Elevation

It depends on who you fly with and the economy that day of the week. People may focus on racial/nationalist reasons to think someone may be unwelcome. There's a legitimate fear that we are heading towards flag-of-convenience issues like we see in merchant shipping. So it's hard to predict who may or may not have hard feelings or why.

Regardless the worst you'd encounter is someone grumbling. Is that any different than any other airline? If you need to feel welcome coming aboard, you are saying jerks can stop you from applying. This provides incentive for people to make things prickly.

Take the job. Fly the plane. Let everything else fade into background noise.

Atlas Shrugged

We have pilots from all over the world here which is one of the interesting things about this job. The many languages spoken can make a difficult trip safer in some parts of the world. It is a blessing, and I welcome it on the flight deck. All of our pilots are US citizens or green card holders. The issue with these new special work visas is that pilots working under them are beholden to the company, not the union... The fear is that the visa could be held over their heads as a weapon against the new pilots...

CRJJ

I think I can offer you some good perspective, as an Atlas pilot and as an immigrant.

I've been in the US for 10 years, became a US citizen 3 years ago and almost 2 years at Atlas. I've never had a problem, other than a few comments here and there, but if you have thick skin (you need to), it's nothing you should worry about. Long days mean long conversations, and some people have strong opinions about certain subjects. Lot of psychology is involved in the cockpit, no matter which airline/country you talking about. So as long as one has good manners and some common sense....it's easy to set the tone right away.

Those "comments" I mentioned above, come from really ignorant people, and you can shut those mouths really quick. But the other 99.9% will only care about you being a good professional, and nice enough to spend a trip with.

Apply and come fly with us, enjoy the good things, and ***** about the bad ones as we all do

flypancho

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum, more used to PPRUNE in the part of the world I fly on, but thinking about applying to Atlas>


- I understand the pay scheme for year 1, but what about the following years? How many credit hours to expect on average on the 74? What is a FO take home +-?
- Is health insurance also provided to dependents / wife, kids? Is it deducted from the salary or company pays it all?
- Do you have any staff travel / ZED for family as well? If so, is it a good list of airlines?
- Could anyone share inbox a typical roster in the 74?

TIA,

flypancho

Lionhaart

Hey FlyPancho,
I'm on the 76 but I'll answer your questions to the best of my ability.

How many credit hours to expect on average on the 74?
I'd say a good 75 hours easy - perhaps a 74 driver could elaborate. You can get it up 80 hours or more on the 74....not to mention the extra pay opportunities.

What is a FO take home +-?
If you're willing to work more (say around 20 days a month) you can make six figures or more on year 1.
Year 2 you can make 10k+ a month easily on the 74. Heck...I've heard of FOs pulling $20k/month or more year 2.

- Is health insurance also provided to dependents / wife, kids? Is it deducted from the salary or company pays it all?
We have a "catastrophic" health insurance plan that is free and covers the wife and kids. It's pretty good...It covers my wife's birthing costs and more, for example. You can get more health insurance and it would be deducted.

- Do you have any staff travel / ZED for family as well? If so, is it a good list of airlines?
You can only list yourself as far as I know. We usually use our miles to purchase flights for family...as you'll be racking up status on the majors like Delta or American.

- Could anyone share inbox a typical roster in the 74?
It varies quite a bit...and a 74 driver can better answer this for sure. I'd say you can end up doing, say, ANC to INC. Then INC to PVG, to TPE, HKG, back to ANC, then CVG, LAX and back to ANC. I'm just making a wild guess but basically you'll fly internationally each time.

dera

All these are tough questions because the answer may change any day now, right now we are making bank (easy 130-150 credit per month without working any extra, the overtime monsters are hitting 200-250) because of our Covid pay, but no-one knows how long this feast will continue. Assume 4 months from DOH before you actually start making that money. If you think COVID is still a thing 4 months from now, you might see it. I'm not making any predictions on that.

So right now, there are year 1 FOs hitting 30k a month with overtime, and there are lines that guarantee 20k at year 1 FO rates. YMMV.

Typical roster? Hope you like ICN.

Nate2046

9 Year 747 Captain here.

1. I’ve NEVER credited 130 hours in a month, even with involuntary extensions.

2. I’ve NEVER made $30k in a month.

3. I NEVER made $20k in a month as an FO.

As always, YMMV, but all prospective newbies should keep in mind that the AIP improvements to the current substandard awarded contract are very much in jeopardy. Management is trying to go back on their previously agreed improvements to 401k match and LTD. If they don’t get right in the next couple of days and reach agreement, the AIP will likely fail and new hire pay will go back to $1600/mo for the first four months.

MoraleSpeed

20 June 74 class.

It took almost a month to get the CJO, much longer than the 7-10 days they said. Might have something to do with the fact that my availability date is end of May and they hadn't built the classes yet.

dera

1. You never credit 130 hours? Read the bid package. Almost every line does that in March in ANC. I credited 135 hours my first month on the line.

I'll just give you an example. First page on the bid package, BLG 164.84 hours. Year 6 FO makes 28k without working any extra, just by line guarantee. Year 12 FO 33k. Add 8-10 days of VX and a year 1 FO will hit 30 with these BLGs.

2. Ok. Well, I think you are doing something wrong. If I was a senior FO, I would've made(with lots of extra days obviously) 40k in a month. There are 747 lines where a year 1 FO makes over 20k just from their BLG. If a year 9 CA picks up one of those lines, their BLG would pay $45k. These numbers obviously pre-tax, take home depends on so many variables.

3. You weren't an FO with current payrates, so your experience isn't relevant to what's going on today.

No comment on the AIP, not worth speculating.

Nate2046

First page of March bid lines for 747 FO shows ~91 hours credit. Highest BLG in that entire bid packet is 114, which is incredible, I had no idea there were lines that credited that high. Still, not close to what you claim of 164 hours..

A first year FO has to credit 170 hours to make $20k in a month. Come on man! That’s BS.

As far as me doing something wrong, $45k in a month = 164 hours pay. Never been close.