I can't believe people think 30% is the magic number to get amazing trips. I'm way senior to 30% and only got a small percent of the trips I bid for because I was too junior. The number of good trips in our bid packet have been plummeting every month.

 

Is this not what we expected when we wanted to bring all that regional flying back to mainline? I'm not a fan of how often I say to myself "hey I used to do this turn on the CRJ".

 

Thanks for the info! Is it possible to know how many positions each of those fill?

For example, DTW 320B had 10 slots.

I interviewed in mid November and am hoping for DTW. My understanding is seniority in class is based on the last four of your soc., and mine is really low.

Thanks for the help!

 

On top of the other reasons listed, maybe you want to drop your trip(s) to make yourself more available for premium flying.

 

I’m a fan. 117 is what drives the 12-16 hour layovers. I prefer that to 8:30 then 24. It gives me more time at home. 30+ in a hotel was brutal.

 

More flying has only helped increase trip variety and bidding options. From what I’ve seen in the NB world, trips have gotten much better over all.

Anyone bidding a NB and expecting nothing but 1 leg days is destined to be disappointed. Penalty laps may be psychologically annoying but the percent of commutable trips has been pretty good. That also includes for locals because getting up at 3-4am just sucks.

Some categories have seen changes some pilots don’t like, especially the 737. Post merger it was the queen of the NB fleet because it had entertainment and the 320’s didn’t. So marketing put it on longer stage lengths on average while the 320 did more legs per day on average. Even the Shuttle for a while. There was another shift when the 737-700 was parked that saw the 320 fleet do (because of the 319) and now we’re seeing that spill over into 717 coverage as that fleet has had planes out for MX.

What remains of the negatives can largely be attributed to the alleged optimizer, which allegedly doesn’t exist, because it’s allegedly always existed or something, etc. When that switch was (allegedly?) flipped in 2018, trips got noticeably…less good.

I guess if we wanted to increase stage lengths and decrease legs per day we could always re-outsource hundreds of jets worth of flying. But over all the NB flying is pretty good with our current work rules. I’ll always push for ever improved Scope as well at all levels, including things viewed as “RJ turns”.

 

Seniority is based on the first digit of your last four in reverse order (9 is senior, 0 is junior)

 

Not just the first digit but the entire last 4.

 

No, they don't pre-publish that # anymore. I believe it is so they can try to massage results into more of what folks want where possible, especially if there happens to be a larger number who want/are willing to take a category/base that normally is hard to fill.

FWIW, even if DTW isn't awarded initially, you have a very high chance of changing bases very quickly, maybe before you even start flying the line. The 717 is rumored to start drawing down sometime soon, and will likely consolidate in ATL on an unknown timeline. So you might consider preferencing the 320 or 73 over the 717, even if DTW 717 is offered, and bid to change bases immediately. It may take a month or two, but is unlikely to take too long. TONS of success with that strategy over the years, especially recent years. There will be a fair number of robust bids this spring to position the company for summer, which bodes well for that strategy... Might save yourself a month in training in a year or two down the road when DTW 717 inevitably closes. As always, there are never guarantees, but that's what I would do.

 

They don’t post actual numbers of slots available. I don’t imagine DTW 320B will go terribly senior, but you never know. If you want DTW 320B, make sure anything 320B is at the top of your bid. If you don’t get DTW on the initial but you do get 320B somewhere else, you’ll probably be able to get DTW on subsequent AEs before you get out of training. Good luck!