Hey guys what bases and airplanes are new hires going too? How’s the quality of life for E175 vs Q400?

 

I think you stumped us there. I'll try for a short answer:

If you're hired into the E175, you can have any base you want as long as it's Seattle. For Q400 FO's, the junior bases are Medford and Portland. Spokane, Boise, and Seattle tend to be more senior. Most of the FO's are getting their base of choice within one year.

As far as the "quality of life" issue, that's impossible for me to answer because I don't know what your priorities are. I expect the jet schedules to be much better, but we're currently way overstaffed on the E175. At the present time, the Q400 pilots are flying a lot and the jet pilots are mostly sitting around. In my opinion, the biggest single factor that will make or break your "quality of life" is living in base versus commuting.

 

You want a cake workload? Go to the E175. Want to "fly"? Go Q400. I can't speak for the Q at Horizon (though I did fly the Q at a previous operator). The 175 will typically have 2 to 4 legs a day. My friends on the Q do 4 to 6 leg days.

Some of the current, cake E175 schedules - 2 day trip example (though it tends to go senior): SEA-MSP-SAN. 20ish hour overnight in downtown San Diego. SAN-MSP-SEA. Other common E175 overnights are ABQ, SFO, SJC, PSC, PDX and YYC. Oh yeah, did I mention you get first class/crew meals on the E175? As we take on more E175s and lose Qs, we will probably see more Q type legs (Short). This will drive Embraer crazy. We'll see how the Alaska mothership handles this fleet transition.
For both aircraft, if you hold a line, you get 11 days off minimum and 12 days off if you are on reserve.

 

There's some decent E175 trips, but I feel like there's more bad ones than good ones.

Lots of 1 leg days for 1.5 credit, circadian swaps, etc. If the same trips were flown by a Q400 you would make 3-5 more credits per trip consistently.

 

Just curious, the company is advertising that people with 1000 hours 121 can upgrade pretty much right away? What's the real story with that? Is it both airframes, only a certain base, etc?

 

It can be either plane, Q classes are available immediately but there might be a delay in class date for the jet. Both the captain award and base follows the normal rules of bidding. They can't hire DEC per the CBA, so you bid on the first of the month. E175 is only based in Seattle for now.

The way it was explained was they bring captain eligible candidates in on the class date that is later in the month so by the time the bid is awarded, you train left seat in the Sims

 

In my indoc class we had a new hire who started with us but pretty much went straight to captain training. During uniform issue he came back with 4 bars so...

And in my Q class we have a guy who started with the FO training, went through VPT and then started over for captain. He’s never flown the Q but obviously has the required hours.

 

The only thing they might not tell is you is that you'll be on reserve for the next 5 years if you upgrade immediately. For the Q will you definitely fly on reserve, but not on the jet right now.


If you are coming for consistent flight time the dash is the better option to upgrade on. If you want to get paid to sit at home/airport and collect min guarantee do the jet.

 

That's what I keep hearing. But I have barely been used on reserve. It felt like getting paid to sit at home. I looked and there were 12 captains on reserve in pdx the other day.

 

Yea with the current E175 fleet at 15, a typical staffing model would required at least 75 captains. With the latest award, we have about 161 captains. Even with 26 E175s projected by year's end, that would require at least 130 captains. There's always the buffer needed for management pilots and instructors that fly "part time", but currently it's paid vacation for most reserves. I'd guess many are taking the quick upgrade for financial reasons and to update their resume/application.

Word on the street is the the company and union are working on an LOA for Direct Entry Captains.