saab2000

Hey Folks!

I'll be applying shortly. 6500+ hours total. 3000 jet PIC. Taking my F/E written next week. Fingers crossed.

The research I've done shows that there are 4 domiciles currently in the FedEx system - MEM, LAX, ANC and HKG.

How are they assigned? I assume it's like most other carriers and is a seniority system and the junior pilots get the most junior domiciles. How would these four rank in seniority?

What about the airplanes and seniority? What goes most and least senior?

Appreciate any information anyone cares to share on the trips, domiciles, seniority, etc.

Thanks!

2005 Blues

As a new hire plan on being assigned MEM. After that, it's all dependent on your relative seniority, what you want to do and where the company wants to put the bodies. There needs to be a vacancy bid (meaning the company needs bodies to move into new seats. They control when these happen). If you're willing to suck it up in HKG for a few years, you could probably hold that the first vacancy bid that happens. ANC is the most junior widebody base (excluding HKG) with LAX being more senior. MEM has the greatest variety of airplanes, flying, and seniority. Which is why the vast majority of our pilots are based there. MEM widebodies go the most senior for obvious reasons, then the narrowbodies. It seemed like the 757 initially went more senior than the 727, but IMO they're about the same now.

One of the great things about this company is with such a variety in aircraft, schedules, and domiciles there's something for everybody (seniority dependent obviously).

Good luck

Falconjet

saab: here is some old info that was posted over on another site. I have tried to update it some, to make sure it is still relevant. The bottom line is there are many options at FedEx, most of the pilots here are relatively happy to be here, and some hate the type of flying that others love. As others (and I) have posted in the past on this forum and others, even being at the very bottom of the seniority list and sitting on reserve for several years in the back of the 72, they are happy to be here. Yeah it sucks, but it will get better eventually and there aren't many better options out there.

Many have turned down other opportunities to remain at the bottom of that list in order to wait their turn to get into a window seat at FedEx.

I'll focus on the 72 bid pack for now, because I still think that is where most of the new hires will be for at least a couple of years. Much of the info is relevant to the other aircraft in the MEM domicile, at least domestically. I personally can't speak to the international side of the house, having only done a few trips to Mexico and Canada that were really just part of normal domestic type flying (short layover or out and back).

As far as MEM goes, the 72 is the most junior aircraft, but what you find at FedEx is that there are some VERY senior folks in each seat of the 72 that will ride the aircraft all the way to the boneyard. They like the seniority/or the jet, so they aren't leaving. It is not unusual to move backward in the backseat as the old guys continue to migrate over after 65. I think that will moderate some over the next couple of years.

The 75 is next, the top of the list being VERY senior due to the timing of its introduction and the age change. A lot of old guys went for it and there haven't been many opportunities to get on it. The right seat is about the same as the 72 I think in terms of seniority.

In the right seat, the MD tends to be slightly more junior than the Bus. If you bid for a wide body at the earliest opportunity (100%) you WILL be JUNIOR for a long time. That I don't think will change for at least 10 years.

Again, some guys go for the money as fast as they can (wide body) and some decide after a taste of hub turns and night flying that they will wait it out in the junior seat and enjoy a much better schedule and quality of life.

Anyway, here goes: (old info follows)

MEM is the only crew base for the 727. It is also the main base for the other aircraft, the 75, Bus and MD-10/11s. We have small domiciles in ANC and LAX for the MD-11 and HKG for the 'Bus. The great majority of our pilots are based in MEM.

IND, OAK, EWR and AFW are big sort facilities where a lot of planes "hub turn" through, and a lot of aircraft are based there, but no crews. A lot of lines consist of week on week off pairings that originate from Mem with a DH to an outstation like TYS on Mon morning. Then you go to a hotel until about 9pm, when you fly to IND (or EWR or MEM) (1 or 2 legs), sit around or sleep during the sort, and then fly back to TYS, arrive around 7 am and go to the hotel. You sleep, goof around, head back out at 9 pm and do it again for 4 days. Then you get a DH back to MEM.

There are also week long trips that deadhead from MEM to one of the other sort cities (AFW, IND, OAK, EWR) that have either hotel or airport standbys each night/day, and then deadhead back to MEM Fri night or Sat morning. These go very senior.

There are other types of lines, some that are hard to explain but kind of go back and forth between two outstations on different days, I call those misc lines, and they happen to go pretty senior too. Any trip that avoids MEM will tend to go slightly more senior than a line that goes through MEM (other than the deadhead).

If you live somewhere else you can use your DH money (called deviation bank) to buy tickets from where ever you live to the outstation instead of flying from MEM to the outstation. About 70% of our pilots commute this way. These trips are called hub turn trips.

The other types of trips (domestic) are pm and am out and backs, which actually originate out of MEM. Am trips depart between 2 and 4 am, go out 1 or 2 legs, and come pretty much right back, arriving around 6-8 am. PM out and backs (mostly US mail) depart around 2-4 pm, fly 1 or 2 legs, sit for 3-5 hours (sometimes in a hotel) and then reverse course back into MEM around midnight to 1 am. You do these for 3 or 4 days/nights a week, usually 3 out of 4 weeks a month.

