Airlineapps.com replacement
 

Airlineapps.com is terrible. As an industry, it's embarrassing that we have to use a 15 year old, horribly designed website to apply for airline jobs. I'm considering creating a replacement.

Some of my questions are:

Who are the decision makers, at regionals especially, who choose to use airlineapps? And is its use so entrenched in the industry that a replacement would be a tough sell? Do the unions have anything to do with it?

If anybody knows a bit about the subject, I'd love to learn more.

No pilot should have to pay $50 to apply for a job. They even require a 'set up' fee for first time subscribers. Since when did anything on the internet require set up?

It's owned by a delta pilot, so I don't imagine Delta will be a customer of yours. There is also pilotcredentials.com. Good luck in your endeavor.

What is so horrible about it? I thought it was pretty easy. Fill out one app, then the addendums. Couldn't haver been easier. Airlineapps didn't charge me anything until after the first year, or until you wanted to apply to more than one airline.

Pilotcredentials on the other hand, you better have your log book cut up 100 ways from Sunday to fill that mess out. And you have to do it for every airline, that's the most infuriating part.

Filling out the times on apps was a big pain!!!! However it is nice you only have to do it once.

Not as familiar with Pilotcredentials. I just had a look. Maybe it's a better service.

If Airlineapps worked, these and other forums wouldn't be full of people asking questions about how to get it to work correctly. I think an improved site could provide a much better user experience as well as a way for pilots/employers to view flight experience that's closer to what some of the popular electronic logbooks offer. It also lacks a mobile site.

On Airlineapps it isn't even clear when an application has been submitted after an update. One recruiter I talked to mentioned having set something up to prevent Airlineapps 'spam', which I imagine is the result of pilots repeatedly updating and re-submitting their profiles. It's just a bad system.

Not to mention cost...

If you feel that strongly about it, get to work on banging out some code and try to sell it to the airlines.

Ha. Yes, I do feel strongly about it (oddly). I guess it's always bothered me that, avionics aside, many of the technology-related particulars you come across in the aviation industry seem to be sort of second rate. Training software, scheduling systems, IE6 on FBO computers, etc. And why do FBOs still pay for WSI weather?

Anyway, I'd like to create something, but want to make sure there aren't any big road blocks first. It looks like Pilotcredentials.com, which also looks a bit crusty, has a two year head start.

The only two pilot specific application systems are Airlineapps and PilotCredential though some airlines use their own systems (like JetBlue - which is coming out with a new system in November)

I recommend a FAQ where applicants can review common questions, submit new ones and review answers provided by website staff.

That way we can save APC for complaining:)

You're correct. We should be complaining about our companies, not unrelated websites. It's what pilots do. My small airline is losing one of its biggest complainers on Monday, and it's actually kind of sad. Cynicism is going to drop a notch.