Originally Posted by
reservelyfe
Haven't started yet, but I'm able to see the bid awards. A big hangup for me coming to Delta is that I'm involved in something that's important to me, that often requires some weekend availability. My experience at my current airline is that I was able to get weekends pretty quickly on reserve. It looks like NYC220B might offer the quickest seniority, so that's what I hope to bid.
In looking at the NYC220B bid awards and doing a widgetseniority calculation, it looks like it'll take a couple years to get weekends on reserve, and maybe four years with a line. Once the awards come out, is coverage ever good enough to PD a weekend or swap days around to open up a weekend on reserve? The money is less important, so I'd probably be using every tool available to clear up those weekends.
It'll take about nine years to make up my income at current pay rates (not interested in WB because of sleep issues). That plus the loss of weekends is making me wonder if this is the right choice.
Bottom line, it's all a crapshoot. Everyone told me I'd be much better off on the 73N/320 over the 7ER, fast forward a bit, I'd have have better seniority and a better schedule had I gone to the 7ER. The 220 may not necessarily be shoe-in because it's likely a constant revolving door...mean coverage may not always be great. But as was said above, Dec is a different animal and it's hard to get an accurate picture on 1 or 2 months. If we're really going to be hiring as much as we say, it won't take long to get weekends off, but you also have to be prepared for working them. Either way, it varies month-to-month and seat-to-seat.
Yes if there is coverage you can move days (within constraints) as well. For the most part, if you can move them, you can also drop them. Also, depending on the time of year and category, you may get weekends off quicker with a line than reserve.
Best of luck with the decision.