Bustedcropdusta
Well-Known Member
I came from the EMS and PSAP word too! there's more of us that have found of us on this side of spatchin' than you'd believe lol. feel free to shoot me a message with any questions you might have.
New Dispatcher FAQ
- Thread starter MT
- Start date
I came from the EMS and PSAP word too! there's more of us that have found of us on this side of spatchin' than you'd believe lol. feel free to shoot me a message with any questions you might have.
Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
The only thing that would hurt you dispatch wise by going to a regional is vacation accrual. We do desk and vacation bidding by your dispatch hire date. Furlough is also by dispatch date of hire. Your company seniority date doesnt do a lot for you in dispatch.
I would recommend putting in for load planning, crew scheduling, and maintenance routing. FPS might also take you but they have become busier than planned due to flightkeys and management has been stingy about letting them move to dispatch.
I see that you are retired. Not sure how old you are. The latest AA dispatch seniority list has 558 dispatchers. Around 350 of the 558 dispatchers are younger than 45 years old. We have also trained a bunch of new dispatchers in every qualification we have. Needless to say if you are older, you will likely be stuck for your career on either domestic midnights or month to month regular relief schedule with mostly domestic desks.
D_Spatching Newbie
Active Member
Hey thanks a lot for the info... I'm 52 years old and in the process of doing my Walk A Mile at the IOC for Dispatch. Mr. George Kypreos and Mike Bowden are supposed to be arranging something for me. I have put in for Crew Scheduling, Senior Router, and even the Control Center. I've heard that with FPS you may have to give them 2 years of service before moving on. In FPS are they using flightkeys? There is a company called Ameriflight that is a Part 135 company that may have PT Dispatch positions, however, I am checking with our business ethics department if it would be a conflict of interest. After reviewing some posts I saw that Part 135 was still good to gain some experience. How long have you been with AA?
D_Spatching Newbie
Active Member
Hey thanks for the response... I just came out of our ER Communication Division we had it pretty good 24hrs on 72hrs off. Anyway a ton of folks are waiting to see what happens with me, because many are thinking of retiring as well and are looking for something suitable and flexible. I am checking with AA's Business Ethics Department to see if I can pick up a part time position here in Dallas with Ameriflight which is Part 135. I saw from this forum that the experience could still be good to gather. I have to admit this aircraft dispatch is like learning a new language from where I am coming from but I am game. I'm 52 so I figure I can get another several years in this career. I like the user name "bustedcropduster" Lol.
Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
FPS is using both and will be for the foreseeable future. FPS is represented by the same union as dispatchers but no flow through. Moving from any IOC job to dispatch is all about staffing needs in each department which can slow movement down. At your age, I would go the regional route. Unless you really love scheduling, load planning or maintenance routing, a regional will likely get you in to dispatch faster. Most of our new hires are from the regionals.
As it stands now, the best you will ever do seniority wise is mid 300s which assumes the 200 above me all retire over the next 15 years. That likely wont happen so probably somewhere in the 400s is more realistic by the time you get to age 65. You need to be below 300 to get an international AM/PM line or any kind of decent coordinator line.
We have hired so many that it wont be easy for new hires going forward to have a very good qualify of life. You also need to look at the financial side. Top of salary is 11 years and 20 years with longevity pay. Every year you dont make it to dispatch reduces your chances of making it to top of scale before you are retired.
I have been here for 12 years now. I have another 30 years plus at least until retirement which is pretty typical for a lot of the 350 hired since Ive was hired here.
Timing is everything. I would make sure before switching jobs that you are comfortable with being on the bottom of the totem pole and first in line for furlough for most if not all your time in AA dispatch.
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D_Spatching Newbie
Active Member
D_Spatching Newbie
Active Member
Okay thanks for that, I have no problem being at the bottom anywhere, I don't want to lose my ability to retire with flight benefits.. As long as I accept a position with Envoy and start within 30 days of leaving AA it will still count for my retirement. If need be then I may put my name in the hat for SWA or another company. I'm not really trying to move around so much. I have a mother that is up in age and have to help with things at her house. As far as financially I will receive a pension for the rest of my life which is pretty decent. In the mean time I have been studying FAR regulations to keep ready for an exam for dispatch. If you have any suggestions on what to study to keep prepared for a dispatch position please let me know. I still look at METAR's and TAF's and some PIREP's. In addition I try to look for possible scenarios that could be asked during an interview so as to get a better understanding of dispatch procedures. Also, are there any periodicals or materials you can recommend to stay up to date on the industry? My name is Ray Edwards by the way and eventually I may get to meet you and I can personally thank you for your assistance.
LastMinuteAirline
Well-Known Member
Howdy. It depends on if you are dead set on AA or if other majors are an option too. If AA is the goal, and you have enough income to wait it out and go internal, I probably would. 8 years seniority will go a long way for standby travel, vacation, etc. Getting a job in IOC is a good suggestion. I'm not an AA expert, but with the amount of hiring at majors lately, I would be concerned with getting stuck at a regional for an extended period of time. Others at AA may be able to give better insight on the short/long term hiring potential. That being said if you are passionate about getting into dispatch more quickly, its almost a guarantee for you to get on with the regional of your choice right now.
