2025 Q2 Payroll Committee Update

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Payroll Committee Update – Midyear 2025

As we reach the halfway point of the year, we understand that our pay being correct is very stressful and demanding on the pilot outside of the flight deck duties. We want to continue the education and help all that reach out as much as we can.

This Quarter we want to focus on 3 key points:

1. Confusing JIRA Responses

We know that sometimes you file a JIRA thinking your pay is wrong and get a response that leaves you feeling more confused and disappointed. If you feel they are incorrect, or you just want a fellow pilot to help explain it, please forward your JIRA to us at payroll@apa2118.org.

2. DTG (Drop to Guarantee)

When you drop a trip or trade it to another pilot with no sick time used to cover the time lost, any trip picked up out of Open Time or a VFN will consolidate that time lost first before being ABG (Above Guarantee) pay.

Example:
You drop a 4 PCH trip using DTO in Merlot and you opt not to use Sick Bank. Then you get awarded a 6 PCH VFN. You will be paid as such: 4 PCH + 2 ABG = 6 VFN.
The 4 PCH you dropped needs to be fulfilled before the ABG is counted.

3. ADD Days (Composite Lines Only)

These are only on Composite Lines. They hold no monetary value—the 4 PCH listed is only used to determine how many you need to have on your schedule to satisfy the line value for the month.

  • i) Open Time will not count towards ABG if you have ADD Days remaining in your month. Each 4 PCH picked up will remove 1 ADD Day.
  • ii) Trip Trades between pilots will count towards ABG and will not remove an ADD Day. Non-Premium may be allocated in this trade if the pilot you are taking the trip from is below 81 PCH. It is the pilot’s responsibility to be aware of this.
  • iii) VFN’s will count towards ABG and will not remove ADD Days. VFN’s may be picked up on ADD Days and will still be paid ABG.

We have added a Forum chat that will help open dialogue with how you would like to be educated moving forward. Please help us by participating.

In Solidarity,
Gregory Harris, Brandon Wood
Payroll Committee

2025 Q1 Payroll Committee Update

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Here are some reminders before we start summer flying. 

 

Our Union site does have a FAQ section in the Payroll Committee tab, please take the time to review those questions.

 

PAY ERRORS 

Expect to have a pay error come up anytime you are PPSK’d.  A few examples of some of the most recent and common offenders: 

  • Pilot’s duty was canceled for what was an off day pickup, ABG trip falls to PCH.  
  • Pilot’s duty was canceled, 4 hour min day (because it was an RON trip) disappeared and they were left with only the block time. 
  • System not stacking PPSK + OT.  If you are PPSK and SUBSEQUENTLY, on your own accord, pick up an OT trip, pilot to pilot trade, or are awarded a VFN, the ABG pay from this needs to stack on top of existing pay.    

Also expect pay errors whenever you are delayed into a day off or other next day assignment, awarded a VFN on top of existing work, or are reassigned.  

MULTI DAY TRIPS 

As we are in the midst charter season, note that crew payroll’s software is not accurately capturing ABG when going past 11:59 p.m. into an additional calendar day on RON (remain overnight) trips. Once a trip has a 117-rest period, it is classified as a RON trip. With these, there is a 4 hour calendar day (12 am-11:59pm) minimum PCH, so once it goes past 11:59 pm into a second, third or fourth calendar day it is eligible for the highest of block flown/scheduled per calendar day or 4 hours per *each* (not average) calendar day. 2:01 a.m. is specific to whether a pilot is eligible for a comp day and whether those 4 hours from the last calendar day should be ABG or not…this is only applicable if the pilot was supposed to finish before midnight on an RON trip but was then delayed past 2 am into a day off.   

Pay with these trips is frequently wrong. Crew Payroll should be auditing to correct this about a week or two after trip completion, but you must remain vigilant!   

