Originally Posted by NeverTrustAnFO
Hey y’all, starting at the air line here in May and super stoked. Just had a couple of quick questions:
1) Looking to be LAX based. I assume seniority moves quicker on the 737 compared to the Airbus (the French one)?
2) Do both fleets do about the same amount of redeyes or does one fleet do a disproportionate number of them? Is there a particular fleet with better flying/overnights?
3) I assume reserve is much longer on the 7ER? I might commute for the first 6 months or so. I also heard of a lot of redeyes on this fleet. Probably won’t prioritize a bid for this fleet but open to opinions.
Thanks in advance gents!
This is just a snapshot in seniority, but I’m at 95ish% seniority company wide (~1 year at Delta) which would have me at 75/80/95% in the 73/ER/Le Bus in LAX. For reference the 73 has about ~90 FOs, the ER has ~200, and the Le Bus has ~140.
I can’t speak to the trip quality of the 73N or Le Bus, but the ER has a lot of decent deals to be had at all seniority levels (especially while charter flying is still in the 757). I have been able to hold whatever days off I wanted for quite a while as long as I’m willing to switch between line and reserve. You’ll probably be on reserve longer in Le Bus. Decent amount of redeyes on the ER whether it’s Hawaii or transcons, but they are mostly avoidable.
It’s hard to say exactly what’s going to happen over the next few years, but eventually the ER is going to leave LAX and likely be “replaced” by a combination of NEOs/MAX 10s/<767 replacement>.
So long term, the ER has the worst seniority prospects, but also, your seat lock is only 2 years (at worst). Absent some sort of economic catastrophe, I’m going to bet the over on almost any estimate for when the 757s start leaving LAX to the point where the category starts meaningfully shrinking. You’re initially going to be on reserve in any of these categories (especially with the recent PB day drama), probably for most if not all of those 6 commuting months.