F9Driver

As confirmed by yet another ground school visit from upper management, we are going to day trips. My friend was just in this week, and someone asked about day trips like usual, but someone else asked about moving forward and getting more block hours and still doing only day trips and 2 days. Management responded, yes, they will continue to do this with the increase in block hours. They say they are more worried about cancelations costing them money, and airplanes out of position than they are efficient routing of planes.

We already do a bunch of 2 days and day trips now, and at years end, we will have 4 bases within an hour of flight time to each other? Not sure how long MIA to ATL is.. but the sentiment is the same. They are gearing up for this, applicants beware.

Try harder to get on at Spirit.
They are hiring before us, and I guarantee they will hire more than us this year.

Or, Allegiant has more bases, maybe one of them suits you more. Plus, you won't play the guessing game on where F9 MIGHT put a base next.

Aero1900

Looking at the March flying, the "going to all day turns" sounds like it's somewhat BS

Denver will be 66% 3 day trips
Chicago will be 60% 3 day trips
Orlando is 70% 2 day trips

Far less day turns than last month

As I've said, you just can't serve 100 destinations doing only day turns. Managment might love the idea, but the logistics of all day turns is not possible. Allegiant serves cities with less frequency than we do and they have 20 domiciles. It's not the same as us

bubair

I am sure many ARE applying to F9 especially because of day trips....😉😉

Aero1900

Right. If you live in domicile, day turns are great, unless you have a long drive.

They are just so efficient. If you can live in domicile, I can't recommend it enough

TOGALOCK

I just went through ground school this month. “We are going to all day trips” was never uttered. What WAS said is that it is expected that day trips will be much more prevalent than pre-covid, but there will still be a mixture of two and three day trips. It does sound like four day trips might be a thing of the past, however.

There will be plenty of local people gunning for the increase in day trips and commuters who will shoot for the two and three day trips. Just like any seniority based bidding, the junior people may not be happy.

The percentage of day trips has been steadily declining over the past four months. The April bid packs are out and have the least amount of day trips I’ve seen in quite awhile.

If there is one thing this airline is not short of is people who hear what they want to hear and cry that the sky is falling. It’s still the finest group of pilots that I’ve ever had the honor of working with, but my God do we have a ton of chicken littles.

Squirrel27

Unless you have almost 100 bases. Which, if you can't a place thats bearable to live out of 100 cities, I don't know what to tell you.

I 100% agree with your sentiment. Day turns might be a larger part of the packet than pre-covid, but I think people are blowing this way out of proportion.

fcoolaiddrinker

As a commuter I love turns. It’s more days off. A day off is worth over 1k for a captain and 700 for an non first year fo. You can get a pretty nice place for that and still end up with more days off. 8 hr turn lines are 20 days off 80 credit. A mix of 6,7,8 credit is 18 off. They weren’t hard to build pre covid and now with the extra 2 weeks to adjust a schedule I’m expecting that to be true again as block hrs come back. It’s also much easier to manipulate a turn line. I guess some people like being at work more for the same $?

SeaRider

As a career-long commuter so far, the idea of this used to send chills down my spine too, but I have change my perspective on it and have come to really love turns. I invest a few hundred bucks a month to rent a comfortable private room (away from the airport), and I bought a in-base car. My base has become like a second home and efficiency of turns is great. Some turn lines have up to 21 days off, and personally, if I never sleep in another hotel again, it'll be too soon. It is what you make of it.

That said, will we see a higher turn percentage than pre-covid? Probably. However, our model does not support going to an all day trip scenario like Allegiant's

fcoolaiddrinker

That’s the way to do it. Came close a few times to my tafb equaling my credit for the month. That’s about as efficient as you can get.

F9Driver

So, its not great if you live far from the airport in domicile, and its not great if you commute. Come on and sign up guys, just live 30 minutes from the field and life is great!

Guys, just be able to afford an extra apartment, and an extra car, and life is great! I guess I have to say it, that's not normal.

These efficient turn lines are only at the top of the seniority list, or you are a slave to the computer for open time. Which, by the way is non existent these days. Once we get back to normal block hours who knows. But I'll say this for the people in the back... THE UNION CAVED. We were supposed to have no less than 4% open time. IT IS NOW: NO MORE THAN 5% OPEN TIME. Yes, that means there is allowed to be 1% open time, and we all know what kinda flying is left over, and its not efficient.