We just cancel when there's a raindrop within 200 miles of one of our hubs. Good luck with that.

Good God the tales of non revving on UAL! The worst! Nothing like overselling an RJ by 7. Not to mention the Rolling standby lists regularly +20 deep.

Yeah it was barely a benefit. Never used it again with my wife. We just bought tickets. There was a mainline guy the same day with his wife and he was only about 20 spots higher than me. Terrible!

Yeah it's never a guarantee but I've lucked out traveling around IROPs.

You know better than to make a semi-positive comment aboutJetBlue. You know this...man!

Don't worry, oversold flights will be coming here soon enough.

Yeah every irop. :)

That would be one change I hope they never do.

Would it be bettter to be a new hire on the bus living in NY or BOS and why? Is JFK somewhat senior?

If you are going to be living in base, it honestly doesn't matter. I've been based at both, they all have pros and cons. JFK is more junior, and you will move up a little quicker. JFK is also the largest Airbus base, so more open time and variety. BOS is a smaller base, but I really enjoyed being based there. I'm not the biggest fan of NYC and I hated having to cover LGA or get send to EWR/HPN/etc while on reserve. If you are going to be living in base, I suggest looking at BOS. Lot's of guys live in southern NH that drive down to BOS.

I don't live in base and my family of 5 use travel bennies all the time. Never been turned back either. I use buddy passes to get friends in from the west coast and have never had them stuck at the gate (you can check the loads so if it's full I tell them to stay at home), but it is true that unless it's LA or San Fran, they're most likely taking a red eye in to JFK or BOS and sitting for a few hours before moving onwards.

About how long until a newhire can get a Christmas or Thansgiving off? 1, 2, 5, 10, ... ? I know the recent fleet deferrals may have an impact on this


Does JB throttle back the schedule in the winter months like most airlines do with the summers being the peak? I'm sure they do, so about how many days off a month are typical for a 1yr FO on reserve during the winter? How about a junior FO lineholder during the winter?

Of course the answer depends on equipment and base. I had or could have had Christmas and thanksgiving off my first year, either from the award or by swapping stuff. Couldnt get that many days around it though. The airbus guys with my seniority weren't so lucky.

When I was bidding reserve during the slow months on the 190 I would get 12-13 off from the award, 2 additional pre release days (PRLs), and would usually get 2 more days where I was released early, so 16/17 off, plus some long call. At that time we were fat on e190 FOs (except during irops). That's all dependent on manning and I wouldn't count on it, but there still are usually 2 PRLs awarded to E190 FOs, giving 14-15 days off. My awarded line schedules were usually 16-18 days off with 70-75 hours of credit my first year. JB adjusts bid divisors for each month. So E190 FOs in JFK get awarded between 70-80 hours because we have been the fattest category. For some reason the airbus is run thinner, as is the captain side, so their divisors are higher, so more credit hours which can mean fewer days off. Just my experience, a lot of that is contingent upon base and equipment as well as staffing and what the E190 to 320 transition is looking like, which dictates movement/relative seniority the first 2 years. There will be another large amount jumping 190 to bus in the next 6-12 months I think, so there will be a lot FO movement in the 190 again. Hopefully a bus guy will chime in and give you insight from their perspective.

I was hired in 2013 into the JFK 320 and did 2 months on reserve while the Bos 190 guys were on reserve 9 months.
Heres the rub; This is variable and changes with the tide. Plenty of guys who bid the 190 speak of quick seniority as well, depending on hire date.
I worked my first Thanksgiving but havent had to work a Christmas.
Im bidding ~top 33% in base now and hold weekends/holidays off. Commutability isnt important to me so take that into consideration (quality of trips)
Lately the divisors (min/max) have been high in JFK. This means that your bid award is cluttered with trips to get you to an award of 86-90 hours with 14 off.
These are very general descriptions.
Pm me for more info if ya like.
Good luck

Bid min credit those months with high divisors and get yourself an extra day off... lately jfk 320 FO min has been 81hrs.

Looks like the April 19 class all got JFK 320. Are they putting new hires into the 190 anymore?

Very few... It'll probably be fall/winter when we see an increase again in E190 slots.

Doesnt always work that way unless you do crap day trips (5hours). Usually the last trip bleeds into the mid 80s.

Talked to someone credible who said after the next system bid the hiring will move mostly into the 190.

Thanks for the answers!

Another thing I'd like to verify... are the listed payrates on APC accurate? About $50-60k first year sound right? Is $100k attainable 2nd year on the bus?

Thanks

Correct on both and some local FOs have cleared 195 on 3rd year pay. Not the norm- I only hit 140 year 3-4; I pulled back due to lack of interest.

Training pay is abysmal...$2k a month, so you have to factor that and figure 10 months at 75 hours at $53 an hour plus $4k your first two. Realistically I'd plan $45-50k first year. You'd have to work for $100k/year 2 but it can be done. You just won't get as much time off and you will be picking up open time. Also, since you aren't on property yet, either we get a new contract at the end of the year and $100k will be easy 2nd year for you, or we are in a labor dispute, and I don't think picking up open time will be very helpful to the cause if we are in a labor dispute. So, there's that.

Been here 2.5 years. First year net was around $42K - reserve 6 months, A320. Second year WITH profit sharing and all per diem, night over ride (about 30% of my flying), line holder, junior manning, etc. was $106K GROSS. Profit sharing was a significant bump. Which is now gone.

Wait. No more profit sharing? When did this happen?

Much like the premium pay trigger (it wasn't removed just moved according to Maruter) it has been shifted. In short the 8% profit sharing was given in a guaranteed pay raise and removed from the profit sharing. The company has to reach a 2 financial milestones in order to receive the large amount of profit sharing provided in the past few years.

The airline sold this as an 8% pay raise when, in reality, it robbed Peter to pay Paul.

When you aren't contractually guaranteed anything this is what happens.

LGB commute
 

Any west-coasters commute from LGB to BOS/JFK? If so, could you please PM me? Thanks.

Just a few quick questions- what is your reserve call out time? Is that time to push or check-in? Also, what is the check-in or report time? At my airline, it's 45 mins (therefore the reserve call out is 2 hours to report time which adds 45 minutes as well, so in essence it's 2:45 minutes to push), I assume that's industry standard correct? How does it work at JetBlue? Thanks!

On short call, they call you and you have 15 mins. to call them back, then you get 2 hrs (2.5 for LGA) from positive contact (speaking to scheduler) to report. Report is 1 hr from scheduled departure, they can do 45 mins prior for a deadhead.

Awesome, thanks a lot! With report do you have sign into a computer? or can you just walk right to the gate and get on the airplane? Can you call scheduling to have you sign you in?

Yes, we have positive check-in now. You check in via a company app on your iPad, it only works inside the terminal area. There is currently a grievance on positive check-in.

Ohhhhh that's not good... I can't believe you guys can't just call and say "hey I'm here" even if you're walking to the airplane. Wow.

We used to not call in or otherwise check in at all. Just show up to the gate like big boys. Then this FO named Bart Roberts, who came from AA, brought a stupid georeferenced app idea and unilaterally implemented it.

^^What he said.

I hate to say it, but you don't get treated as a professional pilot at JB. We are all equal according to mgmt.