Never expect what makes financial or common sense. You'll only be disappointed.

We used to fly captains in the right seat and leave FOs at home because we were fat on captains. It's what we do.

 

Well, if you're senior enough, you can hold trips that get you 22-24 hours of credit per trip. do 4 four days and grab a nap = over 100 hours credit.

I agree. An FO will REALLy have to bust his balls to get close to the same as a captain on guarantee. But, have you ever sat reserve for long at ASA? The prospects of upgrading into a reserve slot on the captain side and sitting there for years isn't that appealing. All the movement is on the bottom end of the captain list, reserve slots being vacated by other reserve captains who've made the jump. I wouldn't ever anticipate being a Captain at ASA and having partial weekends off with a good chance of seeing your family around the holidays consistently.

 

Most of my first 4 years was on reserve. I would rather be on reserve as a captain.

 

One flaw in the math....forgetting per diem into those calculations. With my total compensation last year, it comes out to an average of 124 hr/month. I actually averaged about 109 per month. You'll get per diem in additional to working instead of sitting in a crash pad, paying money to sit there and making nothing.

This year, I'm averaging 114.7 right now per month. Highest was 125.17, lowest was 101.5. Pretty close to a junior captain sitting on reserve. Only thing that plays a difference, is I may get some PIC time every month. Which IMO, isn't the most important thing. QOL is, and I'd get more time at home by working a lot and driving to/from work, than having to commute to reserve or even commute as a captain to a line, due to the loss of money for places to stay with uncommutable trips, or the loss of income on the trips that I could commute with.

 

You're certainly the anomaly. How many days did you work last year? How many nights away? Good on you for having the drive!

On the other hand, you could upgrade (if this was an option) and work 50-100 less hours a month. That's significant. I think you live locally so the commute is irrelevant.

 

The only way you're able to do this is you are bidding in the top 15% of the 700 flying 4 27+ hour trips then picking up at least one if not two naps per month and/or flying six days in a row (1 4 day trip backed up by a 2 day trip). You're flying a minimum of 18 days if not more. Glad you're able to do it...I'm burnt out flying an average of 98 hours per month on the 200...highest being 113.

 

Possibly. As a line holder, yes. As reserve, it depends. If you're not being used, then it would be more time off. But if you're being used, it would be working about the same amount of time.


I'm bidding in the bottom 25% of line holders in my base. I bid a lot of soft credit, which allows me to pick up other trips. Most of the trips I pick up, are from other crew members and not from the company.

I do average about 12 non-working days per month. But I also live in base. For me, I do quite a bit of day lines (a handful per month) where it has an early report, and I'm done by 1-2 pm. Credit is around 6-7 hours with these, and it's like a normal job being gone from 9-5. My wife is gone working at those times anyways, so why stay home and do nothing when I could make a little bit of extra money for our future?

To each it's their own. I have the drive to bust my ass right now to pay down debt so when we start a family, we won't be as burdened with bills. This will also allow me to spend more time at home with the family. I'll look later at what my flight hours, and my total credit hours were for the entire year last year. Right now, the IT system for previous paychecks is down, so I can't load it up.


Forgot to add one more thing in. I did the math with going to a place like PSA, TSA, etc (wouldn't do it, just did the math) for a quick upgrade. Lets say I upgraded within a year. I may work less, but with trips that that you cannot commute to, you have the risk of needing a hotel on the front and/or backend. If you do have a trip to where you can commute, you also run the risk of not being able to get on, and losing credit then. I'd also lose the ability of picking up day lines. So while the hourly rate would be higher, I'd come out at a close to break even/loss when factor in hotels, crash pads (for reserve), loss of credit, etc. There is also the factor of insurance rates being higher for a family, so while I make more, more goes to cover insurance premiums.

 

That is probably still cheaper than having a whole another body on property. Be careful what you wish for.

 

I wouldn't say wishing for it, just ideas to look at. It's beyond me to crunch all the numbers for it, but I'd prefer the company and union to discuss all options, and pick the best ones for the pilot group.

 

Reserve Captains being forced to fly as FOs was a big part of why the last TA went down in flames. As said above, we would again be back to the scenario where reserve FOs never fly, and reserve CAs never leave the airport. Not to mention most reserve CAs on the 700 haven't sat right seat in 6-8 years, and some of them were never even FOs on the plane. I think it would be a big safety risk, not to mention a huge QOL loss for those involved. But thanks for trying to throw the junior CAs under the bus so you can upgrade a little quicker... and become one of them. Then we will wait to see if your mind changes.