Speedy, I said I stand to be correctred, not abused! No drugs involved.
I did not say you were wrong; you obviously feel strongly about it. I understood Mud-skipper's point. I merely offered a counter-point, based on thorough personal assessment and first-hand conversations with other A330 pilots, to the sweeping generalisations made by some that we're 'ALL worse off' under the L/H award. The facts, as they apply to me & others I've spoken to, do not support such a blanket hypothesis.
So, to add to my previous comments, I too believe that the initiative shown by the two Y-listers (I'm a Y-lister too) is great. Their 'proposal' would have benefited me on a couple of occasions and I agree it has merit. I have even spoken to one of them at length about my figures and he didn't disagree that, under the current inefficient flying, L/H pay is often better. For whatever reasons 'the proposal' has not (yet) been found to be suitable, but I know that DB & KW's powers of persuasion and persistence will make people take the idea seriously some time. I don't believe it's just AIPA; the company has also acted, shall we say, with caution.
As for your ex-737 pal. Are we comparing apples with apples? I imagine it would not be hard for a 90+ hour 737 roster to beat any L/H pay, but 8 years ago there was no Jetstar, Jetconnect or Virgin Blue. Aren't current 737 pilots being assigned annual leave? Just asking because, in my view, the goal-posts are always moving and such a comparison is of dubious relevance to the here and now; especially since we all had the opportunity to consider all the likely outcomes and take the calculated risk of coming to the A330 fully aware.
And blank-lines... As I said, I've met several (Capt's AND F/Os, SYD AND MEL) who have gained WAY more than the minimum guarantee on blank lines. Some even got substantial overtime for the assignment of flying above Divisor+5; they found it very handy! It's just a different way for the company to get all the flying done and the inevitable divergence of opinion does not change the fact that we're NOT all worse off.
And as for your assertion that 'The aircraft were doing the same flying before and after the change over'. I'm sorry, but when I was doing the S/H flying between SYD/MEL/CNS/BNE/PER I must have fallen asleep for the Singapore/Shanghai/Hong Kong/Narita bits, not to mention the 10-hour all-night sectors. And those 72 hour PVG and 82 hour NRT slips just fly by don't they! (maybe it's those drugs you mentioned?). It's easy to latch onto the cases, like MEL-PER-MEL in one day, where the pay has dropped, but in all honesty
I say that the L/H award suits the L/H flying.
Finally, my original post merely expresssed an opinion. This post goes further in offering some rebuttal but my intention is not to offend. My views are formed by the balance of job, family, remuneration & long-term well-being. In the words of some of our benevolent leaders; 'I can live with that'.
