quality of life will 1000% be better on the 190 for the next 2 years. You will probably get a line within 5-6 months maybe sooner and then you can commute to a line instead of sitting rsv

When does this August bid take effect?

All of 2020

B. Annual System Bid Schedule On the first Business Day of August of each year, the Company shall post a System Bid for all projected vacancies and/or reductions for the subsequent calendar year. The System Bid shall close fourteen (14) days later at 1200 ET. The Company shall publish the Bid Award with the associated transfer and training dates within twenty-one (21) days after bid closing. The System Bid may contain multiple Bid Effective Dates.
C. Supplemental System Bid Should an unforeseen change in the system schedule warrant a change in staffing, Crew Planning may post a Supplemental System Bid at any time. All Supplemental System Bids will close fourteen (14) days later at 1200 ET. The Company will publish the Bid Award and the associated training and transfer dates no later than twenty-one (21) days after bid closing. Such System Bid may contain multiple Bid Effective Dates but shall not have a Bid Effective Date more than twelve (12) months from the date of opening such System Bid.

Not sure if Long Call Reserve schedules will go senior at all once they become available (by end of 2019) but it's a 14 hour callout so you might be able to sit reserve at home.. just another thing to think about. Also, the lock is only one year for new hires:

K. Equipment Freeze
1. A Pilot who completes Upgrade or Transition into a different aircraft incurs a two
(2) year Equipment Freeze. The Equipment Freeze begins on the date the Pilot
begins training (including home study) and ends two (2) years later on the same
date. A Pilot may not be awarded an Upgrade, Downgrade or Transition into a
different aircraft if the Effective Date of the award is prior to the end of the
freeze, except as provided below:
a. He can hold an Upgrade Status on different equipment, provided it is his
first Upgrade to Captain,
b. He is awarded a new aircraft type: aircraft types are considered new for
the first six (6) Months of revenue service,
c. He is displaced from his Status or Base,
d. Time spent on furlough counts towards the freeze requirements, except the
time attributed to a Pilot’s voluntary recall bypass,
e. He is unable to retain his Status due to limitations on his medical
certificate.
2. A Pilot who completes Downgrade training shall incur a two year Status freeze
beginning on the first day of Downgrade training (including home study).
3. A Pilot who completes Initial new hire training shall incur a one (1) year
Equipment Freeze which begins on the first day of training.
4. The Company, at its discretion, may waive Freezes for purposes of participating
on a specific System Bid. If it chooses to do this, all Freezes are waived
simultaneously for that System Bid only.

Don’t forget you could end up like some of us who had no choice and were voluntold to go to the Airbus. I love the plane, but was planning to bid 190 to minimize being on rsv...

Mattio thank you for posting the language in the contract. Was thinking about long call as well. Just can’t gauge where it will fall seniority wise.

It's a double edged sword because my interpretation is that the long call guys will work a lot. On the other hand, they will know when they're working. You currently don't get many next day assignments on reserve, at least BOS E90 FO, but if you condensed all next day assignments down to the 25% who are long call guys (approximately how it will be in 2020), I think they work a lot. They also have to do more days per month. So you know 14 hours out what you're doing but you're frequently doing something. My best guess is that you'll be able to get LCR if you want it, but just a guess.

Can you elaborate a little on that? I too am getting ready to start and just trying to figure out which way to jump. 190 or Bus.. I live in South Florida so FLL is what would be great, but seeing you have to be on the Bus to get that, I am not sure which way to go. Commutable Line eventually, or figuring out how to get FLL and sit reserve forever.

As a JFK 190 FO I could have had a TON of FLL overnights. Even without bidding for them, I once had 7 in one month. Just something else to think about. And I also don’t know if those FLL pairings still exist.

To answer your question, the 190 fleet, especially on pairings that are in and out of JFK/BOS for 4 days, tend to get broken quite a bit with the operation being what it is. When there are EDCTs/delays/cancelations, often times 190 flights get hosed on a percentage basis more than 320/321s. And on a 3-4 leg day average, statistically there are a lot higher chances of a broken pairing, which often leads to additional pay. I often blocked 50-60% of what I credited, and ended up with premium pay a decent amount. On the bus I generally flew 1 leg a day, sometimes 2, and generally had way fewer delay/cancelations/disrupted pairings. Not to say it doesn’t happen, but it’s just a bit more rare.

As far as pay, year 2 is $120 vs $99. A lineholder 190 guy might make as much as a reserve bus guy with a bunch of premium. Year 3 $140 vs $114. Year 4 $151 vs $114. I wouldn’t stay on the 190 much past a year or 2 unless I wanted to just upgrade on it and minimize time at JBU.

If I lived in FLL and was starting tomorrow I’d be torn. I’d most likely bid the bus and try to be based at home ASAP via the system bid or a base trade. But if I got the 190, I wouldn’t care, and I would switch to FLL 320 FO at the first opportunity. If I commuted from MCO I’d go 190. If I commuted from the west coast I’d go 320. If I commuted from a non JB base to JFK/BOS I’d go 190 for a year or 2 until I could hold a line on the bus (or 220 eventually).

What if you lived a base? I live in Boston and I am about to start applying JetBlue and American are my two top choices because of the Boston base. What air frame would you choose then, also what are the odds of getting Boston in training? I know the second part of the question has a ton of variables so just a guesstament is all I expect. Thanks