Erj135dude

Hey everyone. We know the upgrade time right now and the reason why is that high.

For the guys at Expressjet right now, and being 100% realistic, how long will it take to upgrade in the next 1-2 years?. I know it's just a guess but hopefully it's an educated guess coming from current XJTers.

Melit please don't derail yet another thread. Some of us actually need to make decisions and find people's serious opinion is helpful, so please don't.

flynd94

If everything happens as planned/hoped upgrade should come down to 2 years in the next 16-24 months. My perspective is that of a LCP and 10 year employee.

PontiusPilot

It’s impossible to say with any certainty. It’s looking as though the upgrade will drop to 3 years or less by the end of this year. Over the next 2 years, it’ll largely depend on our ability to hire, continued fleet growth, any positive changes to career progression with United, and the economy and other external factors.

The outlook does look quite a bit better than it did a few years ago. I would expect the upgrade times to continue to become more reasonable and align with the rest of the industry. The days of the 6-10 year upgrade at ExpressJet should hopefully be over, for now.

Arliss

Agreed. I am a 2016 hire and if the next bid goes the same as the last bid, I should hold captain.

DarkSideMoon

Not at XJT, but just a general observation- current upgrade times almost never match when you should expect to upgrade. My airline didn’t hire many people for about a 2-3 year period, and many of the people who were hired left. Over the course of one vacancy the upgrade time dropped from 5 years to 2, and continued to drop until they started upgrading new hires. However, upgrade time will likely start rising again as large groups of new hires (who may have come for the quick upgrade) start to upgrade in droves. I’d wager that a new hire now is looking at a 2-3 year upgrade again. They could also meter upgrades because they would have too many captains compared to FO’s.

It’s very hard to accurately predict and account for attrition, hiring gaps, etc. Just keep that in mind when reading responses. Look for people that reference the seniority list and any expected gaps in seniority, monthly attrition, etc.

skyemiles2

That's a very good point. I saw this with a friend of mine at another regional. He was the last hire for over a year, and as a result when he upgraded their upgrade time dropped dramatically on paper.



I've been considering interviewing since I'm only a few months away from ATP mins. I've always heard things I have liked about ExpressJet and I'm happy to see that things might finally be looking up there. I've just been told I'm completely nuts to even consider it.



For those in the know, what are class sizes looking like? Are they on track to meet their hiring goals, or are people still wary?

DarkSideMoon

Just please note I’m not talking about XJT specifically in my response. Just general advice. I’m unsure as to the specific situation at XJT.

Erj135dude

That actually sounds promising. I just talked to the recruiter, so hopefully my schedule next month will let me Interview and get a class date for June!.

701EV

Erj135dude, how old are you if I might ask. Ballpark is good.


701EV

Erj135dude

I'll be 37 next week 😁