The SWA of the Regionals

On a more serious note...

Yea, everyones view of the "best" regional is different. Many people look at Colgan and the work rules (which will be a thing of the past) and say "hell no!" But Im currently on reserve sitting on my computer, in my pajamas doing nothing, but thats because I live in base. If I had to commute, I would be hating it.
 
wheelsup said:
Depends on the company, at mine we have 2 forms of reserve, a short and long call. Short call you need to be at the airport 2 hours from getting a call. So if you live 2 hours away you need to have your bag in your car and be showered and ready to walk out the door when they call. If you live 1 hour away you have 1 hour to get ready, etc. etc.

The long call reserve isn't set in stone every month and you need to be a relief line holder to get it if they put it on the relief lines. But it's got a 2 day call out.
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That sounds great and would work perfectly. I guess the real question is, how likely is it to get the based where you want and then actually maintain that base.

When you are promoted/upgrade, it is normal to move to a new base that flys that equipment correct? Then you start all over at the bottom of that list, on reserve?

Say you were a CA of a 737 and were offered to upgrade to CA of a 757, not sure if that is possible, just a hypothetical, could you refuse so you could hold your line, stay at your base and not go back down to reserve or is it not really your choice?

Airdale said:
You're still in your pajamas? AT 12:14pm??


Me too. :laff:
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not to go off topic, but since you live in NJ I am guessing you have done a good amount of 100 hamburger flights. Anything you would recommend around the area? I have heard flying W is good, but it is closer than 50 miles from TTN. I guess I could always go to ACY then swing back up and stop in, but looking for some longer flights. Thanks
 
wheelsup said:
Depends on the company, at mine we have 2 forms of reserve, a short and long call. Short call you need to be at the airport 2 hours from getting a call. So if you live 2 hours away you need to have your bag in your car and be showered and ready to walk out the door when they call. If you live 1 hour away you have 1 hour to get ready, etc. etc.

The long call reserve isn't set in stone every month and you need to be a relief line holder to get it if they put it on the relief lines. But it's got a 2 day call out.
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TWO DAYS!?

Jesus that's freakin' amazing! How in the world did you guys get that into your contract? Express has a 12 hour call out, and I thought that was pretty sweet.

With a 48 hour call out, you could be sitting reserve for LGA in freaking Tokyo and still make it to work.
 
What about Eagle? On Airlinepilotcentral their listed as a major....but are they a regional? I've heard their lounge is really nice for the pilots.
 
Matt13C said:
That sounds great and would work perfectly. I guess the real question is, how likely is it to get the based where you want and then actually maintain that base.
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Well that depends on what life throws you. When I got hired at Express, there were bases in LAX and ONT, with the LAX flying having TONS Of SLC overnights (where I live). I figured it'd be a super easy commute to either city and I'd end up with the easy life. Also when I got hired, those bases were ultra junior.

Flash forward to the end of training, I got stuck in EWR and ended up doing a cross country commute for 14 months. If I had been in the class before mine or the class after, I would have been sitting in LAX or ONT (yes, you read that correctly, a few classes AFTER mine were went to LAX/ONT/IAH when I was forced to go to EWR. I was mighty pissed about that one). Awesome.

It's just what life throws you sometimes.

When you are promoted/upgrade, it is normal to move to a new base that flys that equipment correct? Then you start all over at the bottom of that list, on reserve?

Say you were a CA of a 737 and were offered to upgrade to CA of a 757, not sure if that is possible, just a hypothetical, could you refuse so you could hold your line, stay at your base and not go back down to reserve or is it not really your choice?
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You are not offered upgrade, you bid upgrade. When you are able to hold it, you go to class. There are career FO's out there that NEVER upgrade, they simply don't want to take the hit in QOL and make enough money as is.

As an example, my bid looked something like this:

LAX - CA (long jet/short jet)
ONT - CA (long jet/short jet)
IAH - CA (long jet/short jet)
SAT - CA (long jet/short jet)
EWR - CA (long jet/short jet)
CLE - CA (long jet/short jet)

LAX - FO
ONT - FO
IAH - FO
SAT - FO
EWR - FO
CLE - FO

That would mean that my first bid was LAX Captain in the long jet (there were separate pay scales for the EMB-135 and the EMB-145 at the time). My second bid was LAX Captain in the short jet, and so on. Only until I got to my 13th preference in bidding did I get to ANY FO slots.

Now why did I bid like this as a new hire? Because I didn't want to miss an opportunity to hold captain down the road because I didn't bid captains slots first. Because I of course couldn't hold captain anywhere because I was just hired, the computer went down the list until it found something I could hold, which happened to be EWR FO, which you may notice is my 17th choice out of 18 possible options. Such is life for a junior FO, you kind of take what you can get.

But to wrap all that up, you're never offered anything by the company. You make requests of the company, and they will grant them seniority order.
 
jtrain609 said:
TWO DAYS!?

Jesus that's freakin' amazing! How in the world did you guys get that into your contract? Express has a 12 hour call out, and I thought that was pretty sweet.

With a 48 hour call out, you could be sitting reserve for LGA in freaking Tokyo and still make it to work.
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A buddy of mine (my old sim partner) sat reserve in his uncles house in the Carribbean, on a sailboat off the coast of England, and in China.

Depending on staffing levels it can be good or not so good. Also it depends on how many Long Call days they put on the relief lines. Lately they've been lacking but it changes. I've had months that had all LC days where I was never used. It's done mainly to pick up the slack when people quit after the awards come out, or go out on short term disability, to prevent it from going to open time.
 
Turbolag said:
What about Eagle? On Airlinepilotcentral their listed as a major....but are they a regional? I've heard their lounge is really nice for the pilots.
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Eagle is not really a "Major" in a true sense. Eagle is by all means a large airline in terms of revenue generation and fleet numbers, but we lack large aircraft and "hub to hub" destinations for most of our routes.

Also, Eagle's primary mission is to feed AA from smaller outstations and provide minor service between stations that don't have enough demand to support AA.

So.. not really a major- just really big.
 
Word around here is we're gonna have long call RSV in the new contract (aka part of the PBS stuff that's done). It's from a reliable, credible source, but the contract has to get signed first. From what he was telling me, it's they have to notify you by 1 pm the previous day. No call by 1 pm, you're off the next day. I could forsee that going senior.
 
jhugz said:
Why? Just stating the facts. Non-union pilots keeping there jobs while Union Pilot's losing there jobs left and right with little to no support from their beloved Union.
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When has it ever been a unions job to help you out when your furloughed?
 
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