The SWAPA Ride Report: Grievance settlement, more displacements, and Reserve Release Until Check In Artwork

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The SWAPA Ride Report: Grievance settlement, more displacements, and Reserve Release Until Check In

March 28, 2025 • SWAPA

In this week’s edition, Multimedia Manager Jason Davis, from the SWAPA Communications staff, discusses the settlement of grievance 2024-004, latest vacancy results and the additional displacements that resulted, and the move up of implementation for 100% Domicile Right of Return (DRR).

Jason also updates the membership on the roll out of Reserve Release Until Check In and the temporary manual work around due to automation difficulties. He closes with a Q&A section from Contract Admin, including questions on deadhead versus must-ride travel, open time trips in Trip Trade/Give Away, and release from deadhead while still on a Reserve duty period.

If you have any feedback for us at all, please drop us a line at comm@swapa.org or tap here to send us a text.

Welcome to the SWAPA Ride Report for Friday, 28 March 2025. The SWAPA Ride Report is your source for headlines, updates and frequently asked questions regarding the collective bargaining agreement. I’m your guest host for today from SWAPA Comm, Jason Davis.

Let’s start with a recent win from Contract Admin. Last week, they announced the settlement of grievance 2024-004, regarding short notice call out provisions. The substance of the agreement is that an attempted phone call or leaving a voicemail does not constitute proper notification of a reserve pilot. A pilot can be considered notified when answering the phone, returning the call, or acknowledging the change in CWA. Also remember that under Contact 2020, placing a reserve pairing in Trip Trade/Give Away is also an acknowledgement of the assignment. Pilots that were affected by this grievance and due error pay can expect an email from SWAPA detailing the remedy and expected timeline.

The May vacancy closed this week and resulted in an additional 111 displacements. While that is certainly bad news, one small ray of hope is that the Contract 2020 change to 100% Domicile Right of Return, or DRR, for primary vacancy positions was moved forward from its original 2nd Quarter 2026 implementation deadline. It was applied to the May vacancy and resulted in 7 pilots returning to their primary domicile. Unfortunately, the current displacements will take some time to sort out, but when positive primary vacancies occur, displaced pilots will be returned more quickly than under the previous contract. There is an important distinction between primary vacancies announced in the vacancy numbers from crew planning, and secondary vacancies that result from pilots bidding to change domiciles or seat. Secondary displacements are filled in seniority order, while primary vacancies are filled with DRR first. The contract reference here, which is linked in the show notes, is CBA Section 8.D.2. Please visit the displacement resources tab on swapa.org which is the first thing you’ll see under the resources tab. If you are displaced and will now be commuting, there are contractual benefits like paid moves or hotel expense reimbursements in CBA Section 3.K.2.a.2. Also, please reference the safety committee page on swapa.org for good rest reminders and fatigue management for commuting pilots if it’s been a while since you commuted to work.

Reserve Release Until Check in is scheduled to be implemented on March 31st to apply to April 1st reserve assignments. That said, the company has had some difficulty getting the automated process to work as intended – or more accurately, it works but there were some unintended negative consequences with other items that the programming touches. Therefore, the first few weeks will be managed manually via phone call to Crew Scheduling. The eligibility criteria is still the same, meaning the duty periods of the assignment must be equal to or greater than RAPs remaining in your reserve block, and your RAP hasn’t started. You can call as early as 12 pm the day prior, but if you have a duty or RAP today, then you will need to wait until you’ve finished that duty to call in. Once you tell Scheduling you’d like to be Released, they will put “RTCI” in the trip remarks of your assignment. SWAPA emailed additional information regarding this temporary workaround while the programming issues get resolved, so we highly recommend you read the full update if you are sitting Reserve in April or plan on picking up Reserve. When we are closer to a go-live date for the automated Release option, we’ll send out additional information and reminders of how the CWA selection works.

Let’s jump into Q&A from Contract Admin this week:

First up: I was getting on my deadhead to go to training, and I wasn’t allowed to board with the crew. I was told I must wait for pre-boarding to start. Is that right?

OK, after long discussions with the company, we agree that the language in the CBA is different for pilots travelling to training vs those deadheading on an assignment. Pilots going to training are must-ride travel and are allowed to pre-board, which is before passenger A1 is called. Training travel is outlined in CBA Section 15.C.6. Pilots deadheading on a pairing or pilots listed for the cockpit jumpseat are the only crew that are able to board immediately after the full crew is in place. That deadhead language can be found in CBA Section 6.D. and Section 12.G.6

Next up, a pilot asked: I was on reserve and my last day was deadhead back only. I called to get released and they said no. I thought everyone gets released when requested.

Ok, let’s dive in. First, getting released from a deadhead is different depending on if you are on a Reserve RAP or not. Different sections of the contract apply to those situations. CBA 13.S.5 states that a reserve who is scheduled for a deadhead or series of deadheads back to the pairing originating station on the last day of RAP will be released if the projected time of arrival exceeds 7 hours. If you called to get released and your arrival back to base was less than 7 hours from the start of the RAP, Scheduling does not have to release you. Remember that reserve pilots that select Release Until Check In have their underlying RAP removed and are treated as line pilots. In that case, you could get released from the deadheads back to base since you are no longer assignable as a reserve upon return to base.

Next question: I saw a pilot giving away a 2-day pairing that he said he was awarded through Premium Open Time. Are we allowed to give away open time award trips?

So, that depends. If a pilot is awarded an open time pairing and then scheduling makes a change to that pairing, the pilot is free to give away the award. CBA language 11.E.1.b states: “A trade or giveaway of an entire pairing or any portion thereof may be made without restriction if any portion of the originally awarded pairing is reassigned after the open time award was made.” But, if no change was made to the pairing, then the POT award cannot be given away, with a few minor exceptions.

Another pilot asked this: I wasn’t awarded a pairing because the system thought I was over the CAP. I have two trips that haven’t been audited and are over paying. Am I due error pay (EP) for that trip?

Unfortunately, you are not due Error Pay. During an open time close, the computer can only go with the information it has. If you know an unaudited pairing is putting you over the CAP, call scheduling before that open time close so they can audit it. After the close time, the legalities and CAP are already locked in.

Last up: If I have ‘Drop All’ for my vacation pulls, do I still get OTP (open time priority) for those pulls?

No, That would not qualify for OTP. Per Section 9.M.1., Open Time Priority (OTP) will be calculated based on monthly and training overlap corrections. Vacation pulls would be considered pilot generated and do not qualify as a monthly overlap issue the company was forced to resolve.

That’s all for this week’s Q&A. The next episode of the Ride Report will release on April 11th. As always, the full transcript of this podcast is available on swapa.org. If you have any feedback for this or any of our comm products, please send us a note at comm@swapa.org.

Fly safe, fly informed.