Originally Posted by
Intel33
Where is training conducted? How long and what is the pay? I read it is "Company determined amount" until PC. Is there a list of gateway cities someplace? If gateway travel is unpaid, does it come out of your days off, or is it part of the schedule?
Originally Posted by
KhalReblic23
If you PM me your email I will send you a PDF of our God awful contract which contains the gateway cities list in the last few pages.
Gateway travel is done ON work days, not off days. If they have to travel you on an off day you are still paid "callout" (i.e. overtime) which is $250+3.3hrs or block whatever is greater (in the case of gateway which is worth 0 you get the 3.3)
Training used to be in Tulsa and then sims were mostly in Denver at the UAL facility. Now that all the majors are ramped up I'm not sure where the sims are and even our recurrent training sessions are spread out to different places now.
Don't remember training pay, sorry.
And btw for everyone else: the TDY is a 90 day line. That's the best way to look at it since you are provided lodging only where you are overnight and not permanent lodging for the duration at the TDY base. With another TDY starting and rumor of a 3rd on the 767, you will definitely be going to one of them every 12 months...I'm in the upper levels of FO seniority and barely dodged this last TDY announced today.
I wouldn't call it a "great place to work", and in fact the contract and quality of life conditions were much better at my previous regional. However, it does offer some good opportunity to see places you never would (sounds lame but that is worth something), to gain experience in the international arena which is nothing like what you see stateside as far as flying goes, and to get some heavy time. I think it would be hard for any major to deny the value of the experience you could add to your resume. This is proving true as more guys are leaving every month!
Ground school is currently in Tulsa but I have heard that it is moving to where the sims are. We were using the UAL sims but do to some issues with them (new UAL training Manager and new scheduling program not providing sims early enough I believe) we have moved the 767 sim training to ATL.
Training pay currently is $1000/month and per diem $36/day until you do your PC or 8 weeks which every happens first. Then you go on your monthly guarantee pay. This pay is at the company's discretion.
There are about 120 gateway cities. Your travel is on the first and last day of you schedule. If you are domestic you are not paid any per diem nor get any dead head travel credit toward you month guarantee until you arrive at a city not on the list or until you reach you duty location. If going international your per diem and dead head travel credit toward you month guarantee starts when your flight leave the US. You do get dead head travel credit toward you month guarantee anytime you travel during you your schedule except if you are heading home then gateway travel is in play.
It you are traveled on a day off you get 3.33 flight pay (3hrs 20mins) plus $250 at a minimum. If your international portion of your dead head travel is more than 6hrs 40mins then you will get 1/2 the dead head time plus the $250.
The TDY he/she is referring too is the Madrid TDY. I've done it and it had its pros and cons. If you are selected for the 767 you will go with in 4 months of finishing IOE. There is only one TDY currently and a second starting in a few months. The second one is not open to the entire pilot group and is 2 months long. It has to do with one of our contract that we recently got. There was some rumors about a third one in Germany for a contract flying from there to the Dominic Republic but the company has already stated that they would not use a TDY for this one. (But they have changed their mind before) Once you have been junior assigned a TDY the company can not junior assign until you have 12 months at home following your last junior assignment.
There are better and worse places to work and I've had my ups and downs with this company. You will get to do things and go places that you will never get to any place else. With most of the non-scheduled airlines going bankrupt since I started here I think they will be around for awhile. They do have a very good business plan. They have been around since 1983 with out filing bankruptcy, how many airlines can say that.