The SWAPA Ride Report: Contract AI (beta) Tips, Governance Hot Topics, and Scheduling Updates

In this week’s show, Communications Committee Chair Matt McCants goes over the data from Contract AI’s initial launch week and some best practices on how to use it. The SAC always has some news to share, and this week we look at the effects of the cut backs in the schedule along with the long view on implementation measures coming in the next quarter. With all things scheduling comes pay discussion, so listen in to review all the different audit tools at work that ensure your pay is accurate. 

September is full of governance events, so get the details on Constitution Modernization, the pro-con discussion of potential BOD restructuring, upcoming membership polling, and the Fall General Elections in this week’s episode. The standard Contract  Q&A rounds out a week full of info you’ll want to review. 

You can find this episode of the SWAPA Ride Report on the SWAPA app or your favorite streaming service under The SWAPA Number profile. As always, the full transcript is available in the show notes. Our next episode drops Friday, August 29. Questions or feedback? Drop us a line at comm@swapa.org.

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Transcript

Howdy folks, it’s Matt McCants with SWAPA Communications and welcome back to the Ride Report for Friday August 15th – We’re still your one stop shop for headlines and updates and this week’s show has a lot to go over. We’ve got some initial data points from the recently launched Contract AI, a lot of governance topics to cover, a few notes on the scheduling front, and of course some Contract Q&A.  

So we launched the beta version of Contract AI on August 4th and collected over 2,500 in the first week, so thanks to everyone who has given this a test drive. As you might imagine, our IT squad has been monitoring the performance of the platform and seeing what trends we can see so far. While we can’t necessarily tell answer “accuracy,” there have been very few selections of the red X after the prompt, which would indicate a wrong or incomplete answer in the mind of the user. Which is a good thing. Now remember, Contract AI (beta) cannot audit your pay…and there have been a couple cases where it’s been used as more of a search function, and that’s not typically going to get you to where you need to go – for example, instead of typing “Pay scale” try “what will be my pay as a 5 year FO next year?” Now you could locate a subsection quickly, but make sure that format is correct – an example here is telling CAI to “Show me section 2.J.2”- that’s a popular one where LCO lives - and you’ll get a breakdown of that section along with links to the full content. As we advertised, Contract AI is currently only looking at the latest annotated version of the CBA and the Contract Q&A from this show, but the performance has our wheels spinning as to what else it could draw from like the Scheduling Handbook and Probie to Pro video series to name a few. IT is always juggling a mountain of projects including getting the platform over to the SWAPA App but from where we’re sitting, in the long run the sky is the limit with this new tool. But to get ahead of one of the questions it has fielded a couple times, no, Contract AI can’t turn into a sort of Skynet and become “self aware.” 

Now a lot of questions that come through are scheduling related, so let’s take a lap around the world of the SAC as there are some topics here that everyone should take note of. Namely that the flight schedule was cut back to fall levels on August 4th and that will continue into October. That's a drop of over 10% in weekly flights and over 13% in weekly block hours from the summer peak schedule. Saturdays were cut back the most by over 21%, highlighting the day-to-day schedule fluctuations meant to better align with demand. Sooo Commuters – start taking a look at flight schedules and loads a little further out - especially to the Saturday schedules - and take them into account for your commuting plans. And of course for everyone, take the walk or check with your ops agent to see if one of our own might be running to catch ya.  

On the medium term implementation tracker, it’s meeting palooza with the SAC week in, week out as they work with crew planning on Reserve VDT automation, Reserve ELITT, Personal Net Zero, self service deadhead release, and footprint protection…now on that last one as you might recall we have a couple related pay audit touches I’ll review later. Longer term work continues on Reserve Proffer Process, training bid, and training trades, and the cross talk continues with crew planning when it comes to some less than ideal pairing/line solutions. 

Rest buffers are a hot topic on that subject where we’re seeing cases of pilots able to complete the duty, but then had to be reassigned for rest. The SAC is also pointing out where commutable pairings weren’t placed on the same lines as much as possible (like we’ve continuously polled) and could have killed two birds with one stone by swapping some of the flying from other lines. Big picture, with the execution problem largely addressed with Contract 2020 provisions, the planning finalization and the short timeline that goes with it could still clearly benefit with some more collaboration – we’ll see if the company takes some of the SAC’s solutions as we move into the fall schedule, but that feedback the membership has been providing is in fact reaching the company’s desk.  

I mentioned footprint protection, which is slated for 4th quarter this year – now that also serves as the basis for the 5 day pay audit timeline which is set for 2nd quarter of 2026. But what I really want to hammer home is that regular topic of pay audits. You might have seen the snapshot article a couple of weeks ago about what SWAPA does from a mass pay audit standpoint, but to review, batch audits are completed each month, where every single pairing is processed through the SWAPA audit code, except for those few outliers that are specifically called out on the audit tool that you are familiar with. SWAPA is typically a few months behind the current month after the company releases the data to us, ensuring older incorrect audits are captured. Contract Admin then uses a combination of automated and manual processes to validate underpayments and then submit them to Payroll to correct pay across thousands of pairings.  

