I was in the may 30th crj class. Jet Jock RM was in my class. Just to clarify a few things when we interviewed Linda B stood up in front of the class and told us the crj was half staffed. While I dont doubt that at the exact moment she made that statement the plane may have only been half staffed, by the time we finished ioe the plane was certainly fully staffed. Things could be much worse than being stuck on reserve forever in IAH. You could be stuck on reserve forever in a CRaPpy city in northeast mexico like myslef. I have averaged about 35 hours a month on reserve with my best month just over 60 and my worst was 6. There was no way to research the fact that my class would have been the last to go through for a long while. They said it was half staffed and we assumed that there would be movement. I will never assume anything ever again. The majority of us did feel lied to about that aspect of the job. I of course wish it was not company policy not to let FO's switch planes. I of course wish I would have tried to get swithced to a different plane before class, but I did not even suspect that I would have been in the last class. Now with all that being said there is no way in hell i would consider leaving this place. I am at a stable company with diversified codeshares, quick upgrades, and work rules that are not terrible. If I could go back in time to before class started knowing I would be on reserve this long I would do it over again in a heartbeat.
Another thing to keep in mind is all but two CRJ fo's were hired between 10/19/06 and 05/30/07. With upgrade times the way they are the majority of pilots have either gotten an upgrade award date, or will sometime soon unless of course they hold out for a more senior plane or base or dont have 2500 total. If you do want to come here on the crj for either the bonus or because of an unhealthy texas obsession now is the time to do it there will be movement soon.
As to what will happen in the fourth quarter of 08 if and when 7 crj's are pulled is anyones guess.
Lets Go Mets