Originally Posted by
avi8t
So I am considering leaving a regional to come over to Allegiant and have a few questions if any current pilots there can answer.
How long right now does it take a new hire to get back to LAS? Have normal reserve? Hold a line?
Are the trips on the airbus similar to the MD where everything is an out and back or are there multi day trips?
Is it ever possible to have 3 days off in a row?
Are weekends off ever a possibility?
I have read that upgrade is 5 years in one post and then a few months in another post. Both cannot possibly be true. How long is it right now to upgrade?
Is the hotel paid for during training?
Getting back to LAS is hard to say. It can take anywhere from a month to a few years. If they are going to really be hiring in the numbers they say, it shouldn't take very long at all.
Right now, all the trips are scheduled as day trips. Due to the brilliance of our operation, some of the four leg days are turning in to three leg days with an overnight. There may or may not be multi-day trips in the future. The company doesn't share their plans with us very far in advance.
There is no "normal" reserve or line holding right now. Under PBS, at least in my base, almost every line is mixed reserve and flying.
It's possible to get several days off in a row. However, it's up to the company right now with how they manipulate the schedules during the bidding process. It seems the junior people get everything they want, and the senior people get nothing they want. The court order should be changing the whole process soon, I hope.
Weekends off are possible, but it depends on the time of year. Some months are really, really busy, and some months are not. We are going back to no fly Tuesdays and Saturdays, so you would probably get those days off.
The company came up with this brilliant idea of a TDY base. The junior person that bid captain for that "base" was hired in December, 2013, and has been on line about a month or maybe two. If you don't mind being the companies slave and having no life, the upgrade can be short. If you want to be in a regular base, the upgrade is running 3-4 years. I'd love to explain the TDY base idea to you, but the company has no idea how they are going to handle it.
The last I knew, there was no hotel provided during training, unless they send you somewhere outside of Vegas. Rumor has it they may start putting you up in Vegas also, but I don't know if that's true.