Unexpected Interview what would you do?

pilotlight

Well-Known Member
Ok guys, I am 99% sure I have made up my decision on this but I would like to hear what everyone else would do. I m currently a captain at Pinnacle, just crossed the 1000 pic mark (which doesnt mean anything now adays) and out of nowhere, I get a call from Compass to come interview (I had applied to them when i was a f/o) My ultimate career goal is to work for Delta/NWA. My thoughts were, I have a ton of seniority at pinnacle, I should stay here and hopefully one day down the road I am offered an interview at Delta and in the mean time hope that pinnacle is a part of the merged airline when it is done. The only reason I would go to compass would be if pinnacle was going under, as I believe compass is too risky right now to be at the bottom of the list, but I have to say the thought of a flow into the airline I want to work for made me think about things for awhile IF the flow works. I still might go to the interview to get practice.
What would you guys do? What do you guys think long term about both companies?
 
Historically flow through doesn't work. You have just as much a chance at getting on with DAL applying off the street as a 9E captain as you do applying from "in house" at Compass. I wouldn't take the downgrade.

Quick story... PSA is wholly owned by US Airways. We have TWO different forms of flow through in our contract. The first because of concessions we took during Airway's first BK and the second is part of the Jets for Jobs program. Well, Airways finally started to hire last year, and guess what... there was no flow up. Not one person. In the end, they gave guys "preferential interviews" out of which they hired about 70 guys. However, PSA was able to keep those guys at PSA even AFTER they got hired at mainline because they didn't want to be short captains. By the time PSA was ready to release them, Airways was no longer hiring and only 2 of the 70 guys actually made it over there. Of course, that turned out to be a good thing now that Airways may be furloughing. But still, being owned by a parent company isn't always a good thing.
 
Decision

Ok guys, I am 99% sure I have made up my decision on this but I would like to hear what everyone else would do. I m currently a captain at Pinnacle, just crossed the 1000 pic mark (which doesnt mean anything now adays) and out of nowhere, I get a call from Compass to come interview (I had applied to them when i was a f/o) My ultimate career goal is to work for Delta/NWA. My thoughts were, I have a ton of seniority at pinnacle, I should stay here and hopefully one day down the road I am offered an interview at Delta and in the mean time hope that pinnacle is a part of the merged airline when it is done. The only reason I would go to compass would be if pinnacle was going under, as I believe compass is too risky right now to be at the bottom of the list, but I have to say the thought of a flow into the airline I want to work for made me think about things for awhile IF the flow works. I still might go to the interview to get practice.
What would you guys do? What do you guys think long term about both companies?

If you are just getting an interview at Compass now, you are nowhere near upgrade.

They are going to stop hiring at 360 pilots and they have already passed the 300-320 range. You'd be a very junior lineholder or on reserve.

You also would risk flowback. That is something that a regional FO coming from another carrier might not mind so much given the fact that the odds of being furloughed from their other employer might be the same as the odds of the flowback occurring. They would at least gain the ATP and a PIC type from the experience.

The only thing you would gain is . . . nothing. I can't understand why you'd want to take a large paycut to first year FO pay, and then FO pay for a while, and then back up to captain pay, and then hope a flowthrough works. You'd also be a few hundred in line for flowthrough if it does go as planned, whenever the mainline starts hiring again, whatever mainline airline it is called by then.

On the other hand, what BobDDuck said is also entirely possible. The flowthrough/flowback might disappear, leaving you at the same position you were at Pinnacle except now you're out a few years of higher pay, and out lots of TPIC time.

If you were asking this question last October I might suggest going to Compass as you'd have been a street captain.

But it is no longer that way there. You'll be 85% down the list at best.
 
I agree with all of you, your comments make sense, If it would have happen a year ago maybe, but not now.
 
No one mentioned this, if Delta/NWA furloughs 300 or greater then you are out of a job for a while. Admittedly, this is the reason why I am voting yes on the JCBA.
 
Lateral moves suck. Keep logging that PIC, and do some more research on exactly what is going to happen to Delta/NWA come Jan 2009.
 
By gosh stay put. I'm an FO in risk of a furlough this fall or next spring and I'm not going to my compass interview after much thought.. your decision is easy.
 
I was in a similar situation a little less than a year ago. I, like you, had put my stuff in for a street captain slot. Well, I did get the call; however, they stopped the SC stuff and wanted me to come interview for an FO position. I was already a captain at my current company and I would've easily lost 9-12 months PIC time between training and the 6-9 month upgrades that were happening at the time.

Well, after thinking about it for some time, it just didn't make sense to give up the decent seniority (top 25%) AND the left seat just to go over there for the CHANCE to upgrade in short order. Overall I'm happy w/ that decision.

Being on the bottom of any list right now IS NOT where I want to be! I'd say stay put and keep logging your PIC time.
 
That's funny. I was asking myself this same question since Delta's on the top of my list. Difference is, I just broke the 100 PIC mark here at PCL. I came to the conclusion that I would NOT jump over to Compass or Mesaba just for a flow through. There's still guys at AE that went to Eagle b/c they wanted to fly for American, and they've been there for a LOOOONG time.

I don't know what the ratio is for Compass's flow through either. You might actually stand a better chance getting hired from OUTSIDE. If, for example, each new hire class has 2 people from the flow through list, that's probably 7 or 8 people that DIDN'T come from internal.

Then again, you should take the job. One more person above me off the list means one more person closer to being off reserve. :)
 
The flow-thru seems to be a carbon copy of the one we had with CAL/CALEX (pre-XJT). It was a 2:1 ratio. For every two pilots hired off the street, one had to come from Express.

So, with 300ish pilots at Compass, Delta would have to hire 900 pilots for everyone to flow through. I'm not sure how Mesaba works into this though.

At CALEX I believe the total number of pilots to have flowed through was 973 (that sounds about right anyway). For a couple of years in the late nineties or early 2000's CAL only hired from CALEX so the ratio does not quite fit. Also, about 400 were given preferential interviews and almost all ended up at CAL. Those were the first new-hires there after 9-11.

So, in conclusion, before the flow-back after 9-11 everyone viewed the flow-thru as a great thing. It kept the attrition high at Express, quick upgrades, and everyone had a job at CAL waiting on them. As an early 2000 hire I probably would have flowed over in five to six years if 9-11 never happened and the flow-thru canceled.
 
Flow throughs only work if the major airline is hiring. I didn't think DAL/NWA was hiring. And even if they are, aren't flow thoughs done in seniority order? You'd have a long time to wait.


I'm not saying don't go to the interview. By all means, go. But go because you are interested in finding out what Compass has to offer (Never forget that you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you). Go because you never know what kind of opportunities might be had. Don't go because you think the job might lead to something better later on. Remember, the only thing that is on the table is a job at Compass; nothing else.
 
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