Originally Posted by
PICsf340
Does anyone have examples of recent flex schedules? Wondering what it looks like to get the extra $12k per year. I am going to go back and ready the thread, but what kind of time frame would you expect someone coming in that has similar experience as a captain in these operations to be able to upgrade?
PIC,
I‘ll take a shot at answering your question but I don’t fly the Flex so I can’t copy and paste a “schedule” per se.
Fundamentals of the bidding process:
1. Based on seniority (no surprise)
2. It is called the Flex 18 because you work 18 days a month. That includes the travel day to start and end of each “rotation”.
3. You bid monthly for Flex 18 versus folks who are on the 15/13 or 8/6 bid just once a year.
4. One bids for “days” off not to exceed the 12 (or 13 for 31 days in a month) in three blocks of time. I.e. 1-4, 8-11, 15-18 of a month.
5. You also state the maximum days you wish to be out on rotation but don’t think the algorithm won’t figure out if you put a max of 5 days that you will get to work just 15 days for the month with the days off I stated above.
6. Bids come out mid-month so you won’t know your schedule until about 10-14 days prior if that is an issue.
The extra $1 is paid out each month above SIC pay.
Upgrades slowed during COVID but things are beginning to increase as we are flying more and additional aircraft pending for arrival. Everyone, not just XO, in the 135 world will see higher shift of pilots to the hiring trend in the 121. To predict how it will look in 6 months is tough. For perspective, pre-Covid, X - 1 yr, Challenger 18 months. Mileage may vary. I’ve been here 2. Yrs and head to upgrade later this month but all due to Covid delays.
Hope that helps.