Originally Posted by
KnownTraveler
If you're a new hire, but an old guy (48) how do you navigate the initial bid?
My case:
48 years old (17 years left)
Live close to MCO (will always commute from there)
8xxx series SSN - so I think that helps bidding initially
Goal: Maximize income over 17 years, while minimizing commutes (1-2 trips per month [even if they're longer] is better than 3-4 trips per month).
I hear 73, 7ER, 765 are now doable bids as a new hire. I have no idea what life is actually like on any of those.
ATL seems like the obvious choice commuting from MCO. But is it?
I have a dream: Be gone 10-12 days per month - make captain pay within 5-6 years. Don't care about weekends, red-eyes, etc. (no kids at home). Biggest thing is fewer trips. Length of trips, not an issue. I'd rather do 12 days on, 20 off. Instead of 3 on, 5 off. Don't know if that's even a thing at DAL.
Am I dreaming too big? What bids make the most sense for that? Reminder: only 17 years before I'm out.
Any thoughts would help - even if you just want to make fun of me - witty jokes welcome.
Thanks.
You won’t have a ton of control as a new hire. I’d imagine ATL would be the best commute from MCO, but there’s a lot of competition. Maybe a MCO-ATL commuter could chime in. A lot will depend on if we keep positive space commuting or not (set to expire in NOV).
Ive always commuted and prioritized fewer commutes also. I’ve commuted to ATL, CVG, DTW, and MSP some bases multiple different times. I’ve been on a variety of aircraft. My take home message would be that it will be easier to do what you are looking to do in a large category (pilots per seat in a specific base). The more trips in the “pool” available, the more combinations you can make to do a 3&3 or 4&3 day back to back. You have to consider PWA and FAR rest rules, so most likely you’ll be changing your schedule after the initial bid to try and back trips up and minimize your commutes. It’d be very hard to bid them on PBS as a junior pilot. 10-12 days is on the light side. Unless you happen to be in a category that is “fat” pilots, it’s hard to drop down that low as a new guy. I’d plan 12-14 days to be more realistic with the knowledge that some months it’ll be 15-16.
International fleets traditionally do longer trips (7+ days), but the last two years have been so jacked up it’s hard to know what will be a new normal going forward. In any case, that would take much more seniority. With regards to 5-6 year captain pay, who knows. We just had a bid that essentially placed new hires in the left seat. The QOL for that pilot isn’t going to correlate to what you’re describing you want to do though. We’ve hired a lot of pilots in the last 8 years, so movement could slow considerably when those pilots finally decide to move upward. Even though we had a bid where we had 3 month captains, less than two years ago we had a bid where the junior captain systemwide was 12+ years on property. Just an illustration to prove how volatile the airlines are.
Good luck.