freezingflyboy

They used to years ago but I'm not sure if they still do with all the changes to our pass travel on CAL. Might be something to ask about when you get there since I'm sure the situation is changing frequently.

As far as training advice, there are probably 2 things you can do that will make your life tons easier:

1) Know the flows and profiles COLD. Knowing what to do and when to do it is half the battle. You'll figure out the why as you go through training.

2) Find another guy or small group of like-minded guys/gals that you can study with and bounce questions off of and cut loose with when time permits. What I mean is you don't want to study with the dumb guy/party animal who expects you to carry them and you don't want to get stuck with the super intense, hard core, nitpicky guy who tends to overwhelm themselves (unless that's your style?).

I'm not sure if they still do this or not but when I went through, near the end of indoc (week 1) they walked everyone over to the "stopover store" in the airport to shop for binders, flightkits, luggage and anything else someone new to the airline world might need. Good chance to see what's out there. You can try finding cheaper binders at office supply stores but 6 ring jepp-style binders are tough to find. Chartcases are sold at office stores as "catalog cases" but I've found they are less durable than ones designed for the rigors of airline life. Ask questions of guys who have been around a while about what works, what's nice but not necessary and what's just junk.

And forget the tie. No one expects you to wear it and it doesn't prove anything to anyone. Your performance on the tests and in the sim/ftd and your attendance in class are all that are evaluated. To the best of my knowledge there is no box on the training forms for "Did applicant wear a tie?".

Oh, and definitely say "woot" every chance you get. :P