Questions on 717 Life
 

Hi braintrust…hoping to get wisdom on bottom of the barrel junior Captain 717 life, especially in DTW but also some ATL gouge won’t be bad. I’m right on the cusp and am debating to bid it or not. Take the commuting picture out of everything as I’m familiar that sucks, how’s life for a junior cappy? Trip quality? Ability to pickup some extra flying? Relegated to reserve or does that go more senior and bottom guys forced into lines? Overall and general thoughts. I haven’t looked up bid packages or anything yet, just starting my research. Any insight is appreciated.

Thank you all.

Stay Frosty

take a look at a few wide reports and imagine when you can be the junior line holder if that’s important to you (I use 500/yr or 40/mo to make the math easier). The other calculus is (717A rate x 72)/your XXXB rate. See if that number is larger than your average credit and if that makes it worth losing schedule control for you and your family just to call yourself cappy.

The pay calculator on the DALPA website it a very useful tool for working the pay numbers A vs B. You have to be averaging 105-110 hours per month as a 717B to equal 72 hours as an A. That number goes down if you are B on a higher paying fleet. If you're going to hustle as an A the math starts mathing very quickly. 90 hours per month as an A takes over 140 average as a B. If you're a middling B in the 60-80% range you probably won't notice a huge QOL hit to upgrade and you probably aren't hitting super high credit as a B so you'd net a nice pay raise. The more senior you are as a B the more potential you have to boost your pay while also netting a better schedule as a result.

In the end, an A is probably going to earn more over the course of a year, especially if they hustle, but they're going to be working a lot more for that money compared to a B who hustles as well.

Thank you. According to this math, 120 hours is what’s needed and that is actually my target credit per month and when possible I go for more (June and July were higher credit months). Based on this anything I’m able to do over 72 becomes gravy. Of course the question now comes down to schedule and QOL. I will look up some reports to see how the junior pilot fares. Appreciate the feedback.

As for calling oneself Cappy, it’s not so much that as it is the earning potential. I have twenty years left, had six years at SWA but before that overseas (no retirement plan) and now here so I’m trying to build up my retirement account the smartest way possible.

Thanks again.

Don't just look at the wide reports. Go into icrew and view people's schedules once a month is over. See how much reserves were getting used for rotations/SC. See people around your seniority are getting GS's and on what days. See if line holders have been able to drop or WS rotations.

I like it so far but i'm lazy and don't like to work. I'm reserve don't fly much usually credit low 80s per month just with all the add pay stuff. I just hit 200k for the year and one of those months was still FO pay. Its nice being captain and trips on the 717 how do you tell if its good? Its all block less than credit and an overnight in a ville or burg 2 timezones no redeyes and your usually on an am or pm schedule with the occasional 30 hour overnight. Some strategic YS and you can even get some weekends off or especially half weekends off. Usually get 2 SC conversions each month. I've bid reserve at delta for almost 2 years now and have never actually got a true short call assignment. Usually get the SC the day prior then something shows up on my schedule a few hrs later. or if not then its an off day with an extra 300 bucks.

This thread was inadvertently locked and so are now setting it free. Post away 717 Aviators!


Scoop

The secrets of the 717 are closely guarded and only for the select few to be aware of...

You mean it wasn’t locked by the 717A moderator in an effort to enforce the first rule of fight club? :D

I'm a Captain on the 717 and I absolutely love it. I love the airplane, trips, crews, etc. I flew the 320/330 prior and I was unsure of the 717 at first. My opinion, it's my favorite flying job I've ever had. I sleep at night, I walk around more during the day, I'm close to home. My favorite part is the airplane. The 717 slows down and goes down. Very rare! I highly recommend this fleet.