I haven’t seen the contract, only the new payscales, and I do think it’s a bit strange to have a blended rate. At Air New Zealand, we have a blended rate on the 777 to allow for -200/300 variants, the same will most likely occur for the 787 when we operate both -9&10 variants. This is because Pilots on type actually operate all variants. We don’t, for example, blend the A320 rates with Widebody rates just because they’re on the same AOC, so why do it for the links?
I appreciate there’s a bit of a first day lottery between fleets when joining the regionals but the same is true at Air New Zealand. If there’s a combined regional seniority list, then surely pilots can move between fleets as vacancies and seniority allows?