What’s “Block or Better” mean?
The time it takes to operate an aircraft from departure gate to arrival gate is a predetermined and scheduled time. That estimated time is referred to by most airlines as “block” time, the time blocked off to accomplish that flight within the schedule of airline operations. The actual flight time will depend on many variables i.e. weather, ATC delays, airport traffic, airline operational issues, or other abnormalities.

Most airlines pay a pilot based on what’s coined “block or better”. The pilots will be paid the greater of scheduled flight time (block) or actual flight time. This provision establishes a minimum pay for the trip and also compensates the pilots when the flights duration is extended. When a pilot has a block or better provision in their contract it ensures that they are paid for working longer than planned. If the pilots are able to arrive early at the destination the “block or better” ensures they will, at a minimum, receive the original blocked time with regard to pay credit.

There are two typical ways to implement the “block or better” provision, per leg and per day. With the per leg method each flight is looked at as an individual event and the other flights do not impact the calculation. A per day method takes into account the entire days flying, this is less advantageous because the additional pay credit gained over several flights may be negated be operating a flight that arrives much earlier than scheduled.

In our example we will look at a single day of flying and apply booth per leg and per day methods of “block or better”. The pilots are scheduled to fly 4 flights, the results look like this:

Flight 1, Scheduled (block)-1:30  Actual duration-1:20 (block -:10)
Flight 2, Scheduled (block)-1:00  Actual duration-1:15 (block +:15)
Flight 3, Scheduled (block)-2:35  Actual duration-2:15 (block -:20)
Flight 4, Scheduled (block)-1:40  Actual duration-1:45 (block +:05)
Total flight time Scheduled (block)-6:45 (expected pay credit 6:45)
Total flight time Actual-6:30
Pay credit without block or better 6:30

Pay credit using block or better [per day] 6:45
(6:45 +:20 -:30) = 6:35 < block, the additional time comes from flights 2 and 4 being over block but the negative time comes from subtracting the early arrival time because the total day is looked at for this method. Because the resulting flight time was less than block, pay credit will still remain at 6:45. The benefit gained is that the pilot will be protected from being paid less than the scheduled block time for the day.

Pay credit using block or better [per leg] 7:05
(6:45 +:20) = 7:05, the additional time comes from flights 2 and 4 being over block. And the flights under block are paid at scheduled time because this method provides pay protection from being paid less that block time. This way the pilots are not only protected from being paid less than the scheduled flight time on flights 1 and 3 but also compensated for the additional time spent on flights 2 and 4. This provision ensures pilots are paid for each flight based on a minimum of scheduled flight time and also compensated on those flights that are extended beyond their intended time.