Ghilis,
At the very least, bid an airframe in NYC if for any reason all the NYC slots are gone.

 

Good call. Talking to the cjo's from my week, the vast majority want ATL, so I can be confident that NYC won't be a problem.

 

In six months your life will return to normal and you will have a WHOLE new set of problems like should I go to the pool first or slip down to the bar and hang... new airplane in the summer is a GOOD deal.

 

If you live in or near NYC (or one of the associated high frequency commuter cities) I can see why you would want the base. But the bus in NYC is one of the worst categories in the airline by a huge margin, at least until you get some decent seniority. While you may know a buddy who walked straight into a weekends off line or whatever, unless you time it perfectly, its far more likely you will be and stay junior on it for at least a year or more.

Early reports and late releases are common for NYC domestic, as stated by the company in recent updates. That's how the flying is built. Force multiply those negatives by a small category that was only started to optimistically transfer overnight costs to crews…

...which has surpassed the point of diminishing returns for the company and they realize the operation is suffering because 80%+ of the base are commuters and most of the other 20% are so called "locals" with car commutes that rival many air commutes anyway…

…and they've admitted reluctance to further grow the categories there.

Its a nice flight deck. But so what? Seriously, so what? Its a tiny category that normally sees slow progression at the bottom that thrashes the junior percentile way harder than most. Just when you start to get senior, here comes people piling in on top of you because "the bus in New York" sounds so appealing especially when someone senior can walk in to an OK schedule.

A lot could depend on your class though. If they have 20 positions in it and you're bidding in the top part of the class, and you know you'll walk into a nice chunk below you, that's one thing. But if you can just barely get in, there are usually better QOL choices out there. If you can hold NYC 320, you can almost always hold other categories in NYC as well. The 320 is one of the worst to be junior in though. Its a great plane, but the flight deck isn't awesome enough to make up for the QOL thrashing you will take IF you are close to the bottom compared to other planes. That said, if you want NYC obviously get anything in NYC that you can.

 

Thanks gloopy for the good insight. You are right in that theres really no great narrowbody flying out of NYC. Even if I magically got a 7ER, I'd be working to exhaustion. 737 and MD88 wont fare much better but I would get a line the fastest on the MD88. I am expecting to get the MD88 and it will grow on me. The most attractive thing about the a320 is it currently has the most EWR departures (1 hour drive from my house). I could yellow slip ewr reports and it would drastically improve my QOL.

 

The EWR potential would be sweet indeed. Just be advised that marketing moves that around a lot. EWR trips tend to be less desirable for the category over all (although the few in each category that live there obviously prefer them) but if you have time, look at the bid packs for the last year for the 3 domestic categories (the ER usually only has one AMS per day or something like that, which often go to the few local line holders unless they sick out) so you will have a good chance to pref whatever does pop up.

There may even be someone from marketing/crew resources/etc come in to class before you lock in your bid and you can maybe pick their brain about projected EWR trips for various categories. Still though, if you track any one category for a year, you'll usually see EWR trips ebb and flow and its really hard to say which domestic fleet, if any, will average getting more than any other. That's probably why the larger domestic categories (88 and 73N) could be better; their sheer size would usually mean more EWR trips available in any given year. Usually, but not always.

In any case, living there, as long as you can get to LGA/JFK no problem, will be a pretty sweet gig for you no matter what plane you get.

 

True I was basing this on the bids for next month, I didn't realize they change around so much. There is certainly no way a 7ER will trickle down to my seniority in class, and I think the 73n will go relatively senior as well. I was basing my options on what I will realistically be able to choose from, and that's a320 or md88. In reality, the choice is probably already made for me anyway and it will be md88.

 

You'll enjoy the plane and the people you work with, ghilis. It's quirky, (I flew it for several years), but it's just a plane, and with the way we are hiring, you're at the beginning of a nice wave and will get to bid your choice of planes pretty quickly. Welcome aboard!

 

Thanks! I Definitely don't mind the 88. I like the quiet cockpit. It was more about EWR departures, which as gloopy said vary from month to month so maybe I could still get EWR flying on the 88. I consider myself lucky trying to choose which airplane im going to fly based on my DRIVE to work. Most people are worrying about their commutes flying across the country, so I do realize how good I have it!

 

New AE bid results just came out. Looks like lots of guys leaving 88 and 320 in NYC, so should be very easy for new hires to get either.