I don't believe it's 6k new apps. I think it's a pull of 6k apps from the existing pool. A lot of this is educated conjecture, but based on what I've heard from the hiring desk folks, I believe the company has two screening processes:

- Type A (my name, not theirs) is a relatively quantitative approach - a pull of all applicants who meet certain objective requirements - hours, degrees, gpa, mil service, whatever. This is probably done by AirlineApps automation and is relatively low cost per app, maybe even a flat rate per data pull.

- Type B is a more in-depth and qualitative assessment/scoring of a given application. This is done by a "third party" (meaning not DAL and not the applicant), but I don't know if that third party is AirlineApps. This is where apps are "scored" for interview consideration and placed in "Tiers" (Hiring desk's term). The cost for this would be much higher per application.

DAL is extremely interested in cost efficiencies. My belief is that DAL uses "Type A" screening, as well as career fair contacts and DAL pilot recommendations to select batches of applicants for "Type B" screening.

My suspicion is that AK recently adjusted his "Type A" triggers, creating a much larger pool of applications to consider. That alone could explain the reported flood of 6k more applications.

With the significant increase in hiring and thus interviews, I would expect AK also must be at least looking deeper into the Tier structure, and may even be forced to adjusted those Tier settings.

 

Any idea of how often those applicants that have received "fix it" e-mails will get a another chance to get looked at? I know folks who have waited 2 hours to 6 months before getting an invite, if at all. Great discussion going on. I hope all of us get hired.

 

I wanted to ask you guys about PIC time. Some people at the regionals, including management, are saying that PIC time doesn't matter as much as it used too, and that in a few years it won't hardly matter at all. Seeing the credentials of some of you on another thread, I'm calling bs on that. I have any opportunity to go get some PIC time at another regional immediately, well the job starts in Jan., if I get it. Should I give up almost 7 years seniority to chase PIC time at another regional if it looks like I should upgrade at my current regional in about 2 years? I'm still 300 away from upgrade and someone in mgmt told me that they are projecting to upgrade 100-150 next year. I think someone with 5 or 6,000 hours and 1,000 or more TPIC is more competitive and more likely to get an interview than someone with 6,000 hours, and the only PIC time is from instructing, which is less then 1,000 as well, not turbine. Also, would Delta look negatively at me for leaving my current regional to go to another to get PIC time? Would there be questions about my loyalty? Thoughts?

 

PIC time will always be better than not having any, all things being equal. That said, we will likely start seeing more people hired at majors without as much or even any. As for your situation, without knowing all the details, any one of which could change everything, I'd lean towards staying. Taking a paycut and starting over to *maybe* get an upgrade that is *maybe* a year or so sooner than not doing anything is an extremely risky proposition.

I'd lean towards staying where you are, getting 7th year pay and super senior FO QOL, and waiting for the aprox 2 year upgrade versus putting yourself at the bottom of the list at another airline in a very unstable sector (regionals). Again though, it depends on the exact situation. Obviously you might walk into a new regional and become a street captain. If you knew that would be the case, I'd lean towards doing that instead. But changing everything up to chase an estimated 1 year upgrade instead of an estimated 2 year upgrade is a lot of estimating, a lot less pay and QOL and a huge burden on yourself.

If you do stay, try to look for "extra" things you can do, like volunteer work, Safety Dept or CRM work, pro stans or knocking out an online master's degree.

Again to be clear, there are scenarios where I'd say jump ASAP. But based on the limited info WRT your sitch, my default would be to stay unless likelihood of a very, very fast upgrade somewhere else was pretty much assured…and that's a hard thing to assure in the first place. I'm not aware of any actual honest to goodness for sure street captain regionals right now. Yes it may happen here or there, but can you be absolutely sure? You say "immediately" but are you SURE its a street Captain position? Absolutely sure? 100% sure? If so then maybe I'd lean toward going.

Good luck either way!

 

Gloopy, thanks for help! Well the position is basically a street captain position, however you could also be use as an FO. They are calling it a Captain Qualified First Officer. Its the deal TSA is offering. According to pilots who I spoke too, they only have about 50 pilots currently qualified to upgrade and they are getting about 40 airplanes this year with about a 350 pilot list. So they'd use you on reserve for both positions and when you hold a line, you could pick up open time for the left seat. Holding a full captain seat should occur in about 6 months due to the large amount of growth, but in the meantime you'd still get PIC time. Plus, first year pay would be $43 an hour instead of 23 and if you get stuck as an FO for some reason, second year pay is $53 an hour. However, if I stay where I am, my captain pay rate would be $10 an hour more, but it would be on reserve, where I'd be holding a line as TSA getting more then MMG. I'd also like to be an LCP , which I cannot due here until I upgrade.

So, its a tough call and I keep flip flopping. I do enjoy my super senior FO QOL currently. 3 weeks vacation, weekends and holidays off (until I upgrade), full vested 401K, comfortable with the airline and like the bidding system, to name a few things. Also, reserve time at my current airline would be much longer when I upgrade then it would be at TSA. With that new info, does that change what you think?

 

Hmmm. I'd say that would put me 60% toward making the jump. The key would be how sure is that street captain position? Is it based off of etherial growth like the Air Wisky DL deal that apparently didn't happen?

Can they even staff the growth they claim they have? What happens if they can't? Some regionals downgrade Captains they actually need…just because they don't have enough FO's to fly the schedule.

PIC time is great, and always better than not having any. Starting over always sucks though, and the regional industry is pretty brutal and inherently unstable. Force multiply that with zero seniorityand it becomes pretty risky. However the folks that left stable regionals early for Compass (and to a lesser extent a few others) easily "seniority jumped" (as some put it) the entire industry.

Tough call. You said Trans States? The pay you mentioned doesn't match with what APC says they pay, so its hard to say. If it was a stable regional with for sure growth, I'd lean toward going. If it was some wing and a prayer EAS 1900 operator, I'd stick it out where I was at.

 

Yeah TSA. Trans States Airlines :: Career Opportunities Scroll down and its there. If you get hired in the Left Seat Direct Program, they start you at $43 and you can never go below that. The FO pay rate is a blended CA and FO rate for the year you are at. If you fly as FO you get that, and if you fly as CA you get CA obviously. If they didn't give me anything in writing, I'd definitely be very weary of it. And what happened to AWAC concerns me because this is the same thing. Awarded flying from majors, which could end up falling through. However nothing indicates that it will. I do also wonder what happens if they can't staff it? That would probably be very bad for me. One of the pilots I spoke to there told me that if this all works out, if I get in right away, that I'd be top 1/3 of the list in two years tops. Something I'll never be able to say for my current airline.

The question is to risk it and possibly make a winning bet or losing everything, or stay the slow and steady and safer course and wait longer to upgrade and enjoy QOL. I'm starting to think stay, but with our airline losing planes and an uncertain future and labor problems, staying is also a question mark.

 

Hmm that's a tough one.

How's your network? How's your resume in total, besides the PIC issue? Lots of factors to consider. If they give you the pay bottom in writing and all signs point to most or all of it happening, it certainlly makes it more tempting.

 

Not all about PIC time. I've got over 6k and crickets. Maybe it'll help, maybe not. There's thousands of us RJ CA's with thousands of hours of PIC patiently/impatiently waiting for the phone to ring.

 

+1. Checking my emails daily - still crickets.