Questions for current XOJET prsnl
 

As a potential applicant, I'd like to learn more about life as an XOJET pilot. There seems to be lots of gouge on operations at the legacies (I.e. Aircraft assignment, bidding, seniority, upgrade, etc...), but not a lot of data on life at XOJET.

Would a current pilot mind messaging me? I'd like to run a few questions by you.

Thanks.

No PMs, so I'll try just posting the questions here?

Do you have any say/preference in the aircraft you are hired into?
Is there some kind of seniority system?
How do you bid for trips (I.e. Pbs, etc...)/do you have any say in where/when?
Are you ever on reserve?
Is there a way to fly for more money (I.e. Picking up a trip)?
The range on the a/c is about 3,000 miles. Is most of the flying in N. America?

Thanks.

1. Don't really have a say in which aircraft you get. Based on the companies needs at the time. Odds are it'll be the X.

2. We bid once per year. based on seniority. They send out a block of weeks and you bid accordingly. No PBS.

3. Never on reserve. Sometimes you'll be on stby at home or in a hotel. But business is picked up and those are short lived.

4. You can fly for more money by working an extra day of OT. $500/day for FO's (i think) and 900/day captains.

5. Yes. Most flying in North America. Lower 48. Occasional trips to AK. Fair amount of trips to HI. You'll do nothing but island trips in the winter. (saint this, saint that.):)

Forgot to ask...what determines your time to upgrade???

Did they pull the plug on their VNY-TEB experiement. They were offering on-scheduled fligts on L.A-N.Y, obviously the most important market in America, but supposely they were loosing money on that. Didn't work out for them

Could you expand in this? Other than competitive pricing, I'm not aware of any program between these city pairs. We fly it all the time, but nothing close to scheduled- service. Perhaps you are thinking of Black Jet, who chartered our planes and then sold the seats? That didn't work for them but it was just another customer for us...

These two city pairs is mostly what we do it seems. Trust me. I've got the fatigue to prove it. :)

where can you be based? they just airline you, or are there specific domiciles

Need to live near cities that have good airline service. They were hiring only for east coast pilots until recently but i think that has changed. $600 a day overtime for FO's if you choose to fly on days off, and $300 extra if you get home after 10 pm on go home day. Overtime is strictly voluntary and never forced upon the pilot. I enjoy flying here and it is a great pilot group, you will have some long days but also occasional down days during a rotation which is 8 on, 6 off. Start and end days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so you can plan very other weekend off. It is better here than most mom and pop charter companies as well as places like TMC jets, Delta Private Jets , etc. from what i hear.

It's a combination of merit based mixed with seniority based. You need 5 Evals from Captain's recommending you to become an "A" SIC. Once an "A" SIC you need 5 more Evals for upgrade. After that it's into the pool for the Captain's board which is supposed to be based on seniority. Or that's the theory anyways... :rolleyes:

You can make "A" SIC pretty quickly if you bust your butt and do the job right but after that you're at the mercy of attrition and growth. Though there's been a decent amount of attrition with people headed to the majors lately so who knows what the actual upgrade times are at right now.