Originally Posted by
airplanes
How is the 717 out of ATL? Is the QOL any better than other NB? On WS the seniority doesn’t seem all that much better than the 320/737 but then again I’m bad at interpreting that website.
Pros:
Relatively quick advancement off the bottom
Bid package is pretty static. They eliminated 5 leg days which is nice. Lots of 3-4-3 leg 3 days and 3-4-2-3 leg 4 days. Some 1-and done on the last day. It's regional, short-hop flying. If you like lots of landings and the quick turns then come join the fun.
Trips probably 80% commutable on both ends. A handful start around 6-7 AM and a few end close to 11 PM, but with any amount of seniority those can be avoided.
No redeyes, although during NCAA basketball season we do some charters with very odd late night hours.
The longest leg we do is YUL-ATL at ~ 3 hours block, which means we have a lot of trips that have soft credit (meaning you fly 10 hours and get paid for 15:45 on a 3 day, for example). On the 737/320 is it not uncommon to be blocking at or just over the 15:45/21:00 pay for a 3/4 day trip.
Quite a few of the layovers are very nice. Lot's of burgs and ville downtowns with a less busy vibe but still with lots of good places to eat.
The bad reroutes (into your day off, or getting back waaay later on your last day) are much rarer than on other fleets.
Cons:
No growth via new aircraft, so once you bounce up off the bottom you're limited to waiting for people ahead of you to move out.
Lowest paying fleet
Bid package is pretty static. If you want Caribbean layovers, west cost stuff, etc, this is not the fleet for you.
We only operate flights out of ATL, DTW, and MSP, so you'll become very acquainted with the C concourse in ATL and odd numbered gates A19-31 in DTW.
Pro/con: We are not staffed great, but still way better than the 737/320. For the time being you can make a killing on those fleets if you want to work your butt off. On the 717 pretty much everyone in ATL who wants to can get GS #1, and quite a few get #2, but almost no one gets to 3 in a month. Many people are rolling thunder on the other fleets getting 7-8 GS's, although that will end at some point (who knows when that will be though). Still it is hard to move reserve days or swap trips to different days due to coverage, but that is still true on all the other fleets too (except the 220).