Those in the first classes last year are around 2-3 reserve slots away from holding a line in the feb bid.

I'm around 15 away on the atl 767 domestic with the same seniority. All from the first classes of last year will be holding lines by the summer.

For those who are on property and can make an educated guess: How long after completing training until a new FO could expect to successfully bid ATL on the 75/76? I'm not saying "hold a line"; just get ATL as their 'base'? I've heard it can reasonably be as low as two months after checkout for a new hire on the MD-88. I'm starting in second half of Feb and for me QOL is better if I'm flying out of ATL instead of commuting to JFK. Apologies ahead of time if I'm using improper terminology (e.g. 'base').

I anticipate being in the bottom quarter of the class seniority-wise due to last four of SSN, but I may still have this choice (75/76 vs 88) if I'm fortunate enough.

There's supposedly a big bid coming out in February with a lot of vacancies on the heavy side - 777 and 7ER. This should generate many more openings throughout the system for narrow-body aircraft and domestic 757/767. It's difficult to give a definite answer to your question because you never can predict the desires of a pilot group approaching 8000 folks. What one guy thinks is great obviously can be another's worst-case scenerio. Sorry for the no answer answer, but bottom line is, there's no way to predict anything in this business.

"Base" is fine. Officially "domicile".

Jughead is correct. But with the current conversions, there will probably not be any openings on the ATL 767. There are a lot of 00 and 01 hires that are getting of the 88 and moving to the 756. That does not mean that many will leave this next time around.
I would guess that with all the merger mania going on people are going to bid where they want to be for some time IF this AE actually comes out in the end of Feb.

October hires were able to successfully bid every base in the system, except for CVG, on the 767 or 7ER during the November advance entitlement. (Past performance may not guarantee future results...)

If being in ATL is your main concern, your seniority will probably improve much quicker on the 88 than the 767 or 7ER. I personally rate my QOL as a combination of domicile, seniority, and the type of flying I'm doing, and I'd much rather be on the ER than even the domestic 75/76, let alone the 88, but YMMV. Movement on the 7ER in NYC is fast right now, much more so than even the ATL 88, and the trips are almost all commutable, so if you don't live within a couple hours' drive of ATL, you may find it's actually easier to be on the ER in NYC than the 88 (or whatever) in ATL. Conversely, if you live in ATL and can sit short call from home, then the 7ER would make a fine choice, and you'll probably spend a long time getting paid the 70 hour guarantee to fly a couple of trips a month to Quito.

In the end, it doesn't really matter what you pick (or get stuck with) in Indoc. There's no initial lock, so you can bid around to another aircraft before you even start training on the first one, although it will take probably 6 months for them to be able to convert you. A change of base in the same aircraft may take 3-4 months from the AE, but doesn't have a lock. I mention this because some guys in my October class picked the NYC M88 over the 7ER because they thought it would get them to SLC or ATL faster and ended up successfully bidding SLC or ATL on the 767 or 7ER on the first AE and got a 2-year aircraft-lock they didn't need. Bottom line is don't bid anything as a stepping stone, but instead always make sure you're in a category that you would want to spend several years in if the music stops. (Not being senior enough to hold captain on anything obviously, one of my main concerns right now is not being in a category that resembles anything flown by Northwest until all this merger dust settles.)

As others have mentioned, it's actually impossible to have enough knowledge about all the variables to truly make an informed decision on day one, which is, unfortunately, when you'll be picking. You kind of have to learn the aircraft, feel out the commute, do some flying, and spend a month or two on reserve to understand the big picture, and it's different for every individual situation. I'd also recommend riding the jumpseat a couple of times on any aircraft you're contemplating switching to, even if there are comfy seats in the back. I've discovered that the F/O in an 88 does more work between pushback and takeoff than I do between JFK and Europe, probably by an order of magnitude if it's an augmented crew.

Yes, but our layovers are better....Oh wait no,

But we get paid more ....... no, no that is not it either

We are having more fun here on the mad dog.... ok not really

Dooh! Darn I hate it when that guy is right :mad:

slinky :rolleyes:

The 88 just needs a three volume cross reference for cold weather operations, EEC's, FADEC, modern avionics, servos, GPS, a Flight Engineer, better brakes, effective hydraulic system, new engines and a new wing. Other than that, it's almost a Boeing. I'm surprised there isn't a 10 page MDXX thread somewhere.

The AirTran guys tell me the MD95/717 fixed a lot of the Mad Dog's quirks and it flies like the DC9-30.

All that having been said, I like the 88. It is comfortable, quiet and keeps you involved. It is a work horse and surprisingly efficient for a jet with a Type Certificate issuance date of 1962. Figure most of the design work and cockpit layout was set up a half century ago.

This might be a dumb question, but if you get an aircraft out of initial training and you do not bid to another aircraft, will/can you get bumped to another aircraft? Would the company bump you to another domicile or another aircraft at your current domicile?

Boeing builds airplanes. Douglas builds character.:eek:

I heard that