Originally Posted by
FreshWater
1-West coast bases are generally more senior than east. Lax and Oak are very junior on the west coast for obvious reasons. Nobody wants to commute to either of these bases, mainly stocked with diehard locals. Waiting list for iwa running about a year or so for new hires, someone else can chime in on that one.
2-BLI is a small and senior base.
3-Yes, varies. East coast is much quicker for upgrades.
4-Day trips are the norm. No overnights unless irregular ops. Starting to experiment with a very limited semi-transcon overnights out of cvg, I think. Day trips will be the back bone of the schedules for the duration of the current business model. So come here if you would like to not cheat on the wife. Otherwise go get some Luv.
LAX and OAK seem to alternate for which one is most junior on the West Coast. LAS will be available on the Bus for any new hires going forward. It is going very junior in the FO side for now because half the MD80 FO list is equipment locked. That means you could probably get LAS fairly quickly, but you would be perms junior there as guys transition from the 80 over to the Bus.
BLI is super senior on the Captain side and the top of the FO side, but the bottom couple of FO slots there go pretty junior. IWA was up to about 18 months to get there. With the recent growth, that has come down to just under a year, but if there isn't anymore growth soon, it will go right back up again. By the time, you are off reserve in IWA FO, you can almost hold Captain in OAK.