Two overtime months in the last 12 months for me: total less than 5000dhs.... yet they still manage to fatigue me.
Lets face facts, this is a cover-up for the incompetence of scheduling and not just a bean counters 'cost savings'. How often do we get a return to DXB at 0630, only to be placed on a flight the next day at 0800? I go from red-eyes, to afternoons to early mornings without ANY consideration for the health affects.
If you saw my last RESERVE month, and the numerous and absurd changes, then it would be quite clear how messed up the department of crewing is. They are incompetent that is for certain, but they are also saddled with crazy restrictions which have no basis in what is healthy for pilots. They have become a vindictive and jealous department that believes the bull**** spouted by the likes of the utimate moron; the foaming mouth talking Horse.
I think we might be best served with 'LINES' in our bidding system. Lines, simply put, are 2000+ rosters offered and we bid on them according to which one we desire. I have not been a fan of such rostering in the past, but in THIS place, I think it would better than what we have now. Screw the AD days, screw the max DO's and come up with the 2000+ rosters that fill the schedule. I swear, It has to be more efficient and give us more options, rather than bidding and not having a clue.
Clearly the bidding system does not work for the vast majority of pilots here, except of course if you are one of the two CRS 'experts' and get what you want each month, or perhaps a long-serving 'local' who basically makes up his own roster.
The bidding system is a nightmare. The rules are insane and the people who are tasked with looking after our best interests (sorry I had to stop typing to laugh, because in truth they are 'tasked' with being incompetent YES MEN), and also those people assigned to deal with our skeds on a daily basis, are idiots.
To hell with this crap. List a thousand LINES for Airbus and 1000+ for Boeing, and we can look at them and bid them accordingly. The advantages would be; stopping changes, a better idea of what we will awarded almost entirely based on seniority, and it also precludes so many Reserve and AD days. The other added benefit, is the idiotic Training Department (scheduling), might actually have to use a few brain cells to design a sked.
Sorry to rant, but things are getting stupid here.