Jiraiya,
No, at the moment we don't know for sure how the rosters will eventually be designed, since the AJV & AJX have only been combined for 13 days. As it stands, we'll basically be carrying on doing what we did before the merger i.e. freight guys doing freight and pax, pax. Gradually they'll 'convert' us (kicking and screaming) from cargo to people and then they'll probably start dual rostering. It MAY be they schedule month on cargo, month on pax. It MAY be they integrate the cargo flights with pax flights at the same destinations. The Japanese MAY have an idea how they want to play it but they haven't yet shared that information and they seem quite happy to let things run along as usual.
Their scheduling is not effecient but it may become moreso. Typically, on the cargo side of things, we fly around 450-500/year. Sometimes the 24 hour rest requirement every 7 days is taken downroute but most of the time it is in NRT. Apart from that, standard rest rules are in place but you'll normally get longer because of the rotation of the aircraft to your nightstop.
When you are in Japan you work. When you have days off you go home. We DO NOT sell our days off to the Company, so do not even consider such ridiculous notions. Start playing around with fire like that and (a) you'll cock everything up for everybody else and (b) find you're Mr Unpopular Of AJX and all that that would entail. Just stick to the contract and don't try any smart-arse deals in order to get a few more $$$s.
The contract DOES allow for some form of extra payment if you fly over 70 hours in the month but I've never come anywhere close to that, so I really cannot speak as an authority on it.
Don,
We've got 3/4 guys who are married to Japanese girls and they have their time off, for the most part, in Japan. They obviously enjoy the advantage of having standby days at home (instead of a hotel) and, when they get back off a trip early, they have the rest of that day to do things people would normally do around their house (unlike being in a hotel). I could never live in Japan and I really am ready to go home at the end of each work block. I do enjoy the social life we get to spend when in Japan, with both locals (especially one or two of the very pretty locals) and non-locals but, as you implied, as employers they would test the patience of a saint.....and I'm definitely not one of those
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