RedBeardedPilot

Gotcha, and yeah that's what I've been hearing for the most part especially being reserve/junior. Which is fine enough for me, I'm a few hours away or a real quick flight to MSP. Crash pad will have to do for now until holding a line with multi day trips. I agree commuting from the coasts or not having the driving option, shouldn't look to come here right now unless planning to move to base.

Question about the uniforms. Who's the supplier and is there any uniform allotment for new hires at all? Wondering if I should drop my current allotment on a couple fresh shirts at least

Pull and Rotate

M&H is the uniform supplier. You have to pay for uniforms so it would be best to use any residual allotment from your current employer to stock up. If you have a black blazer the gals at M&H will put gray stripes on for you pretty cheap if you need to change stripes. Save a few $$ on a blazer that way if yours is in good shape. Pants at M&H are pretty poor in my opinion. You will get a free tie, epaulets for your shirt and leather jacket if you have one. Also a Velcro wing patch for your leather jacket if you have one.

RedBeardedPilot

Ok thanks. I do have my black Blazer still but I'll swap out the stripes. Any chance you guys can wear sweaters? I've used just the sweater during the winter the past 3 years in MSP and never got the leather jacket and don't really want to pay several hundred for a jacket I don't like lol.

I do hate m&h anything. I've always just gotten my stuff from acutabove just because it fits better.

Pull and Rotate

Yes, sweaters are an approved winter uniform item.

mrgoodguy

Hi, folks,

I am looking for junior people at Sun Country to give me some advice.
I am very senior FO at a regional right now, and looking at Sun Country as career progression.
I am LNK-ORD commuter right now, and get average 17 days off per month with commutable trips. I need a showtime at 8:30am at the earliest (noon-1pm preferred) and trips that end by 7:30pm the latest to catch my flight home.

I got scared by talking to some people that say that Sun Country is just like Allegiant and you basically need to live on base to have any time at home at all. Is this true?

Some more questions:
- What percentage of trips is commutable as described earlier?
(back-end, front-end, both ends?)
- Is there paid hotel during training, and if not, how do other people handle this?
- How flexible is scheduling about personal drop of trips / reserve days?
- What percentage of commuters are at the company right now?

Given the commute above, how many days off at home should I expect?
- After 3 months?
- After 6 months?
- Year? 2 years?

Basically, I need to know if, after a year, I can have at least 14 days off at home, and make
around 50-60 hours per months pay with personal drops.

Thanks for all the advice.

Demoman

Don't get lazy and read the entire thread , you'll get answers to all of the questions you just asked .
SCA is NOT a commuter friendly airline , there are only a hand full of commuters and they are senior pilots , SCA does not put you up in a hotel during training , you either buy yourself a hotel room at an average of 60-80 dollars per night ( or north of that ) or you rent a crash-pad , SCA does not fly you to the interview either .
With the schedule you have at your present job you got to be insane to come here if you are looking for QOL .

mrgoodguy

But wouldn't that be true no matter where you go?
Especially if many if not all junior bases for other airlines are in NY which is totally uncomputable?
I know it's going to be bad in the beginning,
but I am looking out to 1+ year timeframe.
Basically, I want to move on out of the regionals,
and the choice right now is Sun Country or a 2-leg commute somewhere to the east coast.

Pull and Rotate

As a junior lineholder you will get around 14-15 days off. We have line bidding so you get stuck with a mix of multi-day trips and turns. Plan to commute a day before or after depending on when your show/release time is. I have a 3+ hour drive to MSP and find myself driving down the night before a trip or driving home in the wee hours of the morning quite often. Usually not on both ends. I am fortunate to have family that lives in MSP so I don't have to do the hotel/crashpad thing. We have a ridiculously archaic way of dealing with trip trades/drops/pickups/advertising. It does seem like a lot of advertised turns do get picked up by locals looking to make some extra money so you may be able to gain some extra time off if money isn't an object.

There's more pure multi-day lines for June with the HNL and DFW flying starting up. My hope is there will be more multi-day lines as we start service to new markets.

If you can get through the suck that is reserve then I think your goal of getting 14 days at home isn't completely unrealistic after being here for a year.
YMMV

mrgoodguy

Sounds good. Maybe it's time to make some friends with spare rooms in MSP then
Thank you

moflyer

You could get a job at Southwest, and get based in DEN within a few months. You could also make the hour drive to Omaha and commute to almost anywhere.