Not really anything to worry about with the 717/757 per se. Both are in ATL for the long term (2030+). The 717 is the smallest fleet in ATL, but it also stays pretty junior The 320 is the largest fleet, so in theory it will have more vacancies than other fleets over time.

If you want ATL, I wouldn’t worry about the base, especially with monthly AE’s (supposedly) on the horizon - bid for the airframe. There may not be a vacancy available on every bid, but ALWAYS have a bid in place - “backfills” always generate additional openings above what is posted, and they often come down to NH levels.

I also had a super low SSN. As a result, my NH airframe was NYC M88, no choices for the last 10 in my NH class. I was lucky with the timing of my first AE, and was awarded ATL M88 before I was done with the sims. By the time I got done with OE, I had converted to ATL, and I never even commuted to NY once. Monthly vacancy bids will mean you are much more likely to have a similar experience, even if you get LAX or SEA. NO guarantees though.

All that said, I suspect the amount of NH slots in NYC is about to go up significantly with the monthly bid process. Not saying there won’t be some west coast offered, but the chances will be lower going forward, IMO. And the few that are in a drop might well get snappped up by folks who actually wanted west coast to begin with.

Congrats, and good luck.

you never know. There was a time in the not so distant past that the plug got NYC330. And some classes were heavy west coast. Good luck!

^ beat me to it

Don’t assume just because you have a low SSN that you’ll be 220 or 717.

The 320, 73N, 220, 717, 7ER, and 330 have all been the plug in various new hire classes in the last year.

It is entirely dependent on your class.

Delta also doesn’t allocate specific numbers per fleet per class like UA. They just tell you the fleet and base and ask you to rank them.

Theoretically, everyone could get their first choice as they assign them based on training capacity. Tons of examples of the plug getting their 1st or 2nd choice.

Don’t worry until there’s something to worry about.

Your not a SSN loser cause you got hired at Delta. Although your number appears bad....I have a kid that also starts with a 0........ followed by another 0......followed by another 0. Now we're are talking a low number!.

Things will work out, albeit, it may take a coupla months. A coupla years down the road it will make an interesting beer chat. Just remember, no good story ever started with...."Their I was drinking a milk...."

Congrats, if this is the biggest hill you have to climb after getting hired by a legacy, you'll have lived a charmed life.

Also, you won't get a whole career (like me) to say "if they just did it by SSN when I was hired rather than age, I'd be 38 #'s senior)!!

If you want ATL the only thing you want to avoid is the 220. I mentioned the 757, 717, and 220 because I wasn't sure which base you wanted and those 3 fleets are all in only a handful of bases so could limit your ability to transfer easily.

If we do have monthly bids I would expect a much heavier dose of NYC for new hires since everyone who wants out will be able to transfer quickly, leaving those spots needing to be filled quickly. But again that's not a bad thing per se since those new hires would also be able to bid out quickly. Once the ball gets rolling you may have most NYC new hires only sitting in NYC for a month or two post IOE.

Thank you! Overjoyed to be here! Trying to look at it pragmatically, not hand-wringing too much.

Okay, so how in the world does a new hire get a 330 over an on campus FO? Do the guys not under a seat lock get the first crack at it, or did absolutely no one have the bid in place and got caught by surprise? That seems pretty wild.

I'll be the first to say, my whole life has been a pretty charmed existence, and a few months or years of sucking it up at the pinnacle air carrier beats the crap outta some of the 'fun' work I've gotten to do in the past. Zero complaints here!

Again, thank you all for the replies. Looking forward to the next month! Since I am new to the 121 side of this world, what can I be studying? I've gotten nothing from the onboarding team, and I don't want to come in and make the class slow down to catch me up on stuff I could have down pat.

The way our contract reads is that all positions have to be offered to pilots on property first. Only those positions that were untilled on a vacancy bid can go to a NH. We had some odd circumstances, combined with a couple larger bids, which left some WB's unfilled, so they were offered to NH's. Those 'openings' are reset every AE, so with a bid about to close on Monday, I fully expect that era to close, and return to (mostly) a historical norm for holding a WB.


You'll get time to study everything you need once you get here, you won't slow anybody down. Especially given you won't know what aircraft you are getting until right before you start, I would just take this time to relax and get ready to hit it hard once you get here. I came straight from the military here, and there was a huge amount to learn given not just a new airplane, but a new civilian system, regs, acronyms, and in my case multi-crew ops, etc. It's a bit like drinking from a firehose, but so long as you put in the work once here, you'll be fine.

Agreed with Fangs, but, Diesel: If you're determined to study something, I'd suggest FAR117 as a universal item you'll need to know sooner rather than later anyway, regardless of your fleet. Knowing that cold will save you brain bytes later on when you're trying to see the boundary lines the PWA is set within, and when some meltdown or other comes along and the schedulers come up with a doozy for you....

good advice. FAR117