In addition there are a lot of FOs who have and will continue to bypass upgrade, due to poor quality of life as a junior Captain on reserve. Because of our 300+ captain lifers, reserve in the left seat is measured in years instead of months. Local junior captains (myself included) often choose reserve instead of the junior lines. On ORD EMJ almost half of the total captains are lifers. The plus side of this is obviously the lowered upgrade time for FOs who don't bypass. It now looks like upgrade time for current new hires could really be as short as advertised.

 

Please tell me you know the difference between someone hired before AMR declared bankruptcy and a pilot hired today. Its a completely different world! How many times do we have to go over this.
We told people our upgrade time would fall to 2.5 years when it was at the time 8.5, and nobody believed it. Now, a year later it is 4.5 years and people still don't believe it.
If you don't believe the projections, just wait on the sideline until it drops to 2.5 years.
Get on that backside of the hiring and retirement wave that pilots are so good at finding.

 

Are the 4 hotels that the company offers sufficient for commuting to reserve? What do you mean some reserves are not commutable?

 

Really? I took first upgrade and was able to hold a line 9 months later. Just depends I guess what aircraft/base you are upgrading into. Oh and I'm just coming up on 12 months in the left seat.

 

Any idea how easy it would be to get a FO base at LGA? Going in for my interview in a few weeks

 

The attrition numbers are sent to all envoy pilots as part of every alpa news blast.

 

Check your FM1 or the contract. There is a waiver concerning time flown with the company.

 

When I say reserve isn't commutable I was kinda busy and didn't have time to into detail. So here it is.

With our commuter policy a pilot needs two attempts to get to base for the commuter policy to kick in. We run our reserve assignments at 5 pm everyday. So if a pilot has two later flights after 5 then it becomes commutable. San Antonio would very likely be commutable for reserve. Cities where we have low frequency of flights might not be commutable. I know some pilots have to start the drive to the Airport and then at 5 pm decides to commute in or return home for the night. It's very different simply based on where one commutes from. (I know reserve assignments usually come out around 3pm ish but it can change by 5 pm. It's rare but it has happened. )

Reserve times on the 145 should be one or two months after IOE. Bases may vary with times.

 

You will have no problem getting LGA, it's currently the junior base.

 

Sorry....175