Newest Delta Captain

Kingairer said:
So what's the deal with the junior awards. What's so bad that thousands of others are passing it up?
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Melting pot of reasons.

One of the reasons 88 Captain spots in ATL(1 year) and NYC(4 months) have gone extremely junior is due to the airplane. It's a challenging airplane in a fast paced operation with multiple legs a day. It's a tough transition for a FO that has been flying international for an extended period of time.

Next, Delta also has an older pilot group most of whom have little to no interest in the former RJ flying the 88 and 717 has picked up. A new hire will be junior in either seat so might as well get paid more. Also, passing upgrade training ends probation and your 1st year pay.

Furthermore, many are waiting for one of the next 2 bids which will have a significant amount of widebody positions in preparation for Summer 2017, with the 2nd one opening up the A350 category.

Lastly, NYC is a big factor as always. Especially on the 717 where it is routine for reserves to cover all three airports. It's not for the faint of heart and best left to those that are adventurous. Also contributing is the groupthink that these junior Captains will be on reserve for years which is not true. Since most Delta pilots will not accept the combination of regional flying and NYC most vacancies will continue to be filled by very junior pilots pushing pilots up the list of an overall very junior list.
 
AA (LUS) has some 2013 hire captains on the 190 in PHL. But the 190 is going away.


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saxman said:
AA (LUS) has some 2013 hire captains on the 190 in PHL. But the 190 is going away.


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190 upgrade has been a year since 2012 or so. That's completely different than the situation at delta. 2nd year 190 captain pay is $145ish where as the 88s at delta pay real captain wages.


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ian said:
3 nyc airports and reserve
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Still not an excuse. At my shop, it's the same exact 3 NYC airports and the exact same reserve, correction: worse reserve rules, and I couldn't hold it approaching 5 years and 66%. When the upgrades do start, they consistently seem to be going at 5.5 - 6 years for bottom barrel reserve at 57-58% in NYC, LAX, and SFO.

I still find it hard to believe that there aren't enough of the 13,200 pilots at Delta who live within a 3 hr driving distance of the 3 metro NYC airports that couldn't take the plunge? But then again different floats for different boats.

learhawkerbe400 said:
Same situation at AA and junior captain there is still 65% or so.


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Exactly my point. It theoretically shouldn't matter if it is NYC and reserve. The fact that it's a CA slot, with CA pay, should override some of that enough to a point. 66% sounds reasonable. Though at our shop,66% isn't enough because the most bottom junior plug CA is still around 57-58%. That sounds a lot more "traditional" , and harder to understand considering reserve rules suck here.

I'm surprised at Delta there weren't many "hail mary CA bids" (aka, bid every CA slot system wide). If you're single, no wife/kids, what's one got to lose.
 
Does it make sense that guys at Virgin are aggressively trying to get TPIC as a means to move on? Whereas those at Delta are comfortable so they're passing on captain bids for QOL?
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Still not an excuse. At my shop, it's the same exact 3 NYC airports and the exact same reserve, correction: worse reserve rules, and I couldn't hold it approaching 5 years and 66%. When the upgrades do start, they consistently seem to be going at 5.5 - 6 years for bottom barrel reserve at 57-58% in NYC, LAX, and SFO.

I still find it hard to believe that there aren't enough of the 13,200 pilots at Delta who live within a 3 hr driving distance of the 3 metro NYC airports that couldn't take the plunge? But then again different floats for different boats.



Exactly my point. It theoretically shouldn't matter if it is NYC and reserve. The fact that it's a CA slot, with CA pay, should override some of that enough to a point. 66% sounds reasonable. Though at our shop,66% isn't enough because the most bottom junior plug CA is still around 57-58%. That sounds a lot more "traditional" , and harder to understand considering reserve rules suck here.

I'm surprised at Delta there weren't many "hail mary CA bids" (aka, bid every CA slot system wide). If you're single, no wife/kids, what's one got to lose.
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Yes it is a good excuse for many.
I had some hail mary bids in but I sure as hell am not bidding something that would completely destroy my time at home like those would. Not worth it. The beauty here is variety. You can do just as well if not better on many other fleets, including in the right seat. As a LCA told me during IOE. You can make as little or as much as you want on any airplane here just depends on how much you want to work, and of course some seniority helps.

Edit: there were narrowbody captains that bid back to widebody fo on this AE as well...
 
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Kingairer said:
So what's the deal with the junior awards. What's so bad that thousands of others are passing it up?
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Quality of life.

You're basically doing RJ flying in and out of three airports. I was in NYC for a little over a month as a line-holding 320 captain and it was absolute murder and I hated myself.

If we had a bunch of shiny new airplanes coming online, it'd be one thing, but it's a lot like Continental when they had very junior upgrades in the 737 in EWR years ago.

It's the 737…

And Newark…

When FedEx announced that they had 11 month captains on the 757, my first thought was "Hot damn, how bad is it as a junior 757 captain?" not "ZOMG! Amazing growth!"
 
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