United Airlines is offering pilots triple pay to pick up more trips in January, as it struggles with a staffing shortage it blames on the omicron variant.
Triple Pay For United Airlines Pilots Who Fly More Hours In January
While the Thanksgiving holiday was mild in terms of delays and cancellations, the holiday seasons has been a whole different story’s with U.S. carriers including United cancelling over 10,000 flights over the last 10 days alone.
Yesterday, United cancelled 221 flights and has already cancelled 139 flights this morning according to FlightAware.
United blames this on the omicron variant in a memo to pilots:
“Due to the rapid spread of the COVID Omicron variant, we are currently seeing record levels of pilot sick calls. The impact on the operation is clear and United has experienced a correspondingly large number of cancellations over the past week.”
To help minimize operational interruptions, United is offering pilots a generous bonus over the next month to encourage more pilots to step up and put in additional time:
- 250% bonus – December 30 – January 3
- 200% bonus – January 4 -29
(this bonus applies to hours beyond minimum monthly flight hours)
Pilots will also be offered positive space travel if they commute from their home to their base.
While this bonus policy gives pilots a financial incentive to come to work sick, a detailed memo reviewed by Live and Let’s Fly makes clear that United pilots are strictly ordered not to come to work if symptomatic, particularly for COVID-19.
“The bottom line – if you are healthy and able to report to work, please do so. If you are not well and need to call in sick, please take care of yourself and return when able.”
United flights attendants are also receiving bonus pay to operate more trips during the month of January.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines is pushing pilots to take on extra duty time in the month of January, as it struggles to avoid cancellations in light of a more robust flight schedule and an increase in the number of sick pilots.
image: United Airlines
Medicare and Medicaid don’t pay more if doctors work more to pick up the slack. In fact, Medicare is being cut about 4%, not a pay increase. So Medicare for All?
20 years as a United pilot and I never got any good deals like that.
No, you just had your pension stolen and had the pleasure to work for reduced wages ( circa 30-35%) for about 10 years!!!
This is ridiculous. How do you stop the spreading of a virus, while incentivizing your employees to work more often… taking the public here there and everywhere? LOL. No end in site after two years of this.. we so dumb.
Actually most seem to think the end of Covid is here with the weak Omni showing it’s really isn’t that dangerous to those vaccinated. And if you looked around last night and the past few weeks, few are even worried about it anymore. Most people have went back to living their lives like normal. Still have a few lazy ones running around getting tested often to try and get time off work.
What is “Pilots will also be offered positive space travel”?
Does this mean free flights on Space X?
Or is this why I haven’t gotten an upgrade in weeks even though I am a 1K using Plus Points because United blocks my upgrades and gives to pilots?
If a pilot can’t get to his base, it may be YOUR flight that gets canceled due to lack of crew.
Yeah that’s it.
United laid off pilots that had Covid and refused to get the shot. Natural immunity counts but United is too stupid to acknowledge it and dumped 30 year pilots and is now so overrun with Covid with 100 percent vaccinated crews.
That’s because its clearly about marketing. I was recently in Denver and saw this huge banner that said fully vaccinated. I thought “who cares, I’m not and we are all in the same metal tube!’ I must say with all the flights being canceled due to sick calls even though everyone at United is vaccinated, is poor marketing. Kind of laughable.
I hope the pilots stick to their convictions and continue their equivalent of a “blue flu” even after United adds more bribe money. The airlines are staring to feel the pain of their decisions to play along with all the political health theater instead of standing up to these ridiculous mandates and restrictions, or just deciding to ignore them. Isn’t it shady that the CDC halved their quarantine times immediately after Delta wrote them to complain that it was affecting their business?
Airline employees bid for shifts, vacations, work areas, cities to work in by seniority. So now, pilots who choose to work in a city in which they do not live in get a guaranteed seat to get to work and and employees with more seniority get stuck at the gate watching the airplane push back from the gate. This unfair and elitist practice undermines the seniority system that has been the gold standard for standby travel at United Airlines. This decision will only damage the morale and work ethic of the rest of the employees at United airlines.
As someone who is also being asked to work more and more as colleagues and coworkers are getting sick or are quitting, how does this fit in with the FAA mandated limits on how much a pilot can fly?