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Nov 11, 2013

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The  Hidden  Pay  in  Block  Over  8/10 For international pilots, possibly one of the most lucrative aspects of

our CBA with regards to pay has to do with block time over eight hours and block time over 10 hours. Despite this, how these rules actually apply to our pay is often misunderstood by many crewmembers.   In this second article of our pay series, we’ll explain these rules and apply them to example pairings so you can get a better grasp on what they do to boost your paycheck.

 

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Before going over how these rules benefit the line pilot, let’s pull a couple of sections out of the CBA to see exactly what the official rulebook has to say. Specifically, let’s look at Trip Guarantee, Actual Credit Hours, and Override Scheduled Credit.                    

Trip Guarantee 1. A pilot’s trip guarantee shall be the scheduled credit hour (SCH) value of the trip when the trip is awarded/assigned to the pilot (e.g., bid award, trip trade, open time assignment) or when the pilot blocks out on the trip, whichever is greater. The credit hour (CH) value for a trip is computed as the higher of: a. Trip rig, plus revenue block hours in excess of 10 hours in any duty period; or b. The sum of the credit hour values of the duty periods. The credit hour value of each duty period is computed as the highest of: i. minimum pay per duty period (MPDP); or ii. block hours; or iii.  duty  rig.  

               The  last  Scheduling  Matters  article,  “What’s  In  Your  Wallet?”,                              explained  basic  pay  provisions.    Click  HERE  to  download.  

Actual Credit Hours (ACH) ACH is computed at the completion of an assignment. a. ACH for a duty period is the highest of: i. MPDP; or ii. actual block hours; or iii. actual duty rig. b. ACH for a trip is the higher of: i. trip rig as actually flown, plus actual revenue block hours in excess of 8 in any duty period, plus duty rig for the portion of any duty period beyond the scheduled on duty limitations; or ii. the sum of ACH for each duty period.

Override Scheduled Credit (OSC) OSC for a trip is the higher of: a. Trip rig as scheduled, plus actual revenue block hours in excess of 8 in any duty period; or b. The sum of the scheduled credit hour values of the duty periods. The scheduled credit hour value of each duty period is computed as the highest of: i. minimum pay per duty period (MPDP); or ii. block hours; or iii. duty rig.  

   

On the surface, these definitions appear to be very similar, and in a way, they are. Upon taking a closer look, however, we can see the differences and how they relate to the block over 8 and block over 10 rules.

 

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An easy way to think about them is that Trip Guarantee is in the past, and Actual Credit Hours is in the future. Override Scheduled Credit is neither in the past nor future, but simply an explanation of a projected pay benefit. ($$$) Trip Guarantee, established in the past when the trip was created, tells you the minimum amount you will be paid for your trip s (assuming you keep it) regardless of what d les i a p ver ntee happens to the trip. s ne Actual Credit Hours, on the other hand, is what you will be paid in the future based on what you actually do on a trip.

o t i Gu a r a l i p A Trip n a h t

Override Scheduled Credit tells you what extra pay you can expect, based on the way a pairing is built and the legs it contains, before it is actually flown. So how does this relate to block over 8 and block over 10? Block over 10 (being part of Trip Guarantee) is what you get regardless of what happens to the trip, while block over 8 (as part of Actual Credit Hours and Override Scheduled Credit) is what you can expect to be paid once the trip is over. Still confused? That’s understandable. Perhaps the best way to explain is with some example pairings.    

Trip Recap Trip 3003 MEM 77 02FEB11 (AUG) Shows in 0 days 0:00 hours Block 2433 Pay 48:39 R D R Flight H — —————— — 0023 AF0267 X 5271

Flight Date ——————— 02Feb11 05Feb11 08Feb11

Org-Dst ——————— MEM-ICN ICN-CDG CDG-MEM

------ Scheduled ------- -------- Actual -----Eq Dprt Arrv Blok Turn Duty Dprt Arrv Blok Turn Duty —— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— 77 1000 0038 1438 4837 1608 0115 1325 1210 7815 1440 77 1940 0535 955 1125

---- T O T A L S C H E D U L E D -------- T O T A L A C T U A L ------Away Blok DH Dty Min Trip Totl Pay Away Blok DH Dty Min Trip Totl Pay ===== ==== ==== === === ==== ==== ==== ===== ==== ==== === === ==== ==== ==== 16505 2433 4839

   

Starting with Trip Guarantee, we see that this pairing pays 48:39, but where does this number come from with regards to our definitions above?

 

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Time away from base is 165:05. We know this pairing pays based on trip rig by looking at the bidpack and seeing a ‘T’ next to Credit Hours. Using the trip rig of 1 hour for every 3.75 away, we find this equates to 44:01 in pay. Obviously 44:01 is different than 48:39, so where do we get the extra? The extra comes from FX 0023 MEM-ICN, which is scheduled to block 14:38. Using the block over 10, we add 4:38 from this leg back to the 44:01 to come up with 48:39.

Remember…. TAFB Calculations include Trip Rig PLUS revenue block hours > 10 in a duty period

You may be asking, “What about the 12:10 on the AF0267 flight? Where is my extra 2:10?” Realize the block over 10 rule ONLY applies to revenue block over 10, and not deadhead block over 10.   

With Trip Guarantee out of the way, what about Override Scheduled Credit (OSC)? In this case, OSC is the greater of scheduled trip rig combined with duty periods scheduled for block over 8, or the sum of the individual duty periods, whichever is greater. Since this pairing has two revenue duty periods with block over 8, we can add those together, combine it with trip rig pay, and come up with what we can plan on getting paid for the trip. In this case, FX 0023 blocks 14:38, or 6:38 over 8 hours, and FX 5271 blocks 9:55, or 1:55 over 8 hours. Adding them all up and we get a total of 52:34 (44:01 + 6:38 + 1:55). Though the Trip Guarantee is 48:39, pairing

3003 is expected to pay 52:34…an additional 3:55CH.  

Trip  3003  Block  Hour  Breakdown  per  Leg  

MEM-­‐ICN  

L e g s  

Block  up  to  8   ICN-­‐CDG  

Block  8  to  10   Block  over  10   Deadhead  

CDG-­‐MEM   0  

2  

4  

6  

8  

10  

12  

14  

16  

Leg  Length  

   

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Having now mastered the concept of OSC, lets delve into Actual Credit Hours (ACH).   OSC and ACH are nearly the same, except OSC is derived from SCHEDULED trip rig, and ACH is from ACTUAL trip rig. You also get some benefit from duty rig beyond scheduled on duty limitations, but that is beyond the scope of this article. Using pairing 3003 above, if you fly each leg exactly as planned, with no change in block hours or TAFB, you will be paid the OSC calculation of 52:34. If, however, you overfly or underfly one or both of the duty periods, or change the amount of TAFB by getting back early or late, your pay calculation will change. For example, if you departed CDG exactly one hour late for MEM on Flight 5271, but had a flight plan that saved an hour from scheduled, you would arrive in MEM at the same time as planned, but would have blocked 8:55 instead of 9:55. In this instance, your ACH would be 51:34 instead of the 52:34 from the OSC.

Bidpack Trip Guarantee 48:39 (44:01 + 4:38) OSC Calculated Potential 52:34 (44:01 + 6:38 + 1:55) ACH As Flown 51:34 (44:01 + 6:38 + 1:55 +0:55) ACH and OSC Payroll adjustments are applied to your check on the 15th of the following month. There will never be a deduction for OSC, just less (or more) credit than the computed OSC. In this case 2:55CH instead of 3:55CH. Lets look at one more example to tie it all together. We’ll create our own pairing here for purposes of illustration.  

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Trip Recap Trip 9999 MEM 77 25DEC13 (DEC) Shows in 57 days 11:22 hours Block 1817 Pay 18:17 R D Flight R Flight H Date Org-Dst Eq — —————— — ——————— ——————— —— 0010 25Dec13 MEM-CDG 77 0011 27Dec13 CDG-MEM 77

------ Scheduled ------Dprt Arrv Blok Turn Duty ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— 0920 1754 834 4846 1004 1837 0420 943 1113

---- T O T A L S C H E D U L E D --Away Blok DH Dty Min Trip Totl Pay ===== ==== ==== === === ==== ==== ==== 6830 1817 1817  

Starting again with Trip Guarantee, we see this pairing pays 18:17. We also notice this pairing blocks 18:17. Determining the trip rig from the TAFB of 68:30 we see that it comes out to 18:16. Note there are no block over 10 legs in this example to add to the TAFB calculation

68:30(TAFB) /3.75 =18:16 (Trip Rig)

From our definitions above, we know that this trip does NOT pay based on trip rig, but instead pays based off the sum of the duty periods. In this case 8:34 block from the first duty period and 9:43 from the second added together gives us the 18:17 total. Knowing this pairing pays based off the sum of duty periods, how will this change OSC and ACH? As both OSC and ACH are the higher of trip rig plus block over eight, or the sum of the duty periods, we’ll have to do some math to figure it out. Remembering the OSC is SCHEDULED trip rig plus block over eight, we can do some quick math to find OSC is trip rig (18:16) + block over 8 (0:34 from leg one and 1:43 from leg two). This gives us a total of 20:33. This is interesting because even though Trip Guarantee is not based on TAFB, once we factor in the OSC rule, our pay expectation becomes based on TAFB with the over 8 override.  

Though Trip Guarantee is 18:17, pairing 9999 is expected to pay 20:33…an additional 2:16CH.

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In terms of ACH, it again will depend on what we actually do during the pairing. In this case, because the original pairing is not based on TAFB, but OSC is, there is a possibility that ACH will not be based on TAFB. This would occur if we came back to MEM very early, or we drastically underflew the scheduled block times.

If we fly exactly as planned, ACH will equal OSC. However, if we fly over scheduled block, we will get an additional minute of pay for every minute over scheduled block. Conversely if we underfly scheduled block, we will lose a minute of pay from OSC until we reach 18:17, at which point we get paid Trip Guarantee.

In Summary

Hopefully these examples have given you a greater understanding regarding how you get paid on long international flights, and how block over 8 and block over 10 affect your pay. Sit down with a sharp pencil and a bidpack and do the math. It’s not difficult as long as you have a solid handle on the meanings of Trip Guarantee, OSC, and ACH. We all stand to benefit from a solid understanding of the rules as we work towards CBA 2013. Etiam   fringilla   For questions about pay, you can contact the pay specialists at FedEx or Contract Enforcement at ALPA. Our next article will feature a look at pay during training. May the winds be always at your back Fusce   urna  (except when on a block over eight flight)!

 

 

 

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