Please note this is for scheduled or actual RON trips and does not apply for our normal day trips. If the trip is PPSK’d, you are still eligible for the 4 hours (minimum) from each day.   In rare cases, the “overnight” may be during the day…this is the case when it is used as 117 rest to reset the duty limits.  

Example : Day 1 – SFB-TLH BWI 

                  Day 2 – BWI-TLH-SFB 

On day 2 the duty off is 11:36pm, if the charter is delayed and you block in any time into day 3 (12:00 am or later), the pilot will be owed 4 additional pch. If it’s delayed past 2:00 am into a day off, then a Comp Day is required and these additional 4 hours of pch shall be abg. 

The 4 hours min calendar day in this example is unique to this pairing and should not be merged with other pairings such as a day trip pairing in the afternoon on the same day the RON trip concludes. If overnight trips are canceled, pay should remain at a 4 hour minimum per scheduled calendar day.  

Additionally, be wary of crew payroll software merging 2 min days into one 8-hour day. This can cause issues particularly if crossing months. For example, a pilot is below guarantee one month and above the other month, or in premium one month and not the other. It has also caused issues with a same day VFN conflict “greater of” rules. Due to the complexity, reference the RON GSA on the union website or feel free to reach out to payroll@apa2118.org for guidance!

COMPOSITE LINES 

We have been noticing an uptick in errors on composite lines. 

  • Pilot to Pilot trades (no matter the donor line type) DO NOT remove ADD days. Please remember the Non-Premium rules when doing these trades. If the pilot you are taking a trip from is under 81PCH the trip will only be ABG for you, not premium (note: it may still show as premium, but it will move upline premium to PREM). Your threshold to earn premium will be moved to a credit threshold higher than 81 pch. Non-Premium column is not pay, it is a place holder to serve this purpose by raising the threshold that ABG rolls to PREM. 
  • VFN awards DO NOT remove ADD days. Junior assignments do not remove ADD days.  

Please note if you do want to pick up open time from the company open time folder in Merlot and you have ADD days remaining on your schedule at the time the transaction is conducted, the company will remove ADD days.  It can get more complicated than this but expect 4 hours of ABG from these pickups to be removed per ADD day removed, with one ADD day removed per 4 hours picked up from OT. The pilot would need to wait until after all add days are removed from his or her schedule to ensure any company OT pickups remain ABG. Note: this also applies to swapping for higher credit trips with open time.  The positive delta removes ADD days and ABG pay is removed. 
 

JIRAs 

Please forward all questionable JIRA replies (any in which they did not fix as directed) to us for triage and we will either fix if crew payroll is wrong or provide clarity as to why crew payroll is correct or provide guidance for a grievance if it is a contested issue. Attach a copy of the latest Tableau pay report and Merlot schedule. 

 

New Crew Payroll Resouces 

The company has updated their resources to educate pilots on how to view your paysheet, what the columns mean, etc.  While it is overly simplistic and does not address the numerous faults and glitches in the pay system, it is a good baseline to understand the pay reports when everything goes right.  It can be viewed at the below link. https://allegiantair0.sharepoint.com/sites/CrewServicesSupport/SitePages/CrewPay.aspx 

Please be vigilant on your pay and always reach out to us via the FAQ feature or Payroll@APA2118.org if you have any questions. We usually answer within minutes. 

Greg Harris and Brandon Wood
Payroll Committee 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Payroll Committee: Home Study Payment Error Resolved

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Fellow Pilots,

The union identified an error with the payment of home study courses in 2021, only affecting pilots who were furloughed. To remedy the situation, the company has agreed to pay 3 hours of home study pay at the relevant CBT rate in February 2021 ($35 for FOs) to make these pilots whole. If you were sent this email, you are receiving the payment which was made on December 31st.

If you are no longer employed here and you do not receive the payment, I would advise you reach out to payroll_dept@allegiantair.com for assistance.  If any further help is needed, please contact me.

Thank you,

Greg Harris

Allegiant Pilots Association Local 2118 Payroll Chairman

payroll@apa2118.org