I understand completely! I've lived all over the US, and very deliberately settled in the Denver area.

Having said that - I seriously doubt that upgrade in Denver, for a new hire, will happen anytime soon. The growth is happening elsewhere and there are a bunch of Captains who want to bid back to Denver ASAP after having taken 1st available upgrade in ORD for $$ or whatever was important to them.

If you don't mind being a professional FO then Denver is easily doable - for now. Plans are changing so often (or they're just telling us about them with so little heads-up) that planning your life here is the psychic hotline's turf ;-)

Good luck!

 

How long did the upgrades have to commute before a captain line was feasible in DEN? I'd be willing to commute IF and ONLY IF I already lived in Colorado.

 

You will be able to hold a CA line in DEN in approximately 2046, A.D.

 

Sooo.....10+ years?

 

Yeah, I think so. Right now the junior Denver captain is about 10 years. With Chicago growing and a new base right around the corner, the Denver captain vacancy will be a very hot commodity. There are a fair amount of guys living in Denver, commuting to Chicago to be in the left seat, waiting to get back.

Being a Denver FO is easy, being a Denver CA is a career wait.

 

Yeah JerkStore, looking at previous data is worthless because there was zero hiring/movement here for years, and now it is in full scale. Plus the focus is growing the airline outside of Denver right now.

What's happening is this: Senior Denver FO's are upgrading outside of Denver (the only upgrades available) This opens up Denver FO spots that new-hires fill into. All the upgrading for the foreseeable future will be for the new growth which is NOT Denver. So the only CA spots in Denver will be from attrition/retirements which isn't that much. Possibly one day in the future they will grow Denver, but I doubt it. Denver has 300 crews right now. I'm thinking Spirit has no base close to that size. Some Jr Denver CA's are concerned DEN will shrink. So I'd say Mr. Chow's prediction of year 2046 is dead on!

But F9 Driver is also correct I think. If you don't mind the right seat, you probably can hold Denver indefinitely, well unless they shrunk it drastically.

A more realistic hope for CA out west, in my mind, would be a LAS or PHX base in the future when we are much bigger and expanding not ONLY in the east.

 

Ran up to the gate last second yesterday (ORD-PHL), flight was oversold and delayed, gate agent & CA made sure I got on, absolutely fantastic crew and really appreciated the help!!!!!!

 

I don't see any new hires ending as Denver Captains any time soon. Sulkair did a good job of outlining why.

We had an upgrade go from DEN FO - ORD CA and immediately (2mos?) traded with a DEN CA for the DEN base. The DEN CA is moving east and wanted an easier commute. The new DEN CA has been with F9 since 2004, got extraordinarily lucky to have had that happen, but will likely sit reserve forever - or until/unless DEN shrinks more, and gets displaced elsewhere.

JoeyMeatballs - I'm glad it worked out for you! With our outsourced gate agents it's hit and miss depending on the phase of the moon, but if you can get the crew's attention we'll do everything in our power to bring you along for the ride.

 

Does anyone know from experience how long between getting a CJO after the interview to receiving an official letter/email typically takes? Any info is appreciated.

 

Anywhere from a less than a week to several weeks. Seems to depend on how far out your class is. You can always email and ask when you can expect to be receiving your emails.