Upgrade Times At AE

OnTheFly7

OnTheFly7

Well-Known Member
Just admitting a little more of my ingnorance when it comes to the regionals. From what I have seen on these boards, it seems as though Eagle has the longest upgrade times of any regional out there.

What can this be attributed to?

If these upgrade times are so long, does this have a reflection on the mainline carrier and their lack of upward movement?

Would this not be an indication that AE is in fact a good company to work for, people recognize this and stay there, rather than jumping ship?

Just trying to get a little more insight on this "chess game" called regional flying!

Thanks for any input!
 
Coming from someone who doesn't really know either, I'll bet it has something to do with the amount of "lifers" that are there that don't want to leave due to good pay and very high quality of life. Not to mention the stability that AE offers compared to other regionals, there just probably isn't as much movement at the top of the list.

I have heard talk from others that AE is actually trying to put some program together to help some of the more senior captains find "better" jobs. Notice the quotation marks. They already have a pretty darn sweet gig if they are a senior AE captain.

I guess the reasoning behind that is to save on salaries and because if the upgrade time doesn't go down, they are probably going to get hard-pressed to find new F/Os.
 
kind of on topic but, what happens with AE captains? since AA pretty much owns AE, are AE captains offered jobs at AA FOs? and due to this most of them don't leave AE to go to a major, instead they just wait it out for AA to pick them up hence the long upgrade times?
 
A lot of it has to do with the "flow through" agreement with AA. When AA furloughed around 9/11, it turned into a "flow back" program, thus landing a lot of American guys at the top end of the AE seniority list. Since American is pretty much the last one to recall their pilots, the list has been pretty stagnant. Last I heard, AA still had close to 1000-1500 on furlough. I'm sure that number has changed, but I don't know by how much.
 
In large part it has to do with the number of captains that have stayed at Eagle because the flowthrough to AA they were expecting hasn't happened. This is largely a function of TWA pilots being brought on board with AA, and massive furloughs following 9/11. Additionally, life as a senior Eagle captain isn't too bad - stable company, good pay, good schedule. I imagine many will retire there which sucks for the FOs waiting in the pipeline.
 
kellwolf said:
A lot of it has to do with the "flow through" agreement with AA. When AA furloughed around 9/11, it turned into a "flow back" program, thus landing a lot of American guys at the top end of the AE seniority list. Since American is pretty much the last one to recall their pilots, the list has been pretty stagnant. Last I heard, AA still had close to 1000-1500 on furlough. I'm sure that number has changed, but I don't know by how much.
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Good point here. If I heard correctly United has called all of it's remaining pilots back. Northwest, well, it seems as if more are going else where then returning to that airline if memory serves me correctly.

Of all of the main line carriers, CAL seems to be one of the most stable (from an outsiders view). I knew that girl I dated in college and I should have stayed together (uncle was a senior CAPT with CAL)! Oh Well!
 
PGA07 said:
Good point here. If I heard correctly United has called all of it's remaining pilots back. Northwest, well, it seems as if more are going else where then returning to that airline if memory serves me correctly.
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United's done recalling. They might still have guys that bypassed for now a la Delta, though. I know they're hiring off the street, though. We lost a couple of CAs to them last week, including one that I flew with for a while. I think Northwest is done totally on the recall. As in they did they "if you don't take this one, we're considering you resigned" recall. Not 100% sure of that one, though. And yeah, a lot of guys said "no" to that recall.
 
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