its one of the areas that can be approved in our contract. we can base trade at any time with another pilot in another base as long as he is willing and the trade is advertised on our company website for 30 days(i think thats the time frame). anybody senior to the two can object to the trade in that time frame and "steal" the trade. Otherwise the only way to change bases is what is called a Perm bid over here. They usually come out every two-three months (only two required per year) and the next one is due out at the end of January into early February. I don't know what that person was saying about being stuck for 6 months to a year but i believe he was exaggerating quite a bit. If he really wanted out he could very simply start looking for people to base trade with. There are people out there but if your too lazy to try and make the trade work then you wait for the perm bid. There were two signs put up in our ewr crew room this week that would have helped this guy out but i guess he wants to perm bid out there or doesn't understand the system.

Its not a bad system but with newark reducing lines it is becoming very senior. So the new guys that are here have to work to get out. For people starting out at the bottom i guess they really don't understand the whole idea of paying your dues. Its not the first time a new hire was put into a base they didn't want. Most regional airlines take a minimum of 2 -4 months to get into the base you wanted. Except for eagle and the choose your base thing.