Kali

Hello, student pilot/aspiring airline pilot here. I have a question regarding aircraft bidding. Say you are hired into DAL flying an A319 and you decide to fly that aircraft for 30 whole years. After 30 years, you bid to fly a B767. Obviously, you’d have enough seniority after 30 years to fly this aircraft. My question is, can you automatically become captain and get the routes/base you want, or do you have to start as first officer with minimum seniority for that aircraft type and work your way up?

JohnBurke

Seniority is the hierarchy determines who gets a given assignment, be it a schedule or an aircraft type, or a position captain/first officer, etc. If two pilots bid for a given schedule, the senior one gets it. If two pilots bid for a vacancy in an aircraft at a particular location, the senior one gets it. If two pilots bid for captain in a particular aircraft at a particular location, the senior one gets it.

A pilot who remains in an airbus for thirty years won't get a 767 at the end of those thirty years, because there won't be any left, but unless a pilot is "seat-locked," he can bid and get anything that his seniority will "hold." Seat-locks apply to pilots who bid a particular position, such as a captain position in a 737. The pilot may be seat locked, meaning he can't leave that position, for a given period of time. A year, for example. After that year, he can bid another aircraft if s/he chooses.

A company may have a minimum experience level, experience in a particular type aircraft, etc, before they will allow a pilot to upgrade, or move to a captain position, in that aircraft, or they may set a minimum time with the company. Barring those restrictions, a pilot may put in his captain bid on the first day of class when he's first hired, and after that it's a matter of time until his seniority will allow him to get that job. If the most recent upgrade in that aircraft type at that location (Atlanta, 737, for example) is 200 pilots above him, then he's going to have to wait until each of those 200 pilots who wishes to upgrade, has had his or her opportunity...but also takes into account that any other pilot in the company who has the seniority to bid an upgrade in that airplane at that location, has had their turn in order of seniority.

Upgrades are not guaranteed; opportunities to upgrade are granted in order of request, starting with the most senior and working down. It's up to each person awarded an upgrade, to pass the training and checkrides necessary to hold that position.

Bids for aircraft and position are placed for a number of reasons, from pay to location; one may seek a given position because it's closer to home and means less commuting. Some positions go to very senior applicants, while others go quite junior.

Brickfire

Think of it this way. When a new aircraft type is introduced, there are captain who have never been first officers. No reason you can’t move to a new-to-you airplane as captain.

rickair7777

There are two types of seniority:

Global Seniority: This is by your date of hire at the company, and almost never changes for most of us. The person ahead of you and the person behind you on the list on day one will still be there until one of you resigns or retires. This seniority is used to determine who gets what domicile/base, what airplane, and what seat (CA or FO).

Relative Seniority: Once assigned to a specific base, equipment, and seat you have relative seniority within that group. This is used for bidding trips, days off, and vacation. Necessary because you can't have ALL of the CA's on a senior plane (ie widebody) all taking Christmas off just because they all have high global seniority.

So you can be very senior globally but if you're a CA on desirable airplane at a desirable base you could be working all the weekends and holidays if the other CA's are more senior.

Example: A narrowbody FO with 3 years at the company might have a great schedule and his pick of vacation, while a 30-year widebody CA might have garbage schedules and vacation. But he gets paid three times more, and might be based in a nice town of his choosing. Larger airplanes pay more, and CA's make at least 50% more than FO's.

The nice thing about this system is you can always trade your global seniority to strike YOUR desired balance between location, money, and schedule. Especially at large airlines with numerous fleet types. And you can do this at almost any time, and can mostly go back and forth as desired.

Caveat: This is for US/Canadian airlines only, foriegn airlines don't always do it this way.

Johnathoncarter

I can't quiet make threads yet (first post) but I too have a seniority question.
Does having much more than 1500TT such as 2500TT (just in GA (C172/PA28) decrease the time from first officer to captain at regionals or does it have no affect?

tnkrdrvr

Read the post right above yours

Ravenwing

The key requirement for upgrading to captain at a Part 121 carrier, other than seniority, is that you need 1000 hours of Part 121 time or Part 121 qualifying time; I believe you can count 500 hours of multi pilot military time or 1,000 hours of Part 135 PIC time flown at a passenger carrying Part 135 operator. If you have only GA experience, you would upgrade once you accumulated 1,000 hours SIC time at your new airline just like everyone with a wet ATP.