DAL 11/12 Class
 

Does anyone know if the 11/12 class has been filled?

Don't know but...
 

I don't know if it is filled, but Brian Bolt called me and two other people that interviewed around the 1st of Oct to put us in that class. I think he called on 19 Oct, so my guess would be that it is filled. Any how, hope to see you there if it is not filled yet.

RUMOR is that both Nov. classes will be widebody only. Let us know when you get your assignment.

Tom

I have heard that rumor as well. I would be more than happy to post the results from Atlanta.

When is the second Nov. class? How many in Dec?

I am also curious to see which class is being filled now.
OK to train as of Oct 22.

Thanks

Lifeisgood,

From my conversation with Brian two weeks ago, 11/12 and 12/3 were the only two classes left this year. I am sure nothing is carved in stone but he sounded like those were the only options till January.

BFS

BFS,
Thank you. I was told the same info (1 Nov, 1 Dec.) during my interview in mid Oct.
I imagine guys will post if there are changes.

Thanks

Do you have any idea wheter or not he has started to call people for the December class? I was cleared to train as of the 24th of Oct, and is just curious as well. Thanks for ANY info regarding these classes.

FlyingViking,

He said there were two classes 11/12 and 12/3, which one did I want. I said the sooner the better. I interviewed at the end of September and got the call in the middle of October.

BFS

Widebody only? 777, 765? What?
You don't mean 767/757 Category do you?
Has anyone noticed te second year pay on the "Widebody only" categories? Is NY THAT junior?

Seems like some would commute for a $30,000 to $40,000 pay raise. It would be good to know more before the next AE.

I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express so go easy on me if I'm off. The 777 will never see new hires IMO. The highest 777 F/O # is about 4000 ish. New hires are in the 7000+ range. The 765 is purely an ATL aircraft and it too is fairly senior ( I think we have some 765 flying in LA as well). With the 9 + 777's coming over the next 2-3 years, all of that is subject to change as we are opening a 777 NY base. We might pick up more 777's, but seeing is believing. Also, from the few 777 guys I've spoken too, they usually get about 9 days on and 21 days off. Tough life!


If you drive to NY or was raised on Nathans, you can sit reserve at home. Who wants to commute to reserve in Kew Gardens to sit with ten of your new best friends? Things are so dynamic right now and what 'gouge' you get today could be null and void in six months. It probably won't change, but you never know.

Tom

Did I mention I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn last night?

By "widebody only" the reference is to the 7ER out of NY. The pay is identical (for all intents and purposes) to domestic 75/6 pay.

777 and 765 pay are close to one another. Like my esteemed colleague mentioned, they are both senior...very senior.

There is a ton of movement right now and following our next AE there will be even more.

Good luck.

Is there any info out there on the classes for next year? Or the number of new hires projected next year?

Spoke to one of the Chief Pilots recently. He said we were looking at hiring 750 pilots next year. So far this year Delta has hired 344:)

I was told 600-700 new hires in 2008 with 2 classes per month starting January.
Mid October info straight from Capt. K.

If anyone heard different (latest and greatest) please post.

2 classes/month. 35 per class. All year.

How long after class starts does the assignment drop come?

3 TO 4 HOURS

On the first day you will know what base and aircraft you are going to by lunch time if not earlier.

To amplify, when you show in the morning on the first day the the list on the wall and seating are in order of senority. Sometime in the morning, they will list all the spots. Example:10 NYC-7ER, 4 ATL-767, 11 NYC-MD88, etc. There will be exactly the number of spots availiable as there is people in the class. There are no left overs. After you come back from lunch, they will ask #1 what he wants, then #2 and so on. Usually the bottom of the list do not get a choice. Do your homework before you show up and think about what you want. You are allowed to ask questions like, will I be able to get back to ATL quicker in a MD-88 or 767?, and they will answer to the best of their ablilty. One guy said he was torn between MD-88 or 7ER. They asked him do you want to get back to Atlanta ASAP or see the world? He said see the world, so he picked NYC-7ER. There is no seat lock for new hires, so you can bid out at the next AE. If you switch airplanes, 2 year seat lock and more time in the school house in Atlanta. No lock for switching bases.

Good luck

Any chance they reverse the seniority process (i.e. start from "0000" then go up) with the start of the new year?

In a parrallel universe and monkeys fly out of my butt.... But wouldn't it be nice?

Not without a change to the pilot contract. Earlier in the year they were doing it from 0XXX to 9XXX but it was brought to their attention by ALPA that the contract states 9XXX to 0XXX so they fixed it and then they also had to reassign seniority numbers to the classes that were done in reverse.

Assignment emailed to us today
 

Well you guys were right on, our entire drop was just emailed to us today from Brian Bolt. 25 76ER JFK - I guess not much to think about there.;)

Nice of them to send us the info early since they already knew where we would be.

well...at least the guy with last four of 9999 knows he has 24 under him. LOL

Hmmm, wonder what the December class will bring... Any takers?

Same thing. Believe it or not.

No kidding? What about Jan?

Ok, I said that and then thought about it....Dec classes SHOULD be more of the same IF....and this is a big IF, this AE award doesn't drastically alter things.

