Hercdaddy22

How long would it take to get ORD as a new hire after training since it's senior? At least a few months?

Thanks for the info

rcfd13

Airline pilots get time off to travel? I didn't know that.... I still haven't been out of the US.

I guess I've drank the kool-aid too but I'll second everything greenpilot says. I'm pretty happy at Skywest. I have friends at XJT who are happy there too. Guys I know at Eagle and Republic... Not so happy..

My only complaint about Skywest so far is that I don't fly. I've averaged less than 10 hours a month for 7 months now on reserve. That would be great if I lived in base. Not so great as a commuter. It's a good airline though and I still think I made the right choice.

MiLa

At SKYW you should have no problem getting ORD right out of training. However the shortest reserve time is definitely MSP. Ive been here a year and a half and my classmates that went to ORD are just now getting lines and I've been a line holder since day 1.

Nevets

Plenty of Skywest guys at XJT.

rickair7777

Yeay, that's a point. I have never heard of or known a SKW pilot leaving for another regional (no I'm not counting VX, B6, etc).

Well actually I know of one, but the move wasn't exactly his idea if you know what I mean. Maybe that's the one Nevets is thinking of. Actually I could see a junior SKW FO leaving for XJT if he was from IAH or something. But I doubt anyone came for the union

The flip side of that is we don't see a lot of XJT people coming to SKW either (except for a period of time when it looked like the wheels were coming off that bus).

rcfd13

The way the classes are running right now it looks like about a 50/50 shot at getting the Brasilia though. I live 5 minutes from ORD and was given the Brasilia the first year.

Slats

You mean plenty of XJT guys working for SkyWest. I kid, I kid...

MiLa

I'm sorry I should have been more clear. I was just speaking on my RJ class. Yes there is the chance of the BRO. However if you do get an RJ class ORD is likely but of course that's a big if.

sqwkvfr

I would recommend ruling out Republic (rjet) immediately.

I can't begin to tell you how much the lunacy of outstation basing will destroy your quality of life....even if you live in base.

Reports are almost always 0445-0600 and you'll get home sometime between 10PM and midnight...and somewhere in there you have to try to adjust your sleep schedule and fend off the sleeping disorder that you will almost certainly develop.

Crew members living in one of rjet's many outstation bases are finding that if they switch to a hub base -which are very few and very senior- and commute to the outstation in which they live, they are actually spending more time at home, get more productive trips and have a better QOL.

The 170 is a real "g-whiz" plane, but it's not the superjet that some think it is...and flying it isn't going to help your resume. If you're not careful with the e-jets, they'll violate you faster than you can say "Epic load anomaly."

Rjet has NO cancellation pay, unless they reassign you...and guess what, they won't reassign you if there is a reserve pilot available SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY YOU. One crew recently had a 4-day trip that, after cancellation, credited just over 9 hours of pay. If you do the math, the 2nd-year FO made $67 a day BEFORE taxes on that trip.

If you are awarded an 83 hour line, and after trip trades you end up with 75 hours for the month, guarantee is adjusted down, in this case, 8 hours....so if your month goes completely sideways and you drop below the 75 hour contractual guarantee through no fault of your own, your NEW guarantee is 68 hours! Nice, huh?

You'll be working with miserable FAs who were recruited at events in their home cities (many of them hubs where we don't have a base) and then shoved in some BS outstation and told that if they commute, they're "just not gonna last." Not realizing that they were gonna have to move for rjet's crappy FA pay, they end up quitting or being miserable until they can find another job...which, nowadays, can take some time.

Every day at rjet is like the first day in business..all departments are operated with skeleton staff at super-low wages so turnover is high, incompetence is rampant, accountability is non-existant and the third party vendors that the company uses for thing like crew hotels are the some of the worst, most frustrating and least effective people you'll ever deal with. If your flight cancels and you have to stay in a city other than originally planned, be prepared to sit at the airport for 3+ hours before you get a hotel room.

The VP of labor relations is from a law firm that specializes in busting unions....that law firm, BTW, is on full-time retainer with rjet along with another union-busting firm.....and this anti-labor attitude permeates this organization's support staff from top to bottom and seems to guide management's hand in every decision or policy ("how can we make the union look bad here?"). They've tried so hard to make crew members hate their jobs (because their business model relies on a revolving-door style labor force, thus keeping crew members junior (read:cheap)) that most people you talk to are completely miserable. The consensus amongst crew members if that Bedford didn't do his "Undercover Boss" PR stunt on the fixed fee side of the business is because they wouldn't have been able to air most of what his employees would have said about him.

When hiring opens up at larger carriers, there will most likely be a mass exodus of pilots, but don't expect this to be to your advantage: There are between 500-700 of our 2300 or so pilots who are senior captains that live in one of these outstation bases who are never gonna leave -an unintended consequence of outstation basing-....they have their houses, kids, wives/husbands and nearly $100K jobs -firmly ensconced in an outstation city- and they're not going anywhere. Most of the movement will junior captains and FO...many of whom are now very experienced and are more than capable of going straight to where ever without needing to upgrade at rjet. My point?: the hiring boom at the majors will not help lower upgrade times at rjet in the same manner as other regional carriers. If you are looking for a quick upgrade, rjet is not gonna be the place.

The union and the company have been in contract negotiations for 5 years...the company's ludicrous stall tactics include telling the mediator that they just don't know when they are gonna be available for the next mediation session. Rjet is dragging their feet in an attempt to keep their current contract in place in order to mitigate the higher labor costs that came about as the result of the age 65 retirement rule.

Rjet should be dead last on your list. I know you were looking for positive feedback, but there is very that one could say about rjet that is good.

.....And I'm gonna say it again: All other things being equal (which they are not) outstation basing makes rjet the worst regional in it's "peer group" for which to work.

I really wish that someone would have explained this to me before I made the mistake of accepting their offer...

Choose wisely, everyone...if you see or know an rjet pilot, ask him or her if you should work there....I'd be willing to wager that 90% of the pilots that have been there longer than a year will tell you to look elsewhere first.

Nevets

Nope, that's not what I was talking about although I know of one who got the shaft from St George. Luckily I was able to help him get on over here after that goat rope. But it's funny you mention the union thing cause one guy in particular did say that that was one of his reasons for leaving SKW.