txpilot86

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

I have my interview next week and was hoping to gain a bit of knowledge about life as a pilot at AA beforehand.

1. How flexible are the schedules?
-How easy is it to pick up trips?
-Can you try and stack your trips to maximize time off in the middle of the month?
-Can you trade trips?
-Can you give away trips?

2. How is it commuting on Reserve?
-How is the utilization on Reserve?
-Can you pick up/trade trips that are during your reserve block so you know you are flying instead of sitting?
-If a commuter on Long Call, is it safe to sit at home and wait to get the call? (I live in the DFW area)

3. How long before one can hold DFW?
-How long to hold a line at DFW?

4. I've heard that a little under 2 years can be awarded Captain... but how awful will that schedule be?
-I know it'd likely be a commute to reserve for a good bit, but how long and how bad?

Thanks in advance for your help.

60av8tor

Not at AA, so can't speak to specifics (you will hear guys speak of unicorn commuting experiences), but I would think long and hard about commuting to reserve - period.

If you have have prior 121 experience you may just not GAF, but commuting can suck and reserve can suck. Combining the two except for very brief stints can really change one's perspective on this job.

JulesWinfield

Flexibility is terrible.
Commuting to reserve entirely depends on your commute and base. I did DFW to NYC and it wasn't bad. I was able to hold long call right away, which helped a lot. Just plan on being gone for your whole stretch and life will be easier.
Usually, you can hold DFW on the first vacancy, but it varies.
Reserve isn't too bad here, so a junior captain schedule might not be bad, depending on the base, of course.

LBFO79

1. How flexible are the schedules? Very little flexibility. Hard to impossible to trade reserve days, and trading trips as a lineholder is much more difficult than it used to be.
-How easy is it to pick up trips? Easy as a lineholder. Harder as a reserve
-Can you try and stack your trips to maximize time off in the middle of the month? Yes, if you are senior enough and it can be legally built with the pbs and 117 constraints.
-Can you trade trips? Yes
-Can you give away trips? Yes, not to another reserve though.

2. How is it commuting on Reserve? 18 days of reserve per month, separate Long call and short call schedules.
-How is the utilization on Reserve? Long call generally flies more than short call. Varies month to month
-Can you pick up/trade trips that are during your reserve block so you know you are flying instead of sitting? No
-If a commuter on Long Call, is it safe to sit at home and wait to get the call? (I live in the DFW area) yes, LC is 12 hours currently . Short call does not have a specific time to report, just promptly available.

3. How long before one can hold DFW? Probably about 10 months minimum from DOH to get based in DFW
-How long to hold a line at DFW?guessing maybe 1.5 years, do t have to look up now.

4. I've heard that a little under 2 years can be awarded Captain... but how awful will that schedule be? You would not be DFW based at a 2 year upgrade. More likely MIA CA at 2 years. Will be on reserve. Seems like 737 is slightly more junior
-I know it'd likely be a commute to reserve for a good bit, but how long and how bad? Commuting at AA is not bad. Great commuter policy. Only need 1 flight (AA or non-AA)

Beech Dude

[QUOTE=txpilot86;3727343]Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

I have my interview next week and was hoping to gain a bit of knowledge about life as a pilot at AA beforehand.

1. How flexible are the schedules?
Flexibility is there. Sometimes easy, sometimes not. Our system, TTS, is still problematic although items from our new contract are coming that are supposed to help it.
-How easy is it to pick up trips?
Easy. If you're a lineholder, have the legal limits and days off, pickup whatever you want.
-Can you try and stack your trips to maximize time off in the middle of the month?
Yes. Everyone works this to what they need. Getting runs of days off between months is a a bit more challenging as a junior lineholder, but if you stay reserve and get senior, it's much more doable.
-Can you trade trips?
Yes. Pilot to Pilot trades or "trade" with TTS. Which is your trip drops into open time and you get a trip you asked for. Much issue here in the flexibility department. Want to trade a 3-day for a 3-day that has more legs but signs in a day later so you can get off a day for your kids appt? Denied. Trips pretty much have to be the same length over the same days, just my experience.
-Can you give away trips?
Yes. You can post your trips to Drop them and another pilot can see your posted trip and take it.

2. How is it commuting on Reserve?
I Don't commute but our reserve rules are the best. Others can chime in on specifics.
-How is the utilization on Reserve?
Seasonal and you can expect to fly. High summer, less fall/winter. LC you will get used with the way our system works, SC obviously not as much. It's base dependent and time of year as stated previously.
-Can you pick up/trade trips that are during your reserve block so you know you are flying instead of sitting?
No. New contract will have new reserve rules, but trip trading isnt going to be a thing IIRC. Trading days off Yes, but not trips. You can see the list of open trips and can proffer (rank your trips top choice to bottom) to get a pick.of what you want. Awarded based on seniority, assigned in reverse seniority. If you want to fly, bid LC.
-If a commuter on Long Call, is it safe to sit at home and wait to get the call? (I live in the DFW area)
Yes. Mostly for your first day on. But if you're commuting to reserve hotel or crash pad will be a must eventually. Being close to the mothership will be great for frequency for you. Again, our commuter rules are the best and you'll probably only be on reserve for 6 months anyway.

