Industry
Travel and Logistics
Data and AI in Travel Industry for a Memorable Passenger Experience
Highlights
- United Airlines sought to develop an automated and highly accurate monthly gross pay calculator that factored-in the complex nature of pilot pay calculations, which involve thousands of rules and operational changes.
- United developed a cloud-based platform in collaboration with TCS that transformed its payroll management using cutting-edge technology for its 15,000 and growing roster of pilots.
- Pilot Pay’s innovative pay design framework can be applied to calculate pay for various workgroups with unionized labor and contractual agreements.
On this page
On this pageinpage
Gross pay calculation
United Airlines recognized the importance of providing accurate paychecks for its airline pilots and the numerous benefits it brings to the pilots. The complex nature of pilot pay calculations, which involve thousands of rules and operational changes, demanded a shift away from manual interventions and outdated systems. By embracing next-generation tools, United aims to enhance the overall pilot experience and build trust among one of its largest workforces.
To meet the needs of its over 15,000 pilots, United sought to develop an automated and highly accurate monthly gross pay calculator that complied with the United Pilot Agreement (UPA). The new cloud-based platform, built in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), provides enhanced transparency and reliability. Pilot Pay significantly improved pilots’ confidence and trust in United’s payroll system by accurately calculating gross earnings for the first time.
Grievance resolution
Pilot Pay’s reliable tools empower various stakeholders within the organization to address pay-related issues efficiently. With a comprehensive audit trail, pay analysts can trace back every event that led to pay changes and gracefully resolve pilots’ questions and issues. The platform eliminates the need for manual activities associated with complex pay rules through automated pay calculations. This streamlined approach reduces the time and resources spent on resolving discrepancies.
The Pilot Pay platform is the culmination of a seamless collaboration with our pilot community and ALPA. Our relationship with TCS allowed us to address some of the core concerns related to the need for real-time visibility, accuracy, and transparency in pay. The intent was to build a future-ready, scalable solution that grows with us.
Futureproofing
United recognized the importance of future readiness in managing pilot pay rules and adapting to changing contractual needs. Pilot Pay, leveraging cognitive frameworks and a robust business rule engine, enables United to effectively handle pilot contracts and bring flexibility to dynamic changes. As United aims to double the size of its pilot count in the coming years, cloud-based platform was designed to scale and support the airline’s growth strategy.
Platform capabilities
Pilot Pay’s cognitive platform offers United several advanced capabilities to enhance pilot benefits:
- Build and deployment automation: The platform automated the build and deployment processes, ensuring seamless updates and maintenance.
- Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD): CI/CD pipelines facilitated the continuous integration and delivery of new features, ensuring pilots have access to the latest enhancements.
- Data and service security: Automation to enable and enforce compliance with security policies governing data and application workloads.
- Real-time monitoring and logging: The cloud-based platform provides comprehensive real-time monitoring and logging of all activities, enabling efficient tracking and analysis of pay-related data.
By prioritizing the needs of its pilots and embracing cutting-edge technology, United transformed its payroll management system. Pilot Pay not only streamlined the calculation of pilots’ gross earnings but also improved their overall experience, built trust, and provided future readiness in the face of organizational growth.
The United Airlines crew transformation journey has been momentous from the get-go. TCS is proud to be a partner for the visionary pilot pay transformation right from architecting the solution to implementation, through close collaboration with United and ALPA. United’s commitment to improve employee experience and trust, has paved the way for a turning point in the pay process. One that will undoubtedly change the face of compensation calculation for others that continue to struggle with similar challenges.
Business benefits
- Accurate calculation of gross earnings the very first time provides a seamless experience to the pilot community.
- Complete transparency via a detailed pay register that displays all pay-related components improves the pilot’s quality of life and increases employee trust.
- Marked reduction in underpayments attributed to manual reviews and deficiencies in the legacy system.
- 3-5% reduction in mainframe millions of instructions per second (MIPS)
- 5-10% reduction in manual pay adjustments to pilot paychecks by pay analysts annually.
- The “Replay” feature allows the system to replay any number of pay events, providing the ability to autocorrect the pilot payroll at any point in a month.
- Ability to process millions of pay events and deliver pay calculations in real time.
- Easy to use pay analyst interface to add manual components or make manual adjustments, if needed.
Pilot Pay, the result of a collaborative effort between United and TCS, has revolutionized how pilots are compensated. By combining TCS’ data-driven development approach with insights from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) on pilot union affairs, United has successfully delivered significant value to its pilots. Importantly, the innovative pay design framework implemented in Pilot Pay has the potential to be applied to calculate pay for various workgroups with unionized labor and contractual agreements. This versatility positions United to extend the benefits of Pilot Pay to different organizations.
Welcome tool
With over 15,000 United pilots (and growing), the new Pilot Pay register is a timely and welcome tool for an expanding pilot group focused on delivering a professional operational experience to the customer. The efficiency and accuracy of the new Pilot Pay software have been key to pilot confidence.
While improved accuracy has reduced pay inquiries and adjustments, the new Pilot Pay Register interface is much more user-friendly, resulting in a more efficient and pleasant user experience. The platform provides a clean, easy-to-read, and simple layout of various pay “buckets” and sick time usage. It also offers a real-time running total of gross pay while showing a detailed list of line pay value, protected time credit, minimum pay guarantee, and add pay, resulting in improved confidence that the latest pay updates are accounted for. If an actual manual adjustment is needed, the pilot can see an analyst’s comments along with details of the adjustment.
Pilots know the complex work rules and the thousands of events that trigger a pay change.
The ability of this new cloud-based software to deliver accurate real-time information with a marked reduction in underpayments—far outpacing outdated legacy systems—makes life easier for pilots.
