Originally Posted by
Beehan
I'm in the same boat as OP, currently ULCC but interviewing soon. . I rode a A320 jumpseat and the FO showed me his 85 credit schedule with 4 x 4-day trips and it made me second guess my application. Currently I do 6 x 2-day trips living in base, and it sounds like it'll be a big qol hit for a while.
What's the obstacle for these fleets in ATL--is it a high average line value due to staffing levels? Or are the trips averaging just 5:15 per day? Was that FO's schedule atypical? I'll be grateful for the opportunity but sad if it takes years to get back to a comparable qol. 4 days away currently sounds pretty rough with these kids at home (times 4 every month yikes).
I'm on the 737, so similar trips. 4 day trip, 4 of them in a month is a little atypical, but not that far off. A NB FO generally needs to fly 14 days a month to fill up, and with the majority of trips (73%) being 3-4 days, that's what you're going to fly. You can probably preference the 3 day trips and get them, but you'd end up with 5 of them to fill your month. You could probably do 2 -3 day and 2 4-day trips and fill up.
As you get more senior, you can get more efficient trips, and maybe knock the flying down to 12-13 days, but on the NB that's about the best you'll get - the high efficiency 1 day turn are usually all awarded to people on the first page the bid awards (top 10 people). When I was an FO on the NB, I couldn't hold island turns until I was at 15%, and even then it was only on a weekend day. I would do them on a Saturday because they were so darn efficient.