Originally Posted by
stillageek
Falling in love with an airplane is bad I agree, but base? Hello I don't want to commute to ORD or EWR if I can avoid it. Starting out times and adjustments are rough enough without worrying about commuting across the country. I live in the DFW area, I hope to go to AE and hope again for DFW as a base. If I get ORD that won't be horrible as there are a bunch of flights between the two and it's a short flight. Newark would be a killer. I spoke with an AE FO last week while waiting for a flight at DFW. He said he was happy overall, however he had been laid off by AE a few years ago. When I asked if he could do it all over again would he have gone to AE he said no.....upgrade time is too long. The QOL he said is great though. HE is a ERJ FO BTW.
Uhhhhh....that was my point... I think if people like you who live at a base and want to stay there could know they would get that base, more folks like you would be inclined to go to Eagle. As it is, if you got hired, you may end up flying out of SJU with a two leg commute. The problem I see is this: if they know what bases they are hiring into and they tell guys what they are getting at the interview/time of offer...how do you decide the order guys get to chose? Do you stick all the successful applicants in a room after the interview and do the bid based on age or SSN or whatever then? Isn't Eagle's offer conditional on you passing the captains board? If so, how would they divy up bases then? Get you guys all together on a conference call after the captain's board? Or should you put your base preference on your application and they will only call you for an interview when they are hiring for that base? There are any number of ways of doing, each having its own set of complications and uncertainties.
In my opinion, if you apply to an airline you should know their bases and be willing to accept any of them, at least initially. If where they are based is important to you and you don't like their bases, DON'T APPLY!!! The way things move around and change at most companies, you could be at the base of your choice within a year anyway.