Originally Posted by
chrisd2238
Thinking about coming over, as I’m single and the wide body lifestyle interests me. I spend most of my days off at my regional traveling to Europe anyway. Just curious about soft time; what people are actually making with pick ups and such, or if it’s hard to get above guarantee. Apologies if it’s been discussed elsewhere, couldn’t find it but would be happy to be pointed to the thread!
The honest answer is probably that it varies widely between fleets, seasons, and staffing levels. Need to be able to make the bills work on min guarantee, but I hear there's been robust opportunities to pick up time and/or make soft pay on the 777 and 747. It does seem like a lot of that was "Covid Premium" - often referred to as "Article 33 flying" for the section of our CBA that covers it. My understanding is that's still going on in China, but that's about it - as opposed to a couple years ago when basically everywhere international paid it. It seems roughly related to whether or not you're locked in your hotel room. The 737, for instance, never had any article 33 flying that I'm aware of.
I wouldn't count on more than 68-75/hrs a month on the 737 or 767, though, and you'll have some 64 hr months. There's a fair amount of opportunity for open time on the 767 (currently) if you live in CVG or ONT. Maybe you can make that work being single. Can't speak to open time on the other fleets as I don't get the notifications.