Now you aren’t currently notified when errors are caught, but you may see an occasional increase in your TFP on a paycheck that you weren’t expecting, and SWAPA verifies that the discrepancies are paid. That notification part changes in the first half of next year as well, in accordance with 2.X.5 which says “After an audit shows complete, any affected Pilot will be electronically notified of any change to a pairing’s pay.”  All that to say - regardless of whether you use the SWAPA pay audit tool and capture an error in accordance with the instructions, or we find it, it does get reconciled.  

OK let’s talk about governance here for a bit – you’ve seen some traffic about Constitutional Modernization, pro-con discussion of BOD restructuring, upcoming membership polling and the Fall General Elections so let’s level set a few things. So in chronological order, The pro-con discussion about potential board restructuring will be followed up with some polling at the end of the month that will cover that topic along with a few others that we obviously want participation in so we can get a feel for where the membership stands. Now. This year’s fall general election ballot will open on October 14th until October 28th, and will not only house 12 domicile seats and a Vice President Election, it will also contain new language for the SWAPA Constitution for the membership to vote on. What kind of language? Glad you asked – there’s a sneak preview in the form of an Executive Summary authored by your Constitutional Review Committee in this month’s Reporting Point to get started. I am also sitting down with that special committee to do a podcast on the finer points, and that cast and transcript will air on September 1st. Finally, before you cast your vote, you will have the full language of all the proposed changes and it will be dressed up like the annotated version of the CBA so you can see what the changes could be and why. So to be clear, no voting on potential restructuring in this fall general election, just on Constitution modernizing and the aforementioned representatives. As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of these topics, please reach out to your rep, keep an eye out for the polling message in your inbox, and we thank you in advance for your participation with all of those. SWAPA hangs its hat on being data driven, and this is in fact your chance to be that data.  

Aright let’s run through our top 5 from contract admin this week and this round of questions starts with one about…food.  

I had an early show, and the hotel had no breakfast available. After I was done for the day I grabbed lunch, and my base coordinator rejected my reimbursement. Do they have to approve it?  

Per 6.C.4, if the hotel doesn’t provide appropriate food, either for purchase or complimentary, before any flight scheduled to push before 0600 local time a pilot can expense food bought at the airport.  The intention was to get food during your duty period at the airport. You can get it before your first leg or between legs, but it must be bought at the airport and before your duty day is completed.  Getting lunch or dinner later, will not be reimbursed.   

Moving on to a JA question: 

I was JA’d into a day I was already scheduled to work. They combined my pairings but they didn’t pay me double time.  Should I get DT for the new leg into my pairing or for the whole day?  

In this unique circumstance, there is no double time.  JA pay is only when you are assigned to work a day you were not already scheduled to work. If it is legal to do so, the company can join your pairings together or they could pull your original day as illegal. In either case, you are only guaranteed up to the pay that you were already going to get. However, there is additional pay for not getting you back to base before your next pairing started. In CBA 2.K.3 it says a pilot will be due DPM (that’s duty period minimum), which is 5 TFP, if a reassignment results in an unscheduled overnight between adjacent pairings or reserve blocks. You will find that additional pay on the duty period they didn’t get you back to base.   

Onto a reserve question: 

I was assigned a reserve pairing, and I chose not to acknowledge it right away. I put it in TT/GA and the company marked it acknowledged.  Are they allowed to do that?  

Yes, that is allowed. Per 10.A.4.b, a pilot who posts an assignment in TT/GA will be considered notified of the assignment. This language can be used outside of reserve pairings as well. If you have a modified pairing from monthly overlap and then put that in TT/GA, the company can also mark that as acknowledged.  We’ve seen this come up a couple of times so please tell your friends on reserve about this particular clause.  

 If you still haven’t done a headset swap out, this one is for you: 

Is the headset reimbursement only for new hire pilots, or can I still use it before I retire?  

3.I.1 is the language that lets a pilot receive a one-time reimbursement of up to 1,000 dollars. The language does mention the pilot has to have completed new hire training, but that doesn’t limit it to new hire pilots.  Any pilot that has completed new hire training at any time is eligible for this reimbursement, and that reimbursement form is on Comply in your EFB.   

Last but not least, a redeye question: 

I flew what I’m sure is a Red-Eye flight, but it didn’t have the RE code on that leg. I reported at 0205 and landed at 0530. Do I still get red-eye pay?  

 So, in the CBA definitions, a Red-Eye duty period is any duty period that contains scheduled or executed flights, including deadheads, across the 0200 domicile time. If you did not cross 0200, but were just on one side of it, the leg will not be coded as a red-eye flight. This doesn’t change any pay or legalities though. You would still be paid Night Override, you would still get the additional ADG (that’s average daily guarantee), and all rest legalities must be met.   

That’s all for this week’s show. As always, the transcript to this podcast can be read on SWAPA.org under the communications link and you can find it on the swapa app as well.  Update your app before you board by logging in with a data connection and catch up on all things swapa while you commute or deadhead.  The next episode of the SWAPA Ride Report will hit the airwaves on August 29th.   

Until next time, fly safe, fly informed.