You all can have the charters - I've done half a dozen. Only one was "ok" and that was a turn, the NCAA team showed up on time, we flew them to the city, they promptly got off and went to the hotel. We got fuel and went straight back. All the others sucked in some form or another - hours late, another was all night to and from Europe with only 14 hours there, deadheads to and from the city, hours sitting in the FBO from 11pm to 2am waiting for the other charter to get in so we could swap planes, THEN fly back to base etc.

Food? I guess the short MLB charter had some but only because I was able to beat off the FAs and mechanics who rushed the catering after the team departed. I think I got a sandwich from that.

 

As they say, there’s something for everyone.

 

Hey, I EARNED that sandwich! 😂

 

Funny LAX 73n Charter story. We are flying the Dodgers back when Joe Torre was their manager. Captain hands me a Yankees cap and asks me to get Joe to autograph it. I know the Captain well as he was a known "Character" in LAX. I start laughing and tell him I wouldn't even ask him to sign a Yankees cap in front of the Dodgers at the ballpark, let alone on a Charter where it was verbotten. He pleads with me and says he already gave Joe two baseballs to pass around amongst the players for his sons little leauge team and doesn't want to push his luck. No dice - I don't want anything to do with it. Well he never gets the cap signed and the also Charter coordinator somehow found out about the baseballs and confiscated them.

About two weeks later the LAX CPO Pilot pulls me into his office and says "I know you know better and had nothing to with this but I have to tell you not to do this kind of thing." He was a good dude and we had a big laugh about the baseballs getting confiscated but I heard the Captain eventually got them.


Oh yeah - not because of this but all the other PITA stuff - Not a fan of Charters at all.

Scoop

 

I had some days once where I was trying to get a GS but nothing was getting down to me. So I saw a 3 day where the last day was a charter followed by a 45 minute turn to take the last DH of the night back to base. Grabbed that knowing the probability of making that connection was nearly zero. As expected, we parked right when the DH was pushing back. Reroute into my day off ended up paying the same as a 3 day GS and instead of getting home at midnight I still made it home around 9 AM so basically missed no time with my family.

 

Mid Bid is out

WB B 126XX (12,4XX for the 50 ATL 330)
NB A 14,9XX
WB A 4,3XX

Final Awards tend to go senior to the Mid Bid, in large part because the Mid Bid assumes filling every primary and contingent vacancy. The final awards may well be roughly in line with recent trends.

 

how many did you have to beat off??

 

I love it when people think the rules couldn’t possibly apply to them.

 

A source of so much stress and pain in my life is caused by rules that apply to me.

 

haha me too. I just change the rule or declare it no longer applies. Works great and is really fun for a while.


on topic: is anyone feeling brave enough to consider snowbirding now that monthly AE’s are here to stay? A ski chalet in slc sounds nice for the winter months.