Reserve is either A, B or RSV. A is on call from midnight to noon, B is on call from noon to midnight, and RSV is on call all the time but with 24 hour notice. Report time for A and B is 1.5 hours. On RSV you could commute in after getting assigned a trip and that tends to go fairly senior also. Reserve lines are worth 95% of the average line guarantee. We get 19 days on in a 5 week bid month and 15 days on in a 4 week bid month. Each R day is typically worth about 4.5 hours.

Senior commuters tend to bid the week on/week off lines with the DHs at each end. Some of those have long wknd layovers (48-63 hours) which are great if you live in the layover city. Senior MEM folks tend to go for reserve or the out and back type lines, either am or pm depending on their situation.

I don't commute, but about 70% of our pilots do. From what they tell me FedEx is the most commuter friendly airlines out there. You can reserve company jumpseats up to 21 days in advance (first come first served) and if you have a scheduled trip and are commuting in on a company aircraft you are pay/discipline protected if that flight has a divert or mechanical. That doesn't work if you're coming into MEM for reserve, unless you ask for first fly and already have a trip assignment, so some guys do that for their first R day.

Also, if you are flying on the company scheduled DH to your trip and it is diverted or delayed you are similarly protected. If you "deviate" however (fly a different flight to the trip, say from home to TYS instead of MEM to TYS, or even a different MEM to TYS than the company scheduled), you are NOT pay or discipline protected. If you are jumpseating in off line you aren't protected either, so most guys try to use our flights if they can.

end of old info.

Hopefully some of this is useful, I will try to reread and edit as required in case I have goofed up something that is no longer valid.

Good luck.

FJ

saab2000

Wow! Great info! That was very helpful.

Thanks much!

Falconjet

No problem. Reading my post again there are a couple of updates. We obviously have the 777 at MEM also.

Another type of line is day turns, which also go VERY senior. That is typically a week long, deadhead to outstation on Mon, then operate into MEM on Tue morning. Sit for 5 or 6 hours, and then operate back to the outstation and spend the night, back to MEM in the am, and repeat. The last day you fly back to the outstation in afternoon, layover and then deadhead back to MEM. Probably the most senior type trip in the 727 bidpack, again with exceptions.

Some week long pairings are one long trip pairing that pay 28-32 hours, because they transit a hub other than MEM. So you would have one 5-6 day trip worth that amount, which can only be dropped or traded in whole. Trips that transit the MEM hub are broken up into daily trips that pay 6+ hours and can be dropped or traded individually. The lines are built with a week of them back to back, but you can move the pieces around more easily if a better trip pops into open time. The flying is essentially the same, the pairing/s are just built differently.

FJ

JetJocF14

One thing about commuting on our jumpseats. Fedex has its own reservation system. You book your jumpseat either via a phone call, or from a computer at home or wherever. You then show up at that ramp, go through a simple screening and X-ray bags, (no touching of your junk) meet the captain and ride the jet to your destination. No need to get to ramp before anyone else to find the captain. Once you book the J/S its yours. Even an off line J/Seater cannot displace a Fedex pilot unless its an emergency. Commuting is as easy as it comes.

Most if not all newhire will be based out of Memphis. Yes we have all those other bases but the initial goal is to get on the senority list. The rest will unfold.

One last thing about the flying. Most of it is night flying. It's a lot like drinking scotch, in that once you do it a lot you just get used to it. You cannot work all day doing honey do's and then come to work at night and put in a 10 hour day. Some guys bid to fly to there home towns and that works for them. Especially if you have kids. Mine are all grown up. Still enough time to get a few chores done with a combat nap before I go flying.

Finally a quick story. I was once flying as an RFO out of Sydney, Austrailia to our base in Subic Bay. The new co-pilot was a 28 year old furloughed Delta pilot getting his IOE. When the instructor took a break I got into the left seat and started to ask this guy how he liked Fedex. He was not sure he liked this night thing and was to be based in Anchorage. He commuted from Daytona Beach. My first question was why don't you just move to Anchorage and rent. Mommy would never leave the beach since here parents were just 10 minutes away. Clearly we've had other bids since 1995. The next thing we talked about was pay. The minumum pay 2nd year WB FO was over 100K. If your bounching back from a furlough this sure cushions the blow. Finally I asked him what he would be flying if he went back to Delta. Answer right seat 737 on that Flordia shuttle bit. I said we just came out of Sydney after a three day layover and your heading off to Hong Kong. Later on I learned that young man quit Fedex to go back to Delta when they recalled. Don't know if he got furloughed again. Had he stuck with Fedex he would be a under 40 MD-11 captain today. Good luck to all of you, this is a great company to work for, with a great bunch of guys and the flying can be fun. Oh and every girl we meet on layovers are like this and that of Falconjet...............................

Seatownflyer

Damn, I wish. One day maybe...

hyperone

And vice versa. Fedex pilots cannot bump off-line pilots who have a Fedex jumpseat reservation.

Rock177

Hi All,
I posted these questions in another thread but they seem better suited here...

Do I understand correctly that LAX only has an MD10/11 base?

How many CA's and FO's are based there, and how long do you think it would take a lucky new hire to transfer out there?

Finally, would someone be so kind as to give and example of the LAX flying over a bid period?

Thanks, much appreciated!

taco

The most junior fo in LAX is around a 7 yr fo. Dont know about the flying out of the base there. Sorry no more info but it would take new hires quite a while to hold it anyways. You might be able to hold left coast flying on the narrow bodies before you could actually hold the MD there. Of course you would be based in MEM for that to happen but....