DCA Seniority
 

Is DCA considered one of the more senior domiciles? Any WAGs on how long it might take a new guy to hold a line?

Apologies if there is a thread already addressing this question...I struck out in my search.

Thanks!

Might help a little. Doesn’t really answer your line holder question though. Sliceback would know, though.

No, it's not senior. A few months ago guys were getting 737s straight out of indoc. I don't think you wait more than one or two award cycles to get there if you're on the 737.

This is what I’ve been hearing, and seeing as well. All the Pdt guys who wanted DC they got it before ever finishing or starting IOE. Believe the next base bid is August? Also heard RSV is sr so getting a block or line would be quicker than you think. Curious what the March 5th class is gonna be comprised of. Lot of 73 is trend continues.

As of our June vacancy bid, lowest FO’s:

737 Nov 2017 hire
320 May 2017 hire.

I spent a month there. Lineholders are pretty junior.. 85%ish.

The current junior pilot in the DCA (not UDC) base is 3 months LOS. In other words almost no delay after IOE is done.

But none of this is linear. In June the next group of junior pilots will have seven months on property. Will the next group be 3 months, 7 months, or longer? No one knows.

Current list is 14,861.
Junior UDC (320) is 14,478.
Junior DCA is 14,675. 14,781 in June.

Lastest three months junior line holder -

UDC - 14,132, 14,420, 14,094
DCA - 14,652, 14,551, 14,427

Number from the bottom guy in base, latest three months line holder -

UDC - 12, 2, 13
DCA - 8, 12, 16.

700-900 new hires this year. You can try and estimate the time to get to DCA/UDC by figuring out the difference between the current list vs the DCA/UDC seniority numbers. But if there’s no movement in DCA/UDC the estimates will be worthless. If there’s lots of movement the estimates will be too pessimistic.

Hey Slice new hire here. When I look at 3xp I see 14912 as the lowest number. Is there somewhere else to look to see a more accurate number? APA site maybe? Not quibbling just learning.

There are 2 3XP’s. The aapilots one is good for future forecasting. The one on the APA site is much better in general and for an accurate picture of right now (or next month after the 16th). Probably the best tool is the PBS report.

Thank you for the info, I will have to check that out.

The difference in seniority numbers might be the lag time between a new class’s indoc date and when the seniority list gets updated?? IDK.

In the big picture it’s a minor difference.

Hey now; a couple hundred numbers means a difference to some of us;):p

What are most of the 73 dc trips like? Been hearing mixed things. But nothing as tough as lga w am starts and really late pm finishes. Are they SW busy? Was told not much international either. Any truth to that? Yesterday was my last day at previous job. 18 days to try and gather up info or some sort of game plan for yr1. (Which history says the opposite will happen to anyone planning anything in av) plan worst hope best. Isn’t that how it goes?

DCA 737 trips are a mixed bag, all domestic (including Canada and Mexico.) No other international but that will change when they start combining domestic and international later this year, expect to see Caribbean stuff going thru other bases when that happens. Lots of transcons, 1-2 leg days mostly, with the very occasional 3-leg day. We do tons of DCA-LAX, DCA-PHX, BWI-PHX and I think one or two IAD-LAX. The rest of the flying starts with a leg to the other hubs (DFW, ORD, MIA, CLT and the occasional MCO, TPA, etc.) Then you fly thru the whole system from there. Mostly 2 and 3 day trips with a smattering of turns. Lots of early am starts (some even depart at 0530!), but those tend to get back early pm. Quite a few early pm starts also that get back late. There are a few trips that start early and get back late, mostly out of BWI.

DCA has the most flying, closely followed by BWI. IAD is very scarce. I’d say the approximate percentages are 65% DCA, 37% BWI and 3% IAD.

It’s a nice mix of flying, and an awesome small base where everyone pretty much knows each other. Great chief pilot and union reps. You can almost get it as a new hire, as discussed above. CA upgrade, well it took me 18 years to finally hold DCA 737 CA (I’m a Feb 2000 hire) but it’s slowly moving more junior, it went all the way down to a mid-late 2000 hire in the last bid run. It used to be way more senior than that. Currently it is down to 9800 seniority out of around 14500

For awhile two weeks (40 numbers) was a big difference. Difference between mid lack rsv, and great trips, vs junior rsv and lousy trips.

But the guy to ask what the difference one number meant is aa73, he’s the SME. ;-))

Thank you so much for this reply. I’m coming from a very small base at my regional where it really was a family. We all knew each other and all got along very well. I’ve been homed based last 3 years in the TD and have always commuted out of Bwi and see there are always 4 73 RONS. Starting out of Bwi would be epic for me. You have provided so much into for everyone here if we ever fly together and you like to fish I’ll take ya offshore to say thanks!

Why do people seem to rather be based in MIA than DCA? I've met a lot of commuters (mostly CLT) that would rather be on reserve in MIA than hold a line in DCA.

Fixed that for you:D

Btw Excellent question.

Not sure about others but I commuted from DFW to MIA. Much easier than to DCA. A lot of jumpseats. Long call reserve ain't bad. Depends on your seniority a hard line may be good may be bad. Some of this stuff is complicated it really depends on your exact spot on the list and what type of trips you can hold(or willing to do) in a particular base.
Also the train goes to FLL and PBI. Rare to get a non MIA trip on reserve but I did get some. And then there is hangin out at the beach. :)

MICHAEL!

:d

Just a heads up. I have know idea if this will continue but the commutable Bus trips for DCA have really dropped off for April. Fwiw

2 followup questions:
1) how’s the domestic/international combo shaking out?
2) what’s this data look like for the bus?

Thanks!

1) 737 is still only domestic for DCA, no clue if it will ever combine.
2) the Bus (UDC) is all combined.