As someone interested in UAL, below are three straightforward (I hope) questions I’m hoping United pilots wouldn’t mind answering. I have 121 experience at two companies, so I’ve learned a lot about the questions I should ask that could affect QOL, or at least be annoying or pleasant relative to my current company.
I’m hoping these questions also help others looking for targeted, specific info like this.
- Open time process. Can someone give a quick example of a trip becoming, for example, available 5 days from now—does it appear in open time immediately? If so, how does a pilot bid it? Are there certain times of day that those trips are assigned based on seniority, or is it first come first serve?
- Premium pay. Someone on United APC recently commented “the top 10% get all the premium trips.” Can senior pilots just take every premium trip, or is there something like Delta’s premium pay system that will assign a junior person their first premium trip of each month before a senior pilot’s second premium trip?
- Can a new hire bid a captain slot during their first year even if they haven’t finished probation or flown the minimum hours? (I know the new TA makes changes to captain bidding, I’m just asking for the first time a pilot can bid and be awarded a slot).
Thanks in advance!