Frontier guys

Autothrust Blue said:
I’ll freely admit that I never really thought about or planned on Team Yellow, other than knowing the bucket full of Brasilia captains that seemed to work here and loved it. My experience at the interview sold me on wanting to work here, and maybe that should be the way that it is.

And same things re: quality of applicant pre-CBA 18 vs. post, too. They’ve got a knack for filtering those people out pretty effectively, even pre-CBA 18, IMO.
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I put my name in the hat at F9 and will do the same at NK when the opportunity arises (actually did at NK a couple of times by now, first time accidentally).
Would I like to fly a wide body to the far away places? Haven't tried, probably yes.
Does it look like I can do that from the left seat before I retire? Highly, highly, highly unlikely.
So the options are narrow body at the big 3, or a narrow body at a ULCC. Sign me up to the later like yesterday, please. Contrary to what's been advertised around JC as ops normal, I don't see myself frantically updating my apps once team Yellow or Zoo are made.
I had it good with the nonrev bennies as both the AA/WO and UAL through the ex, so I'd probably miss that, but with a pay difference, I could actually splurge on buying a ticket if I needed to.
Decent variety of flying, good people to work with, good pay and retirement - I'm good.
Anyone wants to hook the brother up with an internal rec - don't hold back :)
 
BigZ said:
I put my name in the hat at F9 and will do the same at NK when the opportunity arises (actually did at NK a couple of times by now, first time accidentally).
Would I like to fly a wide body to the far away places? Haven't tried, probably yes.
Does it look like I can do that from the left seat before I retire? Highly, highly, highly unlikely.
So the options are narrow body at the big 3, or a narrow body at a ULCC. Sign me up to the later like yesterday, please. Contrary to what's been advertised around JC as ops normal, I don't see myself frantically updating my apps once team Yellow or Zoo are made.
I had it good with the nonrev bennies as both the AA/WO and UAL through the ex, so I'd probably miss that, but with a pay difference, I could actually splurge on buying a ticket if I needed to.
Decent variety of flying, good people to work with, good pay and retirement - I'm good.
Anyone wants to hook the brother up with an internal rec - don't hold back :)
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Dude, let me know if you have questions. More than happy to try and help JCers get on here at the zoo.
 
JDean3204 said:
Those that were hired by Spirit or Frontier in 18-19 are sweating a lot less than those hired by the big 3 right now. This is a crazy career, none of us will know if we played it right until we hang em up, that’s the truth.
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The guys I flew the CRJ with in 2018 had been with the company for 11ish years at that point, 8.5 of which as FOs. Flowed to AA, so at the time it looked like they did the right thing to stick it out. Most if not all of them were furloughed last year, will probably be back at it come April.
I know a guy who stuck it out at XJT for years, refusing to apply anywhere but UAL, until getting his left seat in 175 and UAL CJO November 2019 - he's CFIing last I heard.
 
BigZ said:
The guys I flew the CRJ with in 2018 had been with the company for 11ish years at that point, 8.5 of which as FOs. Flowed to AA, so at the time it looked like they did the right thing to stick it out. Most if not all of them were furloughed last year, will probably be back at it come April.
I know a guy who stuck it out at XJT for years, refusing to apply anywhere but UAL, until getting his left seat in 175 and UAL CJO November 2019 - he's CFIing last I heard.
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Yeah that is exactly what I’m talking about, waiting for that call to the big 3 even during good times sounds great. But... if that same individual went to spirit or frontier in the last few years, he certainly wouldn’t be CFI’ing right now.

Sometimes life has a funny way of humbling us all, I truly feel this pandemic is doing it’s best to give us that humbling experience as a generation that... and I quote those who have been in aviation for years say..”haven’t seen hard times yet”. If I were you friend, get in touch with those here that can help and get on with an LCC ASAP. They may not be what you were gunning for in 2019, but I do believe their business models will survive the next decade much better than any of the majors. I’d be doing the same if I wasn’t building crazy seniority in a game of blackjack with Amazon saying... HIT. Gambling is dangerous lol
 
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ASpilot2be said:
Dude, let me know if you have questions. More than happy to try and help JCers get on here at the zoo.
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Thank you! One of the APC F9 people (P.L.) was very kind and answered a bunch of my questions in messages, so unless you have a hot dog line conversation about the shop type of a thing that you could copy and paste into PM, I don't really have anything particular to pick your brain with right now. I'm sure there would be a ton of stuff later, if/when hired, but for now I liked everything I heard.
Appreciate the offer though, I'll be sure to use it if a random question pops up!
 
BigZ said:
Thank you! One of the APC F9 people (P.L.) was very kind and answered a bunch of my questions in messages, so unless you have a hot dog line conversation about the shop type of a thing that you could copy and paste into PM, I don't really have anything particular to pick your brain with right now. I'm sure there would be a ton of stuff later, if/when hired, but for now I liked everything I heard.
Appreciate the offer though, I'll be sure to use it if a random question pops up!
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Sounds good man. Good luck. I really like it here.
 
MikeFavinger said:
I don’t know a single person who fits that narrative. I know I’m just one person and this is a minuscule data point, but yeah, after being hired at two LCCs and being at a regional where many wanted something better, never have I ran into someone who “settled” for an LCC. And that includes myself. I was thrilled to be hired by both.
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I hear ya. When I was at a regional, I applied to every company that had the word 'Air' in it. I flew with a CA when I heard, "I didn't work 8 yrs here to end up at a place like Virgin or Spirit" back in late 2011 when VX and NK were the only game in town hiring (major/national airline). Fast forward today, anyone hired at NK in 2011 or 2012 is a senior CA at 20-30% of overall list. Any 2011 or 2012 VX guy is currently a AS Capt at about 45-50%.

If I was at any regional today, I would take F9 in a heartbeat. Leisure travel is going to be the quickest recovery, and the likes of F9 and NK are the place to be. Good luck to all applying! I'm just happy to hear there is some hiring starting at airlines.
 
I’m coming up on 10 years(hard to believe) at the BlueJuice Factory. I have never thought to myself, “Damn I wish I held out for UA or AA.” While every company has its own issues, I am happy to be where I am today. Still a lot of uncertainty in the upcoming months/years but if I was trying to move on, Frontier or Spirit would be a place where I would feel comfortable finishing my career.
 
ASpilot2be said:
How’d you do? Let me know if you have questions, I am one of the trainers.
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It did exactly what I asked it to!! (I'm not much of a computer person, so this wasn't a given) 3-5 days on, 4-5 days off, minimum credit. Couldn't believe it. It would have taken days sweating trade windows opening and closing in FLICA, and 30 denied trades, to create a schedule with this pattern.
 
roundout said:
It did exactly what I asked it to!! (I'm not much of a computer person, so this wasn't a given) 3-5 days on, 4-5 days off, minimum credit. Couldn't believe it. It would have taken days sweating trade windows opening and closing in FLICA, and 30 denied trades, to create a schedule with this pattern.
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If you run in to alaskan pilots PLEASE tell them this, they're scared of the boogie man (PBS) but it was fantastic at VX.
 
Skåning said:
If you run in to alaskan pilots PLEASE tell them this, they're scared of the boogie man (PBS) but it was fantastic at VX.
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That was a thing at our place too, it's a big concession in terms of the way that we used to be able to knock off 3 weeks of flying with a week of vacation, and our vacation accrual is super, 3 weeks a year by year 5. I one had 2 weeks of vacation; the two months which it spanned I was able to fly two 4 day trips, a premium turn, and credited 210 hours between those two months. That was pretty nice. But that only happens a couple times a year. Being able to create 5 day stretches of days off potentially multiple times every month, that is equally as, if not more, valuable to me.
 
Maximilian_Jenius said:
What bidding system do you guys have?
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Regular paper line bidding.


Step trading used to 'improve' your original line. Basically, pot of open time you can use to try and drop/swap/add/trade trips. But it isn't live. So for March there are 77 trips in my base/seat I can try to use to change my schedule, but when the award is processed if a guy senior to me takes the trip, it'll deny any of my requests that had that trip in it.
 
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Skåning said:
If you run in to alaskan pilots PLEASE tell them this, they're scared of the boogie man (PBS) but it was fantastic at VX.
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PBS has everything to do with work rules, the software itself, and implementation. I wouldn't blindly want some random crappy PBS program. VX's Flica PBS *AND* our work rules made it such that it was a fantastic program. Not to mention, our entire route network was basically transcons so every day was guaranteed to be 5.5 hrs to 6+ hrs.

The regional I was at switched from line bidding to Kronos PBS and it was an absolute craphole of a program. It used a global system and was bid on via a point system (eg, desire Dec 25th off at 1000 pts and desire 4 day trips at 500 pts). The math was terrible. I hope to never use that kind of program again.

And dude, you're gonna be forced off the Bus in < 2 yrs. It's time to drop that 'n' ;)
 
Line bidding advantage is vacation conflict. It used to be any trip that dropped you got paid for and never had to add back a trip. After the Kasher arbitration of 2005 (? I think), we lost that. So now if you have 5 vacation days that pays 17.5 hrs and you drop a 24 hr 4-day trip, you are net down by 6.5 hrs. Now you got to look at your overall line value. It must stay above 75 hrs. So if your original line was 82 hrs, minus 6.5 you're still okay because you get 75.5 hrs. But if your original line was 75 hrs, now you're minus 6.5 hrs for a new total of 68.5 hrs. You must now add back at least 6.5 hrs in step trading to get your line back above 75 hrs. In a nutshell, in a vacation month, you have to stay above 75 hrs.
 
Derg said:
We had Honeywell on the 330’s and I wanted to pull my hair out. The 320’s had Thales and I thought I had gone to heaven. Now the entire 320/330 fleet has Thales.

Most of the problems that I hear people bitching about are the ones that have Honeywell.
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Airbus products operate fine systems-wise, haven’t had a problem with them, even the Airbus-developed avionics systems. Be a good systems manager as well as a good pilot, and the bird does just fine.
 
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