Originally Posted by Space Monkey
I just had a few curiousity questions for the World guys out there...
1. How are the trip and duty rigs?
2. How are the schedules? (min days off, what the lines look like, ect.)
3. How does the home basing work?
4. How are the travel benefits? (what benefits would ones family and parents get) and how they compare to the benefits of flying for another carrier such as NWA, CO or UA
5. How is the pay? do you usually make gaurntee or more?
6. How is the overall QOL?
Thanks.
7. Does World have any plans of joining CASS?
1. No duty rig, trip rig is 4.8 hours pay per 24 hours away from base.
2. Min 12 days off. With the new contract lines will consist of regular scheduled lines which vary from 12-21 days off, with most in the 13-16 days off range. In addition open lines will be 12 days off with the rest of the days being available days in which you have 16 hours before your flight departure from the time you are notified.
The "LAX" base flying consists primarily of freight runs from ANC to LAX, TPE, and PVG (Shanghai). Layovers are typically 20-40 hours with the occaisional 3+ day layover. "IAD" flying is primarily military flying from the states through Shannon, Ireland to Kuwait, with most of the overnights in those two cities. Other fairly common overnights include Ramstein, Germany, and Adana, Turkey.
Open flying could send you just about anywhere.
3. You pick a designated airport closest to you. Must be in the lower 48 and I believe requires two seperate airlines with regular service. You pay $125 per month deducted from your check and all airline tickets and hotels from your base are covered. If you start your trip in your "base" your pay and per diem starts when you get to that base. For example, you live in PHX and are awarded a line that starts with an LAX-ANC freight run, the company pays for your ticket from PHX-LAX and your hotel in LAX. Your pay starts when you show up at the airplane to take it up to ANC. If your line started in ANC, your pay starts when you show at the airport in PHX for a commercial flight to ANC.
4. Practically no travel bennies other than jumpseat privledges. You do get FF miles on some flights (depending if the company paid full fare).
5. Pay scales on this site are pretty accurate. Monthly hours vary from guarentee to some open flyers who will be gone for 18+ days with corresponding rig that adds up.
6. QOL is good. Just about all the pilots here are top notch, fantastic people to fly with - you won't have to pay for your beer your first year!Mostly nice overnight hotels, decent catering on flights, etc.
7. No plans that I know of for CASS.
The one negative I would have to mention here is the deteriorating state of relations with management. Things have only gotten worse since the TA was signed. An FO was recently fired for merely complaining about the way drug testing is handling here. This place is by no means Southwest, so don't expect any warm fuzzies!