Originally Posted by
Armyguy
Received the assessment Monday morning and took it within 30 minutes. Just received email for interview just now. Really quick.
I found a delta seniority calculator online and what I found interesting was how small the dtw bid statuses are.
roughly 475 nb fo’s spread out among 3 planes.
717 and 320 are key to getting to DTW quick. 717 has only 142 FO’s.
How does delta run their reserve manning numbers vs lineholders? Is trip trading/dropping/moving trips around a thing at Delta?. For perspective a lot of guys here at AA say you cant trip trade but I am always able to move my schedule around as a lineholder and make it exactly what I want. If on reserve at AA there is no flexibility.
I did talk real quick to a Delta pilot and given you all don't have exclusive short call pilots it is easy to volunteer for short call and move yourself lower on the reserve availability list. Idk.
Looks like getting to dtw would be super quick. 12500 total pilots, 717 plug at @12300.
Thanks for any perspective.
Only thing I would add is the flying/reserves fluctuate throughout the year. I have seen months where less than 2% of the category had reserve (almost everyone assigned a line) and then slower months where almost 25-40% were assigned reserve for the same category. Also the reserve guarantee fluctuates as a function of the Average Line Value ALV of the category for a given month (min of 72hrs) so in months with a high ALV many senior pilots will choose reserve on purpose leaving nothing but lines of flying for junior pilots (much more common on the WB fleets) as the reserve pilots are betting they will fly much less than the guarantee, if at all.
Volunteering for Short call will usually get accepted unless you are up against a mandatory rest period which would limit your availability. Not many do that though as an unused SC gets you one hour of pay towards your guarantee so unless you plan on flying more than guarantee, you just volunteered for free.
Best of luck on your decision!