C-17 Driver

Looks like more hiring.. All EWR FO on the 737 and 320

APC225

That's the same date the Aug & Sep COLA requests are due.

cal73

Haha I was wondering about that too.

Right hand, meet left hand.

"Don't expect many colas for wide bodies". Just expect leaves on the chronically understaffed fleets.

exjmbdrv

So that will put EWR at 44 airbus captains and 145 first officers. Maybe we are getting ETOPS cert for the bus and the extras are for IRO...

Kidding of course, but we sure are heavy on the FOs.

flygirl135

New hires on those fleets because they are expecting people to bid over to the 756?

If so, I may be rethinking my bid when I get to class next week. A new hire is going to languish forever on the bottom of the 76T list (or the 756 when the get BAT'd) if I'm reading this right.

ugleeual

FlyGirl, my rec for new hires is any NB aircraft... Picking a WB might seem like the jackpot but you will incur a freeze and will be on the bottom for at least 2 years (seat freeze)...

flygirl135

What if military leave played into the decision?

Grumble

Still go NB. The pay difference after year one is only a few bucks per hour, and if you decide you do want to make the jump you can bid it while out on mil leave.

As far as base movement and bidding to the location you want, you'll have better options being in a NB seat. You can always bid up, you can't bid back down.

i.e. if you're on the EWR 737 but Denver is where you want to live, if you're on the 737 you can bid 737 and anything above it at that base. If you're on the 76T, you can't bid back down to 737 in Denver for two years. Make sense?

pilot64golfer

True, but we've had these "COLAs" for years, and they say you can have a month or partial month off, and then out of the entire airline they would offer maybe 30 people partial months off, so it really isn't that big of a deal. The JAN, FEB and MAR COLA bulletin resulted in 1 pilot getting exactly 7 days off in 3 months our of over 100 pilots, which is essentially 1/12th of 1% of the available pilots being awarded time off.

So this isn't what it seems, and it doesn't mean we are overstaffed by 1,400 pilots which is what some people thought pre-SLI when they saw this.

They also offered this for APR and MAY and then didn't award anybody during those months.

So there is a difference between what is offered and what is awarded.

Airhoss

I know that you are using Denver for explanatory reasons only here. But I will mention just for education sake for the new hires about the seniority levels on the 76T in Denver. I was hired in 1997 that makes 17 years on property at UAL. I've never been furloughed and I am one of the bottom 5 pilots on reserve in the right seat of the 76T in Denver.

What happened was when they shut down the 737 almost all of the 737 captains that couldn't hold 320 or 76T captain in Denver surplussed to the right seat of 76T. Then all of us other jr captains who were commuting to the left seat from Denver on the 737 or the 320 who got surplussed and couldn't hold captain anywhere anymore just came back to Denver and most of us went to the right seat of the 76T as well.

I don't think there is a single solitary F/O on the 76T in Denver who can't hold 737 captain everywhere and 756 captain in most places. So IF you bid the 76T and are wanting to come to Denver anytime soon fuggedaboudit. Not to mention they are talking about shutting down the 76T in Denver all together. As a new hire your movement options are much better on the 320 or the 737. Plus the pay is about the same so go for the seniority, take a NB bid you'll make a lot more money and you will have more choices.