Originally Posted by
jstanotherpilot
Hey everyone, I’ve been incessantly reading through hundreds of posts trying to find answers to certain things, and I noticed that a lot of basic questions I feel pilots want to know aren’t easily found or very superficially discussed in this forum. So, with your help, and in light of this hiring wave at AA, I thought it would be incredibly helpful to have a post that could answer some questions for pilots looking to make a move to AA.
So, if anyone is willing to provide some insight… here are some questions (sorry for the long list)
1: Average amount of days off per month as a line holder? Is dropping/swapping flexible? Is it possible to continuously get 18-20 days off a month, for example? What does a normal schedule look like and how much can it be manipulated? Does it compare to the flexibility at Spirit, Frontier, or Southwest, for example? How flexible are things at American?
2: Potential for higher earnings. We all know what the rates on APC are so we can figure out minimum guarantee. But, what does a normal schedule look like that goes over guarantee? There are multiple posts about pilots making well over the projected guarantee, (NB CA’s in the 400k mark), how is this possible? How does the system allow pilots to earn more than guarantee?
3: Commutability. Obviously living in base will improve anyone’s QOL, but how commutable are trips? What is the average length of trips? What can new hires expect?
4: What is the current system for bidding or awarding lines? What is TTOT? What is TTS? What is IMAX? (Sorry if these are incorrectly spelled). Are you stuck with your line after it’s awarded? How often can you adjust your schedule to make it to your liking?
5: What are the bases expected out of training? How often can you switch base? Can you switch equipment/base during training? Can you pick up trips from other bases? Personally, as a new hire I am looking for ORD, how would I be able to obtain the base of my liking? If I am awarded XXX/XXX (equipment/base) in new hire training, how can I switch to an equipment/base that better suits my QOL?
6: How long on average can a new hire be expected to be on reserve?
7: What are your reserve rules? Can you move around reserve days? Can you create a huge block of days of continuous reserve and have a longer block of days off? How are days off organized during reserve? For example, is there any “4 days off minimum between trips/blocks of reserve” type of language in your cba?
8: What are the current upgrade times? How long can new upgrades expect to be on reserve?
9: Medical benefits? Good/Bad/Expensive?
10: What is the training footprint?
11: And lastly, what are some things you as a pilot at AA wish you would have known before joining, or is there anything else you would like to share to potential new hires getting offered a the job at AA.
Thank you
1. Your PBS monthly schedule, as a line holder will most likely be around 15 to 16 days of work. More junior line-holders will generally not hold many commutable trips. Must be quite senior to hold shorter trips. Trips are anywhere from 1 to 5 days in length. Reserve schedules have 18 days of reserve and either 12 or 13 days off. Reserves are awarded either a short-call or long-call reserve line. Long-call is 12 from call to report time. No specified time for short-call time. Currently, with our trip trading options, you can have a fairly flexible schedule. Early in 2022 the company and APA agave agreed to eliminate one of our trip platforms. It was are most flexible trading platform. So to be honest, no one can tell you how flexible your schedule will end up being because it is a total unknown. Most seem to believe, and they have a lot of reason to support the opinion, that the new trip trade system will likely be a huge hit to our quality of life. Many pilots used the older system to their advantage. The way that the company manages IT, it likely will be disaster early on. Have to give it time, to give a better answer. Overall I would say it will be less flexible than other airlines.
2. your pay simply will be your hourly pay rate by how many hours you work. I have never broken guarantee as a reserve pilot at this company, but in certain bid statuses it is possible or even likely. Reserve guarantee is 73 hours for long-call and 76 hours for short-call. Max you will get is around 85, which is limited per the contract. Each day will typically, pay a minimum of 5:15 for a day of actual duty(actually on a trip, not sitting reserve). As a line-holder, your pay is totally within your control. Your pbs monthly schedule award will normally be in 80s or even low 90s as a junior line holder. To be able to get a lower time schedule, you typically have to be in the top 50% of the pilots in your bid status because of the required minimum line value constraint that PBS will invoke on your schedule. You can pick up trips on your days off up to the month maximum (different each month but typically in the 92 to 97 hour range, sometime set at FAR max limit in busier months). Premium trips don’t count toward the maximum. For example, if you were awarded an 88 hour schedule, and the monthly max was 92, you would not be able to pick up any trips at normal 100% pay, you would have to try and get a premium trip, because that allows you to fly over the monthly max.
