This is critical. Pick the 73 in the base you want from what's available to your class then base exchange into the base you want to settle in and move there as soon as possible. Being junior is worse than flying the 'crappier' airplane.

 

Congratulations and welcome to the team!

 

83% in seat on the DFW 320. I get layer 1 on SC every month including the days off I need and the RAPs I bid. I've flown 8 days this month so far and have an 8 day block of days off at the end of the month. I will accept 6 day work blocks. 12 month rolling average is 85 hours of credit flying 14 days or so.

 

thank you, is it any easier to drop trips once you get them, based on staffing or someone picking them up?

 

Are you talking about dropping trips once you get them while on Reserve? No, that is not a thing. Is it anywhere?

If you are talking about when you get a line it is highly dependent on bid status and seniority. i.e., you're going to have crappy low time trips over the weekends and coverage days that you will either be unable to drop/trade or nobody will want them. AA is probably the most "you only get QOL through Seniority" airlines out there. Be prepared for that.

 

The bottom trips are the trips that no one wanted in the bidding process. Things can change, guys need different days off after the month starts, but few go looking for the trips that everyone avoided in the first pass (monthly PBS bidding). The 4 day trip over the July 4th weekend, that lands and departs from 2 different airports, has a deadhead, a 4.5 hr sit, and an all-nighter? Yeah, it went to the junior guys for a reason.

Senior in bid status? Holding trips that almost everyone wants? They'll go like hot cakes. Why? Because they're the great mid week trips. Like the 7-8 hr turn to the islands, or the 2 day trip that leaves at 9 PM, lands at before 11 PM, and is a deadhead home? Or the two day transcon that leaves at 4 PM and lands at 5 PM the next day? Those go in a heartbeat. Neighbor was top 5% in his bid status - "I didn't fly one of my trips that I was awarded for Dec or Jan." He'd get premium and then get rid of his great trip playing the game to get more premium...pick up another premium trip and drop the next great trip. By the end of the month the piggy bank is full of premium and he didn't fly one awarded trip.

So the quality of the trip, hours, and the days that it's on, matter. Junior trips suck for both quality and the days, or hours, it works. Some luck trading with open time to improve the trip quality. Reserve gets a wider distribution of trip quality but the best trips are grabbed if they're not a last minute drop to open time/reserve.

 

No, i understand that when you get assigned a trip on reserve it’s yours. I ment more with just being able to straight drop a trip into open time if staffing is good. at PSA you couldn’t just straight drop you could only trade. At the place I am now we have an open time system where you can straight drop/ pickup or trade, and a proffer system where a trip can be available for pickup if another pilot wants it.

 

We have all of that here, although your ability to straight drop will be heavily dependent on your base, the trip, time of year, and so on. Some bases and seats are a lot more flexible than others.

 

We have the ability to do all that at AA.

The real bonus is not having to log into the 1980s VIPS system, waiting hours for CS to manually process your request, or hoping you have enough time in your stupid makeup bank to pick up a trip from OT.

I’d like to see some changes in how TTS operates but overall I find it to be a user-friendly and effective product.

 

TTS is a good product, people who complain generally don't know how to use it properly. I would like to see more transparency about expected reserve availability - sometimes the ability to drop / trade with open time seems arbitrary.

Besides that, complainers will complain.