The issue I have is I haven't found a way to add ADs to my bid. Seems like that is the only successful way I bid now days. I mean if we want to have consistent bidding from one system to the other, there must be a way We can do that. One PTY, one MCO, and one Euro trip would pretty much fill up the month. Well I guess if the goal is 100 hours it won't and with factoring.......gotta have those ADs. :ok:

Anyone notice how the email / update letter did not have the name of the originator on it?

Just the name of the Executive Secretary of Flight Ops Dept.

So they're too lazy to enter in 4000 bids themselves? There is a team dedicated to this software so they should do it! What difference does it make if we do it or they do it unless there is something more sinister at play.

Loved the tone of the email though.

testing not checking
 

...or with a couple of lines of code, copy the submitted bids to the empty bids and hey presto: a fully populated roster test ready to go. Perhaps they think the ones who did not submit their bids have held back some fiendish bid combination that could make the system fall over when it goes live...but no, that would indicate paranoia.

Even if you really want to enter a parallel bid, how are you supposed to do one that matches your current one when the new system is so much worse, and so much more restricted than the current one.

I use over 100 lines in the current system. How can I 'parallel' this into 5 lines?

I wonder if the old system would work better/quicker if the number of bid request lines was restricted to five and the optimiser moved on after fulfilling the highest weighted request. I'm sure its been tried already, maybe.

50% turn out not bad for a Co. that hasn't given a pay raise since 2008 - but rather than be appreciative of a pretty solid number...

... A threat ....because somehow it's now our our fault...

If they're going to pay $40m for Jepp to do this - then they should pay us to be their guinea pigs. I would be happy to do a shadow bid for an hourly overtime rate (oops scratch that - it's less than the normal)

Otherwise they can FRO.

No way, no chance, any of us should play ball unless paid for our services.

If you do the shadow bid, you are agreeing to work for free. Just remember the entity you are giving the gift to...the same one that gave you a 1.3% pay cut this year.

Because every other party involved in this ...fleet, Jepp, CRS help team, IT etc...are getting paid (or similar) but not you.

Bend over at their pleasure.

Pffft...


f.

FFS... just hand in your resignation letter. Things become so much better then.


Who gives a F#ck about EK...their time has past....its over ladies and gents!!

Those who have spent any time here know its true...those who signed on within the past 3 years will realize what a massive mistake they've made.

Of course it's your fault fliiion, everything is your fault. The managment can do no wrong.
Careful Outlaw, Harry we be around to tell you how wrong you are.:ok:

What amazes me is that half of the pilots actually bothered to "trial" this new bidding system for management.

We have zero representation as a pilot group. This is a golden opportunity to stand together and show them our collective discontent. Make no mistake, they are not intending to improve your quality of life with this new system!

I will not assist them in shafting me even further...

I think the 50% who did try it expected to see the output.


I doubt that many will try it again. Why bother?


As many already have said, what's in it for us?

5 Trips a Month
 

It's not a rostering system! To call it such is an insult to every pilot here. If I fly 15 trips a month and I get to pick 5 of which maybe 3 are awarded I might as well not bid. I mean 20-30% of my schedule is chosen by me, and EK picks 70-80%. Why bother bidding. Even top bid. Hey EK just build the lines how you want. Publish them on the 15th. Let us bid on those lines. And publish the results on the 18th. Everyone including yourselves would be happier.Though happier is relative in this case. IMHO

50% is a red herring. They throw all sorts of BS into their emails to make the pilots think the individual reader is in a minority and in fact everything's going quite smoothly. Why else would they bother to quote the numbers... Apparently the real participation figure was <10% who wasted their personal time on the parallel bid.

I'm guessing some were new shiny joiners and the rest were the idle curious just off leave who'd had plenty of recent rest.

As always, simply more BS from the Crystal Phalace.

Has anyone managed to seek a sensible explanation to the restricting of bids to 5 only?

The reason for only 5 choices? Odds are you will only get 2-3 if that. The system will fill around awarded trips satisfying the company rules of min consecutive days off, max E/W, max consecutive late duties and to justify the mysterious FRMS system purchased. Quite obvious there is too few pilots to cover the commercial schedule. The only way for the company to cover the flying as best as possible is to not give any awards and just let the optimizer run without obstructions (pilot's lifestyle).

Hello Today Good-bye Tomorrow

Latest rumour is that it will be a maximum of 8 days off per month, with standbys covering the extra days that would have been off.
This apparently came from a recent wash up so I'm told.

That makes Sense.
 

I have never understood why they didn't do that sooner. They are obviously quite happy doing it to one fleet, and have no understanding whatsoever what it like to fly through both side of the clock month after month. What they see is it reduces the number of reserve pilots. However, it will make your schedule much more dynamic. If you get called out on an AD your next days trip will most likely be changed do to legality, and start a cascade of fun for the rest of the month. All 380 turns could then be covered by AD days no need to even roster those. Whatever training doesn't pick up just give it to an AD guy. Unfortunately, this is one rumor I see as very likely. I really really hope I'm wrong.

If this is true, and it would not surprise me if it is, it is proof they have totally lost the plot. How can they expect you, with the hours you fly, and the times you do it, to have the same amount of days off, as a 7.30 to 15.30 Costa Dweller?

Total madness.

The moment i see that, my resignation goes in.

Not that i think they'd realise or care, but i certainly will!

