da42pilot

Don’t confuse fleet size with productivity. You’ll fly a lot at either one, but for example, Envoy is much bigger than either of those airlines and their pilots have been sitting around on reserve a lot.

You’ll really fly a lot at either place. That’s an easy tie between the two, other than maybe you’ll get a line a little quicker at commutair.

This is speculative, but also consider the rumor of a merger between those two airlines. What would you get if you joined C5 that you would not get through XJT? A much bigger bonus and perhaps less time sitting reserve. At XJT, you’ll get awesome training that’s practically personalized given our small class sizes and per my understanding, a much better contract.

Besides that, look at your commute. Does going to either one avoid commuting? If yes, in my opinion, there’s your answer. Commuting isn’t the devil but it definately makes life harder. It makes it harder to fly more too!

Second, commuter policy. XJT has written rules that are pretty much industry standard but I also know enforcement is pretty lax. They get commuting is hard and A ton of people have been displaced, especially out of Atlanta and Dallas. Scheduling works with you here.

I can’t speak for C5, maybe they have commuter hotels? That would be really nice.

Flyhayes

We get four commuter rooms per month.

jacburn

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The commuter policy is the same at each airline.

C5 was the leader for commuter rooms. We get 4 a month.

How many does xjt give each month?

watch

XJT doesn’t offer this benefit.

Great point for commuters, I’ll be living in domicile (EWR) so not a factor.

C5’s ready airport reserve is a pretty big negative for me- and I head reserve time is going up beyond 2 months now. Is that still true?

Living in NYC, a two hour reserve call out window at XJT seems attractive.

njd1

Reserve is up at C5 in EWR, which is not surprising given the winter flying schedule. I'm sure things will improve as we move into summer schedules in a few months, which is what matters for someone scheduling a class date now.

Supposedly you can negotiate with scheduling (or indicate your preference) to do short call if you live in base, but it is true that the vast majority of reserve is airport reserve. If coming here, assume that you will be doing airport reserve and then you won't be surprised when that's what you get.

FWIW, airport reserve is an 8 hour shift. So, theoretically, if you aren't used you go home after 8 hours...which in this business is actually a pretty short day. Short call, on the other hand, is 14 hours.

Keep in mind that unlike many other carriers at the moment, C5 actually uses its reserves, so the chance that you'll just drive to the airport and sit the full 8 hours is pretty remote. That may change in the future as the ranks swell but from what we have been told United wants us at 60 airframes, and the only reason we haven't acquired them as fast as some would like is staffing. Once we get a sufficient number of pilots aboard, the airframes will be acquired and demand will increase.

DirkDiggler

A little summary of XJTs reserve rules:

Long call reserve - 12 hour call out. 10% of reserve lines must be long call.
Short call reserve - 2 hour call out. Bid line by availability start time. Currently lines with 3am,8am,12pm start times.

Airport standby - 4 hours pay 4 hours duty. Can be assigned to long call or short call. Cannot be assigned 2 consecutive days in a row, and more than 6 times in a bid month. Flight must be scheduled to depart in the standby window. If you get 6am-10am, flight scheduled for 1001am departure and see ya sucka, I’ve done that.

Will fly / no pref - pilot can elect will fly status to be assigned trips first in the bucket. Will flys get used more than no pref generally.

There is a bucket hierarchy system scheduling must follow and an aggressive pickup window for reserve to snag trips that fall over their reserve days the day before.

Reserve don’t own the trip (can be stolen by line holder) until 15 hours prior to departure for long calls and 9 hours for short calls.

Floating reserve line - you allow planning to pick your line, type of call out and start time and you get 14 days off instead of 11/12.

darrylb38

Yeah, February will be my third month of reserve here, but I've been used pretty decently on reserve. I finished IOE beginning of last month with 31 hours and I've flown another 60 since.

As far as I've experienced, I've generally gotten the reserve shifts I requested. Contract says Short Call is 12 hours instead of 14 hours.

ninerdriver

You guys should call that the manager's special...

Nevjets

Sounds like another regional that also has 145s. United wants them at 126 airframes and the only reason they haven't un-parked them as fast as some would like is staffing. Once we get a sufficient number of pilots aboard, the airframes will be acquired and demand will increase.

Nevjets

Just to add to this, a reserve pilot can pick up an airport standby trip, they can’t assign airport reserve on the last day in a block of reserve days, they can’t assign it outside your domicile, you are automatically released after four hours or 30 minutes after the last flight is airborne. In fact, after completing a reserve flying assignment, you are automatically released at block in if there isn’t an assignment on your schedule by then. And if a short-call reserve pilot has not been given an assignment by 1800 LT at his domicile on his last day of reserve before a day off, he will automatically be released to his days off. Automatic release means you don’t need to call crew scheduling. You simply check your schedule online at that time and if there is nothing there, you are released to domicile rest (11 hours) or days off, whichever applies.