Warning to ‘New Hires’ on here.

First, I’m a K4 guy, but I feel I need to add some common sense here. I had a new hire at our company said he debated between Atlas and K4. Cool, to each their own. But, he was seeking information on Atlas from this forum and was given VERY misleading information. Only a friend on property was able to give him the full truth.

Just a reminder. Recruiters and management is on here posing as pilots. They will do or say what they can, and maybe stretch the truth, just to get the classes filled.

There is nothing wrong in seeking information;
Trust but verify.
The BEST solution is find a friend of a friend who is more than a screen name you can chat with on the phone. This is just logical. It’s in your interest to talk to a real person, on property.
Again, no horse in the race, just trying to help out those new guys starting this career who might not fully understand the distance some will go to fool them.

 

Being straightforward is always appreciated. Same reason I brought up the inaccurate “Home Based” on an official site. K4 has Home Basing, we do not…

*Not necessarily true - But, on the average it’s easier to tell regarding decent size outfits. Multiple domiciles / bases are listed on airline profiles, those with only one (their HQ) maybe two having a couple of fleets is a clue to possible home basing… just my take. But if we ever got home basing it would be worth blowing my theory off the map.

 

While you are aren’t incorrect with that advice. But a lot of guys here have laid out solid information even if some of it is negative or positive light.

At least I feel like folks here do a good job against the kooj types that ran around in the regional forums.

 

It should be easy for anyone to work out what it would be like in their situation.

Old contract - the ANC bid packets have reserve starting at 0100z so today that is 1600local in ANC on your last day off. If the Company requires you to be in base 10 hours prior then that is 0600local. Someone thinking about coming here just go on kayak or google flights and take a look to see how early you would have to leave your local airport to be in ANC by 0600local on your last day off.

Now under the new contract when it is fully implemented ( it will be a few months) Reserve will likely start at 0700z so look to see when you would have to leave to arrive in ANC by noon local on your last day off.

Of course once you have a bit of seniority you can bid lines which start later in the day. So you can work out what the earliest time is you can arrive same day in ANC add 10 hours and that is the time your bidl ine would have to start.

 

For the Atlas gateway travelers out there could somebody please explain the travel benefits thru accruing air miles as you obviously don’t have flight benefits like regional airline pilots get.

What are the best programs out there, credit card like AAdvantage (American Airlines) etc plus hotel points etc so that you have enough thru the year for travel, upgrades, family vacation etc.

Any tips and tricks would be very much appreciated, especially with getting commuting tickets and upgrade to business if doing a commute from Australia and which would be the most advantageous base with regards to this?

I heard JFK because hardly any trips start in base so they would be forced to fly you to the aircraft DH to start a trip, any ideas how to make things like that work?

 

Mileage and hotel rewards work just like you're a normal customer. Without having a seniority number, fleet and base assignment, it's hard to answer what is best for commuting and building status. Also someone asked about whether new-hires get the 767. Yes, you can get the 767 as a new-hire, but JFK is relatively senior. I'm not sure about recruiters posing as pilots, but there was a release that had wildly exaggerated compensation rates. They were based on working overtime, collecting incentive pay, etc. So, as always, read the fine print.

 

ANC is our only base? Last time I checked, you can bit out of ANC after a bit, and this is not an issue any more.

 

I saw it in the company presentation prior to the interview. They used Year 3 FO rates and showed a min, mid and max level of compensation for each fleet. I do remember it saying you could make somewhere around $450k as a 747 FO. In their defense, they were pretty clear at the time that the high end was abnormal but just emphasized it is possible.

 

Any clue for the 76? just curious.

 

I didn't end up writing that one down, but somewhere to the tune of 250-300k for a 3-4 YOS FO sounds right. Again, that is absolute maximum possible income and not what I would realistically expect to make. I'm kinda pulling that figure out of thin air though so I apologize.

They presented the average monthly credit for the 767 as 82.2 hours if that is of any help. I'm sure someone else can chime in to confirm whether or not that is realistic as well.