Reserve on an ad-hoc basis was voted out when TCAS ran the vote to either keep it or have like the BA system once every second rotation.
From what l understand BA have reserve once a year. Not every ten months.
Reserve is one month, not five weeks.
They also get 8 days off pre-assigned that is pre-selected by the pilot.

As TCAS is leaving, then maybe so is the instilled reserve system?

halas

I will resign as soon as they make the 8 days effective!

Resign now, you will feel so much better.
Why wait? Very few pilots think it is going to get better here so don't delay, resign today!

Not so much to do with the new system but I wonder how many people have, like me, just wasted their September bid trying to get home to LGW (777 by the way).
Just had a call from an A380 buddy of mine wondering why he's off to LGW on the EK11 which wasn't supposed to be making the switch until January according to the press release.
I guess they need the 777 to do a turnaround that requires less crew!

It is pretty funny to see a banner about Emirates roadshow in lgw right on this page. I wonder how many attended.....

The "current" rostering system is an abomination... upgrading to abominationV.2 doesn't sound promising.
Having said that... I've been reading many an article lately on shift workers health, sleep deprivation, and Pilot health.... it's all not good.
The rosters we operate here at EK are unique in the airline industry, flying widebodies on short-haul, long-haul, and ULR all in the same month.. and at all hours of the day and night. It is in fact slowly killing us all at an alarming rate.
This may have been posted before, but I would encourage anyone with a few minutes to participate in the Harvard School of Medicine Pilot Health Survey.

Pilot Health Study

I can guarantee it will be far more effective, and seen by enlightened people who care, than the sorry excuse we have for a Fatigue Monitoring Program. :ugh:(run by the fox, guarding the chicken coop)

Done. I hope 'we' get to see the results once the study is complete.

PS Our fatigue management programme is managed by an ex-FO who is Embry Riddle qualified. He pops into town once or twice a year.

And what or who is Embry Riddle. ( my survey is done as well)

Cloud Bunny

The 380 is doing 2 weeks of the EK11, presumably covering the end of hols/start of school rush. The 777 will then take it back until January.

There was a rumour of a permanent change now but my info is it's not happening.

H-D

Really? Maybe at Emirates mainline but Emirates regional on the dream fleet (330/340) we have reserve every 4.8 months... I have reserve Feb, July and December....

Hope you're right H-D. I seem to remember them saying something similar when the EK15 went over at short notice.
Anyway, back to the topic - the new rostering system, we're all ducked!

Someone mentioned the FRMS...what a laugh that program is.

On a similar medical subject...has anyone noticed the radiation monitoring program quietly went the way of the dodo? According to sources at the clinic, the figures exceeded anything anyone wanted to be aware of, and so it got put down.

Are you aware that a polar crossing is something in region of the equivalent of 4 X-rays; that UV radiation coming through the windscreen at high latitudes is 10 times more than you'll experience lying on the beach...and that companies like Virgin restrict their crews to 1 polar crossing every three months, whereas EK recently changed their policy to allow three ULR flights (no differentiation between 3x SD/AKL or 3 x LAX) per roster. NINE times more than Virgin allows.

Between serious fatigue and long term exposure to serious doses of radiation, flying for EK is indeed putting your health at risk.

I personally know of four EK pilots who have suffered brain aneurysms/strokes in the past three years. And those are just the ones I know about.

Quotes straight from the Jeppesen Crew Rostering brochure; check it out yourself: -
Jeppesen Crew Rostering
See - 'More Information' - 'Preferential Bidding'

"The key property of a preferential bidding system is that it allows the crew members to express and prioritize their lifestyle preferences"


"Bids can describe anything from detailed flight numbers to a complex combination of layover station, minimum rest-time, late check in, minimum credit time, etc. There are also various ways to express bids."

And what do we have? Something geared 100% to the airline and 0% to us. Well Alan, you can take your "help us to help you" crap somewhere else!:mad:

Has anyone asked TCAS, why not publish rosters using the new system? I don't mean real rosters, but ' ghost rosters'. I have a good idea why they are not doing it.

Yes, that has been asked. The problem is with only 50% of people bidding, those that do will get pretty much exactly what they bid for, so it isn't realistic.

I would say that the lack of interest in doing the parallel bid is a quiet way of saying we are over this place. It's all about giving, giving, giving and return we receive nothing. I can assure you I will not be doing the parallel bid for Sept.

It's my way of saying GFY.

https://s0.2mdn.net/viewad/4400405/P..._728x90_FA.gif

Top of this thread...on purpose? Coincidence? Cynical?

The way I read Squealies missive is " we have a stick that we are going to beat you with in November. We want to give you a few whacks with it first ,that you won't feel because we will use the current CRS ( COVERED REAR SYSTEM ) as a shield to ensure that the schedule is fully covered and prevent wholesale mutiny. What we want to be sure of is that when we take the cover away it's going to sting like hell"

Under the FAQs at the Emirates banner and website is a question saying something along the lines why do EK pilots fly so hard.
The answer is every ULR is doubled crewed and no pilot is allowed to fly over 900 hours a year. Complete bullocks. I'm pretty close to 1000 hrs this year and with all the augmented flights I'll definitely be over 1000 hrs in the months to come.
The lies just keep on coming from the despicable airline.

Recently flew with a guy who's over 1,100 :uhoh:

Putting in a dummy bid for EK is close to self flagellation.

50% however went for it! :ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

The system is mature and has showed good results in a lot of companies. This however with no vindictive restrictions and, more importantly, sufficient crewing.

Ahhhhh, now you might understand the squealing .....