3. Trips range from 1 to 5 days in length. Most trips are 3 to 4 days in length. We are seeing more and more 5 day trips as we go through time. 5 day trips tend to be most commutable and about half the 4day trips are commutable. Seems like most 3 day trips are much less commutable. Trips vary widely across all the different bid statuses.
4. see what I wrote above, it explains a lot of this question, but to expand. TTOT is trip trade with open time through Sabre. TTS is our online trip trade system which is a seniority based trip trade system that runs at 8am and 8pm every day. TTOT, the most flexible of the two, and that is not saying much, is going away in early 2022. TTOT is run through sabre, which is where we locate our schedules and flight plans. It is a real-time live trading system. Once TTOT goes away, we we run on a new TTS system that is online and uses both seniority-based computer runs (twice per day) and live first-come-first-serve type. It will likely be a huge quality of life hit on our line holders. Time will tell.
5. MIA, LAX, and LGA are most likely bases out of training. We normally run 4 to 5 equipment/base bids per year. They will cover either a 1, 2, or 3 month period. Latest new-hires have been getting clt, dfw, ord, phx etc on their first vacancy bid they participate in after DOH. ORD aid only 737 and 787. You should hold it, and be bidding and flying in ORD within 1 year of DOH, likely only 3 to 4 months, totally depends on what senior pilots bid though.
6. I would think in the junior bases like LAX, Lga, and Mia. You might only have 1 to 4 months of reserve. In the more senior bases, if you awarded those early on after DOH, you could have 12 to 18 months on reserve. Current junior line-holder in Chicago is from September 2019.
7. Reserve is awarded in blocks of between 3 and 7 working days, depends on your bid status. 12 or 13 off days per month, 18 working days. Practically No way to trade reserve days. Have to call scheduling the day before only, and they are rarely accommodating. Days off between reserve days, is 1 to any number. Must have 1 block of 4 days off in a row, each month, unless waived by pilot in pbs bidding. Can only be awarded 1 occupancy of a single day off, each month. All bidding is pbs bidding by the way.
8. current upgrade time is 5 years. Unsure of time for upgrades to stay on reserve.
9. medical benefits are worse than most, from personal experience. You can see ALL of this by going to
my.aa.com. Non-employees can view all of our medical plans, coverage, and cost, just go to website and explore for yourself.
10. 1 week of indoc, go home for an unspecified amount of time and return for about 3.5 weeks of aircraft procedures and sim training. Most training done in dfw or clt.
11. Not a great company, they are struggling very much. You can expect that you will almost always be paid less in total compensation(per time worked) than our competitors. Reserve rules are not great, but are better than United reserve rules, in my opinion. If we do see another huge downturn in air travel, if you are at the bottom on the seniority list, you are more likely to be furloughed at aa than other carriers. Other carriers and their unions work harder to keep everyone all on board, but all are still capable of furlough. United and Delta seem to be trying to take back more of their flying to mainline, and we seem to be hard set on keeping our regional flying as big as possible. We are paying our regional pilots as much as 180,000 bucks to just not go to another mainline carrier. They clearly value regional feed above ALL else, which speaks to our managers one-tracked out of focus approach to everything. They only know how to manage cheap short term solutions, never seeing the full picture. Even if the industry is beginning to show how unsustainable the regional feed flying, at this scale is, aa leaders will be the LAST to recognize and act on it. They follow, not lead. United and/or delta will make a decision, then aa will be forced to respond.
I won’t go further, it you can read about our many issues regarding reassignments, NEA, outsourcing etc, all on this forum.
I think that answers most of them.