I don't know if anyone really has a Jan crystal ball yet. I saw the Dec numbers personally, but all of that stuff is something totally out of my scan now.

Don't stress about it. There isn't a bad new hire seat in this joint.

Look at the AE. From my understanding they just need to post openings in the base not on the aircraft. This said with the ton of 88 opening in NYC, it will allow them to fill the ER up. If you look at the projections they need about 110 more F/O's on the aircraft. It is not open for bid, so it would be easy to assume that there are going to be a lot of ER's in the new hire classes. Look for more of the same in ATL too. They are still showing about 80 short on the 767 as well.

ACL - why then are only 10 767 slots posted for ATL? Are you telling us to expect more than what is posted? Or different aircraft than what are posted?

Does it appear that Delta holds out some of the more senior slots (like 767 ATL) for new hires making it more difficult for MD88 pilots who would like to fly the Boeing to bid over? Or pilots who want to bid out of New York to get back home (where ever that is). Am I missing something?

Not that I'm complaining, DL beats any other airline out there right now.

I don't know that anyone has the precise answer for that BB. I think ACL's thinking is that compared to what the 76 currently has for staffing compared w/ the projections for early summer, we are 80 short in that seat.

We are short in that category, because a TON of 76 domestic has been handed out to the ATL 7ER category for the last few months.

I'm guessing that the planners are also taking into account historical leakage from the 7ER / NYC. With every AE they will lose a certain percentage of new hires to different seats/domiciles. I'm just guessing the new hire numbers and the AE numbers are programmed w/ a best guess towards AE movement.

prof

Professor:

What is the typical ATL 7ER trip like? Still a bunch of 5 to 7 day back and forth to Europe? The MD88 might be a lot of work, but the hours and trips are good if you like to fly and like to be home.

Nice thing about Delta is the choice.

Honestly I don't know, except for what I have seen on the bid packages. I'm still in training. I just know what I have seen in the bid packages, because I'm trying to figure out if I want to stay in ER's or move back to the ATL. /////////

Sorry, misread the first part of that. ATL ER trips for Dec are some europe, decent amount of domestic and S.A. I know little about JFK and even less about ATL.

As far as JFK goes, what I have seen is 4-7 day trips with all sorts of variety. For example we have a few "W's" we fly, like JFK-CDG-CVG-CDG-JFK and JFK-SVO-ATL-SVO-JFK. We also have there and backs w/ a variety of layover lengths that seem to vary by the time of year and destination. I'm still trying to figure out how to fly the damn thing so I'm not a great source right now.

Delta RULES for choice. I'm sure there will be rough seas ahead at SOME point for us here, but I'm pretty stoked to be here. And the variety of flying is really something great to have in your career here.

JFK is mostly 3 day (2 leg) trips, although the fall and winter schedule has more 4 day trips (also two legs).

We have a daily 7 day Moscow/Atlanta/Moscow trip (this is a six day trip in summer), as well as daily 6 day Paris/ Cincinnati/ Paris and Frankfurt/ Cincy/ Frankfurt trips. (All are 4 legs, with 3 layovers.) A 6 day Rome/ Cincy/ Rome may come back to NYC next year.

Next year we will also get a Dakar/ Nairobi/ Dakar 6(?) day, and possibly a Dakar/ Capetown/ Dakar 6 day.

We only have one S.A. trip for now: a 4 day Sao Paulo trip with 2 legs and a 36 hour layover.

The Drop
 

Class 11/12 received all 7ER to JFK email sent out this morning.

Alright Prof (or CVG767A), since you've been studying it: are the longer NYC7ERB trips going senior or junior? That's going to be the difference maker for me choosing relatively quick line holder in NYC vs. long time reserve in ATL. If I can get two long trips and some MLOA each month, I can buy two tickets to commute to work off-line without the stress for less than an ATL crash pad each month. (Missed you at the yellow fever shot party this afternoon...)

The most senior trips are the higher time three-day trips; most junior are the low time trips (LGW,MAN,DUB,SNN). The four to seven day trips tend to be spread out through the mid to lower seniority range.

Moscow is a seven day trip in winter- it goes pretty junior. I expect that the long Africa trips will go junior. The S.A. flying goes junior, but may not be a long enough trip for you.

I doubt that you'll need to buy tickets to get to work between the LGA and JFK flights.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

It's pretty thin direct from JAX. (3 x JBU--E190 usually--to JFK and 3-4 x COM RJ to LGA vs. 10-11 x DAL--mostly 75/76--and 5-6 x TRS 717 to ATL.)

Besides, dropping $200-300 a month on JBU tickets to work is pretty much a wash with a crash pad in ATL. I'd NR home. And, I could WS for ATL trips in open time.

I think everyone's eyes are getting bigger than their stomachs on this one, including mine. While there is a great deal of growth in the ER B seat, for now it is from the bottom. That isn't to say that guys aren't going to bid in on top of us that can hold a line 12 months ago on the ER. In other words, I have great hope that the 80-ish newhires going to the ER are going to push me into a lineholding seniority position, but I'm not counting on it at all.

I'm a reservist as well. However I am planning on being on reserve in JFK, period...until I'm a captain. Anything else will be a pleasant surprise. I used to live overseas for some time and love international travel