3. How long before one can hold DFW?
I'd plan two of our vacancy runs, which is when guys bid for new equipment and bases. They're run quarterly. If you don't get DFW in your drop (alot are probably coming for the next few months, based off our last vacancy #s) you'll be back to DFW in less than a year.
-How long to hold a line at DFW?
​​​​​Junior LH is a Feb 2023 hire.

4. I've heard that a little under 2 years can be awarded Captain... but how awful will that schedule be?
Yes. Junior CA is under 2 years on property.
-I know it'd likely be a commute to reserve for a good bit, but how long and how bad?
Unknown. Too many variables, but I'd plan on being on SC reserve, weekends and holidays for at least the first 5 years. Who knows what the future holds and if you take first available upgrade, you will rise and fall as senior guys bid in and bump you down. But that's small potatoes when you could be looking at 20+ years in the left seat depending on your age.

Good luck.

Sliceback

1. Flexibility improves with improving relative seniority. Guys sometimes commute to a different base, vs flying out of their current drive to work base, for better relative seniority if they live in a senior w/b base and can commute to a more junior n/b base.

Pick up trips? Very easy. Guys routinuely have a 75-85 hr bid award and pick up to the monthly maximum (typically 90 hrs up to "FAR MAX"...with deadheading and soft time you can pick to 100 hrs of hard time and soft time/deadheading trips/etc and generate up to much higher numbers. My PR wa 125 hrs of pay in a 'FAR MAX' month??? So 25 hours of 'soft time' (none pilot in the seat time).

Stacking trips to have time off in the middel of the month? Yes. It gets easier with more relative seniority. It's easier to try and get time off over the 'end of month switchover'. You want a 10 day break? In the middle of the month that's harder to do then trying to get 3-7 days off at the end of one month and 7-3 days off at the beginning of the next month. You can generate 6 mini vactions of 7-20 days off with utilizing 'end of month' and 'beginning of month' bidding for days off. PBS allows you to choose 'maximize time off beginning/end of month'. If you're senior enough you just stack of all you trips outside of the days off you want.

Trade trips? Yes. But it's a far way from being guaranteed. The shorter the trip, in general, the easier it is to trade but it often involves trading to pick up more time. IE dropping a turn to pick up a 2-3 day trip, or a 2 day trip for a 3-4 day trip.

Can you give away trips? Absolutely. You can drop all the way to zero...but a pay check of $0 is tough to live with. But as a junior guy? If the trip is that great someone more senior would have probably already gotten it via PBS. There's a reason junior guys get trips...the more senior guys didn't want them That's why guys stay senior in their bid status - they can hold better trips and it's much easeir to get rid of them. One of the ways to maximize your pay is to be senior and drop the first couple of trips to give yourself room for overtime/premium paid trips. As you pick up premium trips you keep dropping you bid awarded trips to give yourself some days off to allow you to pick up more premium trips. That's how guys are getting 150-200 hrs of pay in a month. You won't be able to do this as a new junior guy. You'll fly with guys 'working the system' and as you get more senior you'll figure out what options you'd like to pursue. That's the hard core 'premium game', there's the 'IMAX game' where you fly a LOT, and utilize trip pickups and drops, to generate lot of pay over 10 months and then have 2 months where you can't fly BUT you get average line pay hours (typically around 75-80??) for those two months BUT you can put in for overtime/premium pay on every single day since you have NO assigned trips. The next 'game' is the 'landings game' where you only fly as FB (relief pilot) on w/b's and lose your landing currency. With careful timing, and bidding, you can get removed from trips when you lose your landing currency. If the simulators are busy you might get a week or two off awaiting a landing currency sim'. This are all AA options. DL and UA's contracts don't allow these options and their pursuit of premium/overtime trips is different.

2. There's 2 systems - SC - short call and LC - long call. SC you'll have to be in base on your reserve days. It sucks for commuting. You'll need a crash pad or hotel. That's why SC reserve goes to the most junior pilots in the bid status. LC? Twelve hour notice. There's a window if guys callc in sick late in the afternoon where, depending upon how many flights your commuting city has, you can't get to your base that evening OR the next morning if it's an early assignment. On w/b's it's not an issue which is why w/b flying is VERY popular with commuters as the overwhelming number of departures are in the afternoon or at least mid-late morning. Early morning w/b departures almost don't exist.

