I was able to bid MIA within a year...I don't know how much earlier I could have bid it because I didn't change my bid to MIA until I was in CVG for a while and was looking for a change.

 

Any idea of how senior PAE or JFK are as bases? What sort of trips do those bases fly? Thanks

 

Bottom F/O's in both bases are just over two years on property. PAE was set up for LCF flying but they get sent all over and other pilots are sent to PAE to fly the LCF. JFK is all over the place to start.

 

JFK or MIA would take about a year to a year and a half depending on exactly where you fell with the 767 seat locks expiring. It's a crap shoot now a days because you may end up on the 767 for 3 years before being able to hold the 747. Then you'd probably be able to hold everything except for PAE and IAH.

I've been here 3.25 years and still can't hold IAH yet. After 3.25 years I'd be in the bottom 20% at MIA and the bottom 33% at JFK. I'm top half in HSV and close to the top 50% in CVG. For the West Coast guys I'd be bottom 20% in LAX, the last guy at PAE, and top 20% in ANC.

 

PAE is what I would call extremely senior along with IAH. PAE flys mostly LCF flights for Boeing.

JFK is somewhere in the middle.

Ranking the bases for FOs it'd look like this in my opinion....

747
1. IAH - LAD and back trips mean you work 4-6 days a month and either work 4 days or get 90 hour pay checks.
2. PAE - No idea why...
3. MIA - Trips often spend many on days in MIA which means you can live in base and spend paid days at home
4. LAX - I'm not a west coast guy so this one puzzles me... Obviously they spend a ton of time in Asia.
5. JFK - Cushy trips that start out of base. There's a ton of ORD-HNL-SYD-PVG-ANC Quantas trips that have long layovers. You rarely actually start at JFK which means you avoid imputed income and get paid for "Day 0" of your trip.
6. CVG - DHL trips that run on schedule. Some trips return to CVG and you get paid days on at home if you live in base. CVG is an underrated base in my opinion.
7. HSV - Africa anyone?... The trips that aren't Africa aren't that bad but you spend all of 16 or 17 days out of the country and trips never return to HSV mid pattern. I live in Jackson, MS and these days I'd rather be the bottom third of ANC than the bottom third of HSV because you will end up in Lagos dodging Boko Haram.
8. ANC - Because you have to Gateway to ANC and the imputed income has actually wiped out first year paychecks before. True story. I've got a buddy from Jackson who's elected to stay in ANC and is in the top half. He tries to bid trips that start out of base in ORD and it works out for him better than being forced to go to Africa.

767 - I'm not a 767 guy but I know what's senior/junior
1. JFK - There's some AMC Pax stuff that's supposedly nice.
2. CVG - Deadhead to NRT then sit reserve at a crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere.

I hope this helps.

 

Solid summary.

JFK - similar to 747 JFK trip and description ^^^^^^^.
CVG - DHL flying and either hub turns on the -200s or DH to NRT/TPE and sit reserver/operate the -300Fs. Trips run on-time typically and have layovers in SYD if things work out. CVG sees some of the AMC flying. It is the normal location for hotel reserve regardless of where you are based.

 

What is AMC flying?

 

AMC is military support. It stands for Air Mobility Command.

 

Air Mobility Command. IE military flights. Some of this is sweet flying.

 

Thanks for the responses ! Cheers