AB, 33, 76, 7I, 30) and needed to get somebody up from Clt to get whatever they had open covered. If you were waiting on your pilot to arrive, it was likely a quick call situation and at that time of night it would have either been to cover a sick call or a need a crew. Likely the scheduler saw the problem in getting the AM departure covered, decided to cover out of base, quickly called somebody out, and co-ordinated with systems and dispatch to make sure your flight didn't leave without him. Ideally, you are correct .... covering the trip with a Pit pilot would have been ideal.... would have saved the company pay time for the deadhead and hotel expenses for the pilot. But it would have cost the company a great deal more to cancel the AM flight.

3. We would all love to have ample pilots and f/a's sitting on duty for us to call when we need them. Unfortunately, we are truly at minimum staffing these days... and crew sched's greatest difficulties do arise in the summer when more vacation is allocated. Makes a tight coverage situation a little tighter.

4. Having said all that, by and large our crewmembers and crew schedulers do an outstanding job in working together to staff the airline.

Hope I answered your question. 🙂

 

[ClueByFour]

Interesting. I was shocked they were in the practice of pulling folks out of base. I guess being short all month long instead of really short at the end of the month might be considered an improvement in some circles.

Does a guy covering a trip like that get any kind of scratch for the deadhead or whatnot?

 

[Light Years]

Interesting. I was shocked they were in the practice of pulling folks out of base. I guess being short all month long instead of really short at the end of the month might be considered an improvement in some circles.

Does a guy covering a trip like that get any kind of scratch for the deadhead or whatnot?

Shocked at someone flying an out-of base trip? When on reserve you could be flying anything, where the trip pairing is based is pretty insignificant. That said, just because he was going to CLT doesnt mean its a CLT trip. I t could just as well be a LGA trip for all we know. Also, there could be reserves in that seat and type available in CLT but they might not be legal for what they needed covered.

The scheduling of crews and aircraft is pretty complicated.

 

[ilg30/7]

Clue,

He/she would get a 2 hour min day for the dh only day. Not sure about per diems, duty rigs, etc.

Like I said, that and the hotel an added expense for the company but cheaper than cancelling the flight.

 

[ktflyhome]

yea, Pit was short today. Earlier when I pulled up open trips for tomorrow, many trips had yet to be covered by Pilots. What they do with scheduling is a mystery to us all.