Guys a few numbers senior to me were not held at all. In fact, like someone mentioned already, they went to training 1 month before the seat lock was up. Looks like I'm being held for 1.5 months. I've heard others held for 3 months or so. It all depends on the needs of the airline and training department.

Its perfect for the shuttle

Withholding hasn't been as bad latently. If you bid to DCA or CLT they seem to send you pretty quickly to avoid paying for hotels and expenses while still in PHL. If you bid to PHL then they have been withholding for about 2-3 months.

Any word on the actual class breakdown today?

Sure as part of a merger, yes. They however were hired at the same company as west pilots, single operating certicate. Next time try comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Last time I checked it was DOH when getting hired at an airline, as a new hire. Once again, NOT in a merger scenario where one airline has 17 year reserve FOs and the other airline has 17 year senior captains. What happened to that golden standard? Is it that DOH only applies when it gives you a windfall? "Silly eastie, DOH is for newhires."

There is a difference in training freeze(seat lock period-not allowed to bid another equipment on a system bid) and hold for training(when they can fit you in to school). In the '98 contract that training freeze was 12 months as a new hire, 18 months if your bid requires initial training and 24 months if you voluntarily down bid (e.g., you are a 737 F/O and voluntarily bid E190 F/O). Hold for training was increased to as much as 12 months under LOA 93.

All of the above is if I didn't miss any other changes in a LOA or the MOU sections that are effective!

The company can release you from your freeze at their discretion. Always check your bid selections when a bid comes out and don't bid it if you don't want it. There is a rumor out there that we had a 76 F/O screw up and bid E190 F/O. If so, he is stuck for 18 months. I hope it was a rumor or not his ex-wife that did it.

Oh, all of the above is US East contract.

If class just started today, they won't bid for equipment until tomorrow.

I heard this rumor too. Apparently he had a "percentage bid" on the 76. He fell just below his requested percentage, and viola, on to the next bid...190.

I was 11/11/13 class. The first thing we did on day one was bid. We all knew where we were going and what equipment when the sheet got to us. By 8:30am it was finished. We even bid aircraft training start dates. The class before and after me did the same. Not sure but things might have changed since your class. We could have been an anomaly as well.

You have to watch that STAT CODE closely and make sure you aren't bidding E190 F/O instead of capt!

The 75/76 capt went pretty junior(only about 28 years) on the last bid. I bet some guys forgot they had it in there.