crewdawg

If you're looking for DTW and QOL, crazy enough, I think you'll find the best QOL on the 717. You'll likely move up in seniority much faster and the trips in DTW are pretty decent. I get messed with significantly less than my buddies on the 320 and 737. Some of the stories I hear from my 737/320 buddies of mine are nuts....LONG days with super high block. However, if you really want to go to the west coast or hit up sunny beaches, the 717 isn't the place for you. With the exception of CLT and RDU, we mostly stay East of the Mississippi and north of the mason-dixon.

JulietSierra89

Thanks for the info, I’ve heard you have to do a lot of airplane swapping on the 717, is that true? Also, how long to hold Captain as a new hire?

crewdawg

Everyone is aircraft swapping, but I really haven't found it to be all that often lately. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I also stay out of ATL...don't go there, that's where trips go to die. I think the most junior pilot awarded DTW717A is a Jan2020 hire.

dadman3000

Thanks for the info crew! I'd like to get some insight from a 320 and 73 guy as well, if any of ya'll are on here??

Explorer83

Okay… Thank you. I knew that I must be missing somethings.

airplanes

How is the 717 out of ATL? Is the QOL any better than other NB? On WS the seniority doesn’t seem all that much better than the 320/737 but then again I’m bad at interpreting that website.

tennisguru

Pros:
Relatively quick advancement off the bottom
Bid package is pretty static. They eliminated 5 leg days which is nice. Lots of 3-4-3 leg 3 days and 3-4-2-3 leg 4 days. Some 1-and done on the last day. It's regional, short-hop flying. If you like lots of landings and the quick turns then come join the fun.
Trips probably 80% commutable on both ends. A handful start around 6-7 AM and a few end close to 11 PM, but with any amount of seniority those can be avoided.
No redeyes, although during NCAA basketball season we do some charters with very odd late night hours.
The longest leg we do is YUL-ATL at ~ 3 hours block, which means we have a lot of trips that have soft credit (meaning you fly 10 hours and get paid for 15:45 on a 3 day, for example). On the 737/320 is it not uncommon to be blocking at or just over the 15:45/21:00 pay for a 3/4 day trip.
Quite a few of the layovers are very nice. Lot's of burgs and ville downtowns with a less busy vibe but still with lots of good places to eat.
The bad reroutes (into your day off, or getting back waaay later on your last day) are much rarer than on other fleets.

Cons:
No growth via new aircraft, so once you bounce up off the bottom you're limited to waiting for people ahead of you to move out.
Lowest paying fleet
Bid package is pretty static. If you want Caribbean layovers, west cost stuff, etc, this is not the fleet for you.
We only operate flights out of ATL, DTW, and MSP, so you'll become very acquainted with the C concourse in ATL and odd numbered gates A19-31 in DTW.

Pro/con: We are not staffed great, but still way better than the 737/320. For the time being you can make a killing on those fleets if you want to work your butt off. On the 717 pretty much everyone in ATL who wants to can get GS #1, and quite a few get #2, but almost no one gets to 3 in a month. Many people are rolling thunder on the other fleets getting 7-8 GS's, although that will end at some point (who knows when that will be though). Still it is hard to move reserve days or swap trips to different days due to coverage, but that is still true on all the other fleets too (except the 220).

Baradium

Last AE had pilots still in initial training awarded captain (NYC)

Wolf424

NYC isn’t a 717 base anymore

RJ4LIFE

Tennisguru summarized things nicely. At this point the only reasons I can think of to bid 73/320 are the extra pay and better variety of flying. But that variety of flying is also what allows the optimizer to almost completely eliminate credit from most trips by building some really brutal days. It is very common to see 8+ hour block and 12+ hour duty days on the 73/320, but barring major delays you will never see that on the 717. Plus, like he pointed out, oftentimes those smaller city regional-style overnights that the 717 does are more enjoyable than the big city overnights. Usually the van ride is shorter, the people are more normal, and the food and beer are cheaper.

I'm currently a 73 FO and have always been opposed to the multiple short leg trips on the 717, but lately they are starting to look a lot more appealing than the marathon days I have been doing. A 717A bid may be in my future in the Aug AE.