I'd have to disagree with Xray on the 767ER reserve in NYC. The new hires that are getting on the plane right now, and by right now I mean this summer, are getting in at a time when there is a ton of movement. There will be another big bid in August with 777 vacancies that will cause more movement. Looking at the last staffing projection and the unfilled vacancies from the last bid, there is no reason the first 20-30 guys can't be line holders within a year.

You guys are lucky...I had to wait 7 years for that plane. I also sat on reserve at Delta for over 3 years on various airplanes...its the easiest reserve I ever did at any company.

Welcome to Delta! Sure is nice to see all the enthusiasm again!

I agree, there will be a lot of movement in the next few years. The problem for a new hire on the 7ER is that the movement will all take place above them. There are a lot of existing FOs on the 88, 738 and domestic 767 who will bid in on top of the new hires on every bid. Many FOs I talk to are simply waiting till they can hold a line. A few new hires may end up very bottom line holders, but I would not expect much for a long time.

But, we will see. the quality of life for a bottom line holder isn't that great, so maybe guys will wait till they can hold a decent line before they bid ER. Either way though, there are a lot of FOs senior to the new hires who will likely bid to the ER down the road.

Is there currently a lot of unfilled ER or 757/767 bids right now? If so why have folks not bid into those lines? What sort of QOL issues can be expected if I'm sitting reserve at my domicile and home town?

Basically becuase the increase it hourly pay does not make up for the loss of block/credit hours or your loss of QOL. You really do not come out more than a couple thousand dollars ahead of the game until you are on the 765 or 777.

There is good news this week about Delta and their future growth. Headlines last week include "Delta has inside track for new China routes" and articles which conclude that Delta will gain over Virgin Atlantic, American and United as a result of the Open Skies agreement which provides Delta with an opening into Heathrow with a couple of New York flights and an Atlanta flight.

Anyone have information on the New York commute? London 3 day trips sound too good to be true for a new hire....

Yeah, it's tough. Been doing it for about 7 months now and hope I don't have to do it much longer. It is definatley a doable commute, but you will end up not getting there eventually due to the mess that New York can become with even a tiny bit of weather. A commute to NYC should probably be something you plan on doing temporarily. If you really want to fly out of NYC long term, your best bet is to find a place up there and move. It is doable, but probably the toughest city to commute into due to weather and traffic issues they have.

Class size increasing
 

Just an FYI. Delta is increasing their new hires to 2 classes of 25 a month. They think they will continue 50 a month to the end of the year. However, it could change back to 40 a month toward the end of the year, but hiring will continue even after that.

G.Dude

Does anyone know how many they have hired this year including the July 2nd class?

Off the top of my head, I think we were told our class (the second class in June) put it up to around 113. Add the two July classes and your at 163. June was the first month with two classes. Feb, Mar, Apr, and May only had one new hire class. It looks like there will be two classes a month until the end of the year. Delta is being tight lipped on exactly how many they are going to hire. However, they did say hiring will continue into next year.

Cheers,
G.Dude

I think there were 24 in the 7-02 class so that would be around 137. The 7-16 class will put it up to 162. 5 months of 50 per month would end up being 412ish for the year.