I Like IKE
Well-Known Member
Seniority has nothing to do with standby travel at AA.
bbmikej
Well-Known Member
It's all about getting that T in your priority number.
I Like IKE
Well-Known Member
That T stands for through. If you are connecting in a hub, you get that T for your second flight. It has nothing to do with seniority.
bbmikej
Well-Known Member
I once was visiting family and got like a 7am flight back to Dallas. That night I flew out at like 9pm international and that 7am first check in combined with the T pretty much put me at the front of the NRSA line.
D_Spatching Newbie
Active Member
Thanks, well I'm definitely dead set to get my flight benefits for life. So I have at least 3 more years to complete at some capacity. Apparently I can do this by going to Envoy as a dispatcher then attempting to come back to the mainline. Southwest Airlines is also here in Dallas, so I might would try to go to them after getting my time and benefits in with American.
safetyfirst
safetyfirst
No sir, you no need to get 121 experience at the matter all. All It means you need to keep your leg into aviation so it's better to start with something small, either a trip planner or scheduler in charter aviation, and then definitely you will be get your 121 way. FYI there is always short on dispatch
I see a couple people in this thread mention age, that they've over 50. I'm 58 and started this journey last fall. I come from a non-aviation background but all things aviation have been a hobby for many years - photography, air shows, flying (private) whenever I could meet someone with a plane, etc. I breezed thru the Dispatch school in Dallas, began applying before the ink was dry on the certificate, and 2mo after graduation got a start date at Skywest, the top dog of regionals. During that time I had many interviews. More interviews than I had when looking for previous jobs in my previous field of television studio production. So 2.5 months after getting the cert I was seated in the Skywest class with 14 other newbies. Currently as I write this I am in the OJT portion of training, working a full desk but generating releases under the trainer's name with him looking them over before filing. If things go well I have another 6 weeks of this and then a comp check. It can be done! It has now been 5 1/2 months since I walked into the classroom for the first time at school. I have come a LONG way during this time! Its very fast paced, you are never sitting around doing nothing. In fact you have to eat your lunch while working. We may be only a regional but its busy as hell here. I can agree with those why say Skywest's training is very thorough. They will not "throw me to the lions". The 14 other people in my class are a diverse group but I'm pretty sure I am the oldest. They come from a variety of backgrounds, some with no aviation, a couple of internals, a couple who have pilot ratings, and the ratio of male to female is 12 to 3. They are finishing up the process of interviewing for the April class now, but there will definitely be 1 or 2 more this year. We've had several that I am aware of leave so there is always a need! My regret is not doing this sooner.
Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
When I talk about age, its all about seniority. Just about any age can do the job. But it is most enjoyable when you are able to work the desk you want and have the schedule you want. Seniority determines everything in most dispatch workgroups. Seniority is all about timing and getting hired at the start of a wave of retirements. When you are older, you have less time to climb the ladder.
Regionals have a lot of attrition so seniority is easy to acrrue in a short amount of time. At a career airline, someone hired in the 20s can easily work into their late 60s or early 70s. Most airlines use date of hire (DOH) for seniority and each airline has its own way of determining seniority for each class with the same DOH.
If you started today at AA, you will have over 550 dispatchers above you in seniority. It currently takes ten years to hold the most desirable dispatch lines with over half the current list that were not able to hold those desks. It will likely take longer than ten years soon as those in line to get those desks wont likely give them up for 20 or 30 years when they are able to hold them. So if you are starting out later in life, the time needed to hold the more desirable desks is likely going to exceed the time you have left before retirement.
But its all about priorities. If working midnights, all the holidays or northeast domestic is your thing then being junior isnt so bad.
DeltaJulietTango
Well-Known Member
At the regional level, my experience has been the biggest two struggles are:
- Surviving on what they pay
- Listening to the way some people speak to each other
The best part of my day is sitting at my desk cutting releases...doing the actual job I was hired to do.
airviationpapii
airviation
Wondering when Envoy will post again 
I'm sad to report that I got bounced from my position. It wasn't for an inability to learn the new trade - I got really high scores in the classroom portion of the training tests & assignments. I was on the floor in the OJT portion and I needed a little more time before the comp check but they would not give me. Getting used to the 1:30am start was rough, but also we had a LOT of flights to release. On a Friday after my shift they gave me a list of things to improve by Monday "or else". And on that Sunday we had a couple sick calls so I had I think 50 flights on my desk, that certainly didn't help! I had some bright moments like PICs thanking me for giving them more gas before they could ask for it and giving them the heads up for storms. I got on really well with all the people in my class. Yes, the pay was a bit of a concern but I thought it could work out with a few extra shifts here and there which apparently are easy to pick up. No problems with the way people talked or treated each other. My bosses were also really nice about cutting me loose. They said (its in writing) that I'm eligible for re-hire and if I dispatch somewhere else they would consider taking me back, and also said they would be references. They knew how well I did in the class and interacted with the others...I have the aptitude for it but I think it was just this system plus my own focus. Now, I see that the market has completely fallen apart from last fall when there were new job postings almost every day so I don't know what the future holds. I'm in a strange town now all alone. I did apply for their System Control job so maybe I'll end up right across the room from dispatch....or across the country as I've got several apps out there. I really want to give this another shot, as now coming into it I already know where my weakness is.