Getting back to LAS is hard to say. It can take anywhere from a month to a few years. If they are going to really be hiring in the numbers they say, it shouldn't take very long at all.

Right now, all the trips are scheduled as day trips. Due to the brilliance of our operation, some of the four leg days are turning in to three leg days with an overnight. There may or may not be multi-day trips in the future. The company doesn't share their plans with us very far in advance.

There is no "normal" reserve or line holding right now. Under PBS, at least in my base, almost every line is mixed reserve and flying.

It's possible to get several days off in a row. However, it's up to the company right now with how they manipulate the schedules during the bidding process. It seems the junior people get everything they want, and the senior people get nothing they want. The court order should be changing the whole process soon, I hope.

Weekends off are possible, but it depends on the time of year. Some months are really, really busy, and some months are not. We are going back to no fly Tuesdays and Saturdays, so you would probably get those days off.

The company came up with this brilliant idea of a TDY base. The junior person that bid captain for that "base" was hired in December, 2013, and has been on line about a month or maybe two. If you don't mind being the companies slave and having no life, the upgrade can be short. If you want to be in a regular base, the upgrade is running 3-4 years. I'd love to explain the TDY base idea to you, but the company has no idea how they are going to handle it.

The last I knew, there was no hotel provided during training, unless they send you somewhere outside of Vegas. Rumor has it they may start putting you up in Vegas also, but I don't know if that's true.

 

What are the numbers that they say they are planning on hiring right now? Also, are the locals usually starting early and ending late with a sit in the middle or start early end early/start late end late?

 

Please read back through the last few months' posts on G4.

There is no normal. They can have the trips be anything they want, and when you get used to that, they can and will change it. The top guys in base are sitting reserve because the company wanted to do that, even though that's not what seniority would dictate. There is a war on the pilots.

No one can tell you when you are going to get to a certain base, hold a line, if they are going to do away with bases and make everything virtual, when you will upgrade, which equipment you will go to, if they will recognize your seniority or not on any given day, or if the operation will even be going next month.

If you are determined to go to G4, just be sure you have your strike fund ready. If you have any other options, I would seriously consider those.

 

Thunder,
Morale in the air force varies mildly compared to what morale will swing on the line at an airline.
When things are growing/advancing everyone is happy. When stagnation/cuts take place almost no one is happy.
The military at least has a process that they follow and although the numbers may change there is advancement boards and a process that must be followed.
Corporate airlines have no such thing. You are a part number in the production line and when they cut production, everyone feels the pain especially the junior part numbers.
With all due respect, as a military retiree you really should be looking at some airlines that have a more established track record with management because all signs at Allegiant right now point to a long contested war between employees and mgmt. They are still in the mode that the more you can take from the employees the more you can make and aren't there to produce a long term quality product.
Godspeed. LUV

 

Really...the military has a process it follows? Have you talked to any of the guys who wanted to separate but couldn't be let go or the ones who had just shown up in theater, been there a for a month and then are told that they are out of the service in two months, thereby taking someone away who was already there and now displacing another person who might not have been eligible for deployment for a year or so in the future? I have, sounds an awful lot like furloughs and TDY displacements...and the idea that AF managers are somehow smarter or better than the managers that G4 has is laughable. People are people and when you hire managers rather than leaders, that is what you get. Managers don't have a clue about making the mission happen by listening to their people and establishing a proper give and take. Managers dictate...and that is what the AF has become, slowly and inexorably, yet another Peter Principle operation in action. As to looking to greener pastures...that stuff tends to be pretty arbitrary, you see people *****ing and moaning at SWA/DAL/AA/UAL...dictating what others' motivations and ambitions are doesn't really work too well.

 

I hear your argument and understand your frustration. However, I challenge you to report back to this thread in one year and post again.

 

Thunder, did you encounter a leadership who’s sole purpose in life was to take everything away from you. Your pay, your quality of life, your retirement? When the subject of our **** 401k came up, one of our pilots asked, “well what about our retirements?” The response was: “I suggest getting into real-estate.”

 

Is there any other airline management that treats their people a whole lot better than this? SWA? Alaska? Delta is right now treating people well. I know for a fact United management is treating their people poorly. FedEx isn't going swimingly.

I just think there is more "bads" than "goods"

 

Sometimes with even the ones that look good there is a dark underside.

 

This statement is very telling. It doesn't seem like you did your homework before coming here. Hopefully I'm reading into this wrong... Like some of the others have mentioned, I think in a year (if not sooner), the honeymoon phase will be over.