Originally Posted by
Adlerdriver
Things can vary, but I'd say they'll only get better. We're getting 7 more 777s this year and have orders to bring our total up from the low 40's to 55 aircraft over the next few years.
For July (in the FO seat), 22% of the lines are single trip lines (16% FO and 6% RFO). They range from 10 days on (18 days off) with 74-79 hours of pay to 14 days on (14 days off) with 84-87 hours of pay.
Obviously, with those lines, you get the rest of the month off. Fly at the beginning of June and then at the end of July and you string a months worth of days off together without using vacation. However, I don't mean to imply those single trip lines are necessarily the most popular. They obviously have their merits, but don't appeal to everyone. It's not difficult to get single departure FO trips as a junior pilot as long as you don't mind multi-leg duty periods and (if any) domestic front/back deadheads. It's also relatively easy to get single departure RFO trips without deadheads, but those usually are more popular than FO trips.
After that, the majority of the bid pack is two trip schedules. One tiny 2-day and an 8 or 10 day all the way up to an even split of 5/5, 4/6, 5/7, etc. Generally speaking, we're talking varying levels of really, really good. There are some suck trips, but when you compare them to what the domestic guys are doing, it's really amazing that FedEx gets anyone to fly that stuff. Really cherry RFO trips can pay up to 10 hours a day and involve one revenue leg from HKG to MEM.
If you can deal with getting your schedule late in the month, maybe being on reserve a bit longer than your domestic bros, there really is no better job than 777 FO.
To me life is much better on the other airplanes if you're flying Domestic and move to Memphis. If I were a commuter I'd be on the 777.... Unless you want to get senior enough to bid double dead heads out of your home town. Some guys really like doing that.
For instance... Let's say you live in Kansas City. There might be a trip that starts off with a Commercial Dead head to Kansas City and ends with a Dead Head to Memphis. If you live there you just show up for work on Monday night and end up something like early Saturday morning. Meanwhile you get paid for Sunday as if you actually deadheaded to Kansas City. So it ends up being about two days of pay for Dead Heading to Kansas City which you never did.
Personally, I just bit the bullet and moved to Memphis. Now I can sit reserve and pick up a little extra flying here and there. So for the Domestic stuff life is VERY good if you live in Memphis and a little tougher if you commute.