Jun 13.........

 

Right now Airbus LGA holds a line in about 4 months. Though it is new equipment, I am sure the number will go up over time.

 

It took 12 mos to hold a secondary block in PHL on the airbus.

 

I heard reserves were flying a decent amount on the A320 in CLT, any truth to that? Anyone have an idea how long it's taken guys to hold a line out of CLT?

 

All of my short call CLT A320 friends have beards

 

I flew 55 hours in May as a Short Call. That was more than I expected, however I did sit at least 6 or 7 RSV days at home without getting called, so it wasn't too bad. I was on the 0700 RAP, which obviously got more flying than the guys sitting 1900 and 2100 RAPs. From the looks of it, the Long Call guys were flying about 20-50 hours as well.

 

This post is a bit outdated...anyone have any new thoughts? Of the usual drops (PHL AB,190 and DCA AB) which would provide the best commuteability/QOL

 

Obviously it seems the 190 would be best for quick QOL improvement...anyone have timelines on what it takes to hold long call or a line on it?

 

What are the reserve call out times?

 

The timeline kind of ebbs and flows somewhat. It's affected by the training pipeline in other equipment - guys that are bidding off after a year are being held for training for a few months, and that slows the progression for the new guys. Then a big part of the backlog is cleared, and people move up a huge amount.

But as a data point, I'm in the home stretch of my first year, and I spent two months on short call and another four months on long call before getting a secondary block. I got a primary a month after that. So six months of reserve total. Other guys in my class only spent four months on reserve - I got a little unlucky with the cutoff for two months.

One other thing to think about if you go the 190 route - remember that your hire month might not fall on a bid month the following year, so you might not be able to bid off at exactly 12 months. Therefore your Airbus classmates are getting Group 2 pay right away while you're still stuck on Group 1 until another bid comes out. It should only be a month or two, or maybe not at all if the timing is right, but it's something I didn't consider when I bid the 190.