Seniority is EVERYTHING!!

Well in my line of work anyway. The manner in which we bid our monthly schedules, trade trips, equipment bids, & vacations - just to name a few - are all governed by our date-of-hire (and then by age within the same new hire class). Some of it is related to our overall Company seniority, some of it relates to our relative seniority (where we are in our seat position, i.e. Captain 737 Anchorage, or FO MD80 Seattle, etc.). It is possible that someone can have pretty high relative seniority (in their seat position and Base) but fairly average to low overall seniority.

Anyway somewhere along the line the copy of my latest FAA Medical (required every 6 months) got lost and they crew planners didn't award me a schedule for July. This really pissed me off, as my relative seniority should have allowed me to have a pretty decent schedule.

Our monthly schedule is what we have some control over - days off, trip length, layover cities (and for how long); are just some of the items we bid for on a monthly basis. I dropped off the copy of my FAA Medical on June 6th in the Company's internal mail system. The bids didn't close until the next Tuesday (so almost a week later) and the medical failed to get to the proper person to record it in time. So the line(s) of flying that I could have held, SHOULD HAVE HELD - which would have been preferable to me - was awarded to someone junior to me. This isn't how seniority is supposed to work.

Ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Phew - I feel better now.

So after a few back-and-forths with various managers at the Company we've come to an acceptable resolution, but one that certainly isn't up to par with what should have been obtained within the normal process. But I can't go unscramble the eggs so I'll take what is the best of the rest and go on with my life. I just hope it's at least comparable to what I could've originally held - perhaps, just perhaps, it'll be even better!?