They will write a letter but this is a painful process. I sat for 8 hours at the Miami passport agency, it cost $200 ($30 for parking too) AND WHEN I finally got the new book at like 1700, they said "whoops we didn't give you the 52 page book. Sorry"

 

Use G3 Visa & Passport Services.

 

There are some very busy Passport Offices. My mileage through the Chicago Passport Office was surprisingly quick: Appointment 8:45am. Passport ready for pick up after 12:30 pm. Good venues for eating nearby, or museums, shopping, etc.

I have heard the Atlanta Passport office is also quick with the airline letter in hand.

I am not an Atlas Pilot, just an applicant who has bets this thread will top 1000 pages of good info.

 

We added pages at the Miami office and it did take awhile, but we had a day off from training so it wasn't too bad. I put the parking on the company card too.

 

I renewed mine at the MIA passport agency during initial training and got the 52 pager. Overall, it was pretty painless. Call an automated phone menu, set an appointment, and then give appt date to a girl in the training dept office who writes the required letter. My appointment was on a Tuesday and took less than an hour (earlier in day is better) and then I came back to pick up on Thursday after 15:00.

You pay the $110 renewal fee and Atlas picks up the $60 expediting. The agency will split the bill so I was able to write a check for my portion and use the company cc for theirs.

There will be plenty of off days during training to get this done. Parking is expensive, plan on $6 minimum if you manage to get in and out quickly. For the full day it's $30, IIRC.

Edit:
Didn't even think of that. <facepalm>

 

I got a new passport in the MIA office. They gave me the extra pages without me even asking for it....VERY nice!
Thanx for the tip on the adding extra pages in DXB (and someone else said can do it in HKG)!
cliff
GRB

 

Digging through the posts and ran across this... Have an interview on Feb 5th. I could use whatever gouge you have, but can't PM you since I haven't met the magic 10 posts yet...
On a different note, anyone else have a Feb 5th interview?

 

Go a few pages back and you'll see a great synopsis of the interview day posted by KYTBRD...that should get you started.

Good luck...and I'm sure guys are gonna ask...what are your flight times, experience, and airplane types that you have flown.

 

Yes, this is a true statement... Went there w/airline letter with a 10ish am appt, line was not very long and got to an agent within about 30 mins. Would have been out of there probably by 2-2:30pm with passport in hand, except for a nation-wide computer issue that put everything on hold unfortunately.... Fortunately, the renewals were still able to get their passports that day, since the big issue was having your picture in the system already. Soooo, i did have to wait around until about 4:30-5pm, but again, this was due to a computer problem that affected all offices. Also, parking garages in the area are expensive. We parked at one around the corner from the office for the short time it took to get to an agent and give them my app etc... which was probably a little more that an hour and it was $15.... Plenty of meters on the street or if you can have someone drop you off and drive around, etc... a lot cheaper. Anyways, that was my experience.

My 2 cents on the whole "reading the whole thread" deal... I am typically one of those "instant gratification" people when it comes to certain things.... but i tell you what, i read this whole thread way back when i first became interested in Atlas, and i am not at all sorry that i did. I think that you get a real feel for the Atlas guys and exactly what you would be getting into working for them. I think theses guys are great and appreciate all the info that they have posted. And all the "fluff" that is in the thread may be a drag to read, but i think it is just another perfect example of the camaraderie that you get to become a part of with these guys... I am just a lowly RJ guy, but I really hope that I get a chance to become a part of this company and it would be an honor to fly with you guys!! Not just trying to kiss ass either.... I haven't been keeping up with this thread through the holidays and all, but I decided i needed to get caught up again, and went back and read from where i remember leaving off. Again, thanks to all that have been contributing on their interview experience and the Atlas guys that continue to post new info and answer new questions!!

 

adastra, when did you get the call and test?