Global707:
Have no idea how they came up with the rate but they did it about 2 years ago and it hasn’t changed. A little low may be an argument but you must remember you still get the flying rate. Obviously, day off flying usually comes at the end of the month or during holidays. It is really a non occurrence now but it seems to be about a 19% premium over the highest hourly rate.
What I mean is standby/reserve coverage usually takes care of the needed flying. If a guy has to have a particular day off (and he knows coverage is tight) he will usually take care of the flying himself by working something out with his fellow pilots. I have flown tons of trips for guys that “had to have the day off” and in that case it is not "day off" flying. Sometimes you simply swap trips. “I’ll do your KTM on the 20th if you do my CMB tomorrow?” We take care of it ourselves. Sometimes it is necessary but ABY really does not like to pay for day off flying and keeps it to a minimum.
During spurts, like we will go through with the new cities coming and the new airplanes will cause this disruption. That usually goes away in a month or two now that the company has finally realized that they continually need to hire pilots for these next 24 airplanes.
But if you do need it and you are over 75 hours you are in the better bracket. Say you have an 8 hour Almaty trip (pay 9 hours.) You will get 2,160 for the trip plus 280 for the day off and per diem (apx 11 hours or 110.) This trip will pay you 2,250 which is not too bad. Remember when you get into the upper level we have the highest per hour rate in the region for pay, so I rarely hear guys complaining about this. Make this trip a night Trivandrum (VOTV) and the same 8 hours pays 13.5 plus or 3,240 + 280 + 110 = 3,630 for one trip.
Burners and Out