Fozz179fs

Sitting at 65%ish as a MSP 73N FO, thinking of bidding 717 B next time around with a qualifier of 20%. QOL, schedule, holidays and weekends off are priority for me. I’ve done the math on the pay. Been looking at bid packages, but just curious if anyone can share their experience of living in base and being in the top 20% of the 717.


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contrails

The seats are extremely uncomfortable.

velosnow

My back is 10x happier after getting out of that evil contraption of a seat.

Rooster435

Seniority is always nice for vacation, schedule control and LCA trips but I think you’ll find 717 trips don’t have a lot of variety. Trips that senior and junior guys do are pretty much the same.

Can’t say for certain what Minny trips will look like since the base hasn’t opened yet but probably similar to DTW. You can expect a lot of regional type flying. My guess would be lots Dakotas, Midwest, CLT, RDU, BNA, STL, BOS. Nothing west coast, very little Florida or Texas. Majority 4 day trips unless you are NYC based. Also a fair amount of 30 hour layovers.

The seat does suck.

tennisguru

... For 60 minutes at a time...

Bandit702

I've lived in base (ATL) at abt 30% for the past few years and it's been great. Granted ATL is a lot bigger than MSP is going to be, but if you are 20% anywhere in the 717 you will get the schedule you want, definitely wkds/holidays off. Personally, I never found the seat to be a problem at all, I actually cringe ridding jump on the 737 and thought that cockpit was less comfortable than the 717. Worst case between the seat, total workspace, ease of entry/exit, forward lav location, boarding congestion, etc. at best its a wash comparing 717 to 737.


Pros:

Much higher percentage credit vs block (almost no hard time trips)

NO Redeyes

Lots of LCA buyoffs, WS and GS options at that % seniority

You won't see a 5 leg day above 50% seniority unless you want to


Cons:

Smaller city L/Os

Mostly 4 day trips (in ATL at least)

The windows sometimes leak during deicing (not a huge issue in ATL, but MSP....)


Not sure if the pay difference is a big as some think. There are soooo many ways to squeeze $ from 20% seniority. I'm relatively new and I cleared $300k last year on the 717. Good luck with the decision.

GogglesPisano

If you go back and read the CR Updates for the last (x) years, when it comes to the 717 the first sentence is always: The bid package for the 717 in (next month) is similar to (this month.) Without fail. There is never anything new.

Yes the seat is terrible. Yes, the windows leak de-ice fluid (come on, it's a Douglas) You'll also notice a lot more MEL's than the 737 -- especially the APU in the summer. Yes, the landing gear are made of concrete. Yes, the windshield wipers are the worst ever designed. Yes, you'll notice that the captain occasionally has to open his side window to park at night in the rain in order to see.

But it's quiet, I'll give it that.

I went the other way and am very happy.

Bidder beware.

contrails

True, the flights are short.

But the 3-4 legs per day cancels that out.

With the exception of a quick lav break (that's across the doorway flow of incoming/outgoing passengers), figure an average 717 pilot is in the seat for 30 minutes leading up to pushback, and 5-10 minutes after block-in. We'll call that 40 minutes.

If you do 4 legs in a day, that's 2 hours 40 minutes of cockpit seat time -- of the unpaid, non-block hour variety.

If the 4 legs were only an hour flight each, so around 1:30 block, that's 6 hours plus the 2:40 and all of a sudden we're up to 8 hours and 40 minutes of time spent sitting in the seats.

Not an ergonomic environment.

TallWeeds

I'm about 55% in DTW. I get every holiday and about half the weekends off. I can usually drop 2 trips per month to rebuild my schedule how I want. Everybody up to an including the plug has ample GS opportunity. All the trips are the same. Your seniority really doesn't buy you much in that regard. I don't plan on leaving for a while.

Fozz179fs

$300k as an FO? If so did you do lots of Rolling Thunder, LCA buy offs ect!!


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