Utilization? Summer is high. Low season varies. It varies from base to base and bid status (base/seat/equipment). In general n/b pilots fly more. Anything from turns to 4-5 day trips. W/b's? They're probably 80-90%(?)3 day trips. Only two days of availiability left as a w/b rsv pilot? You've probably got 2 days that they won't use you. W/b guys in PHL fly very little over the winter on reserve because so much of the flying is seasonal to Europe. Fewer trips in the winter means more and more reserves to fly fewer and fewer trips. Other w/b bases fly less in the off season but not to the extent the PHL w/b pilots do.

Can you pick up trips on reserve? No.

The good news about commuting from DFW is the high number of flights to each crew base. Lots of options. The bad news on reserve is there might be line holder commuters who've reserved the jumpseat before you even got your LC reserve assignment (you're not same day commuting on SC. You'll be sitting in a crash pad hotel).

3. DFW? It's quick right now. Several months? Minus time in indoc, fleet training, IOE, will all reduce the actual length of time you'll be commuting. Guys are getting DFW almost immediatley. *But* that's a snapshot of today. Bid statuses can have periods of more, or less, inflow. Where you would slot in is beyond the ability to make a perfect estimate. If the company decides to add more flying in other bases the base of your choice might have less new opportunities as guys retire. But overall it's fairly quick in today's market that, so far, is anticipated to continue for awhile.

FO lineholder? Looks like 4-6 months?? Second from the bottom 737 FO in DFW has Christmas off. Seems like dozens and dozens of guys senior to him flunked bidding if he got Christmas off. Actually has a full weekend and a couple of other weekend days off. That's a unicorn award as a junior guy.

DFW Captain? Looks like it's about 3000 numbers from the bottom guy. So about 4 years (again a snapshot of today, the future might vary due to staffing changes, DFW getting more, or less, than any additional pilot slots, etc).

Commute to reserve for a quick upgrade? Sitting SC out of base? When you live in DFW? Why???? Hey, it's a free country but be careful what you ask for. Wife of AA pilot, looked like about 4 year seniority, commuter, bid for Captain. Woo hooo, I'm a Captain. Wife, and apparently her husband, complaining about how bad it was commuting to SC reserve. Instead of being away from his family for about 8 nights a month it had jumped to probably at least 15 nights. The guy HAD to know that or he's an idiot. Going from a line holder commuter to SC reserve with young kids. No one forced him to do that. To not understand the choice he was making is no one's fault except for his. Upgrade in base that you drive to? ASAP? Sure. SC doesn't isn't as painfull if you're sitting SC and playing with your young kids in the pool. Sitting SC reserve in a crash pad while you're wife is trying to deal with the kids and you're not there? There's a reason Captain upgrade is going so junior, thousands of FO's more senior are saying "no thanks." Be aware of what you're bidding for, from a lifestyle/family perspective, when you enter an equipment bid (especially upgrades). You advance quicker through the FO seats than you will through the Captain ranks (inmost periods, not true for the guys stuck as FO's during the 'lost decade').

How bad will it be to be a junior CA on SC for a long time? It's cool being Captain...sitting in a crash pad, away from your family or friends, gets old quickly. You'll be able to get hired and look at the days off junior Captains are getting. Getting most weekends off is hard to do even as midpack to junior line holding Captains. Long time saying about bidding for other seats - "you bid it, you own it."

ImSoSuss

[QUOTE=Beech Dude;3728214]Like what specifically? Absolutely zero was done during negotiations to fix TTS. The mindset for this company is that schedule flexibility comes with seniority, and ONLY seniority, and until you have it you don't deserve it. Also it is amazing how many people I fly with who think that trip trading is not needed anymore because that was what switching to PBS was supposed to solve. The point being is that the union has very little interest in fixing this aspect of QOL.

N4865G

[QUOTE=Beech Dude;3728214]Given the latest vacancy numbers is there any way to predict which bases might get offered for the next 2 classes starting up in January?

Scar09

[QUOTE=N4865G;3728579]LGA, PHL, MIA. Maybe a sprinkle of LAX, PHX and CLT, BOS. And by sprinkle I mean like 1 or 2.

ORD and DFW are just tough to see in the indoc drops.

but you can get them within the first vacancy usually. ORD can sometimes take 2.

anything can happen. But if you go with the mindset that you will get PHL, MIA, LGA. You will be pleasantly surprised if they add some of the other bases.

in theory it is possible they could add to the other bases based on that your hired in the first 2 classes of Jan, they are setting up for the summer. You will be done with oe by the summer rush. But again. Just depends on what they are looking at.

the next vacancy run will probably be announced end of Feb beg March for July, Aug, Sep awards.

N4865G

Great news!
Hoping for PHL out of indoc.

Thanks

[QUOTE=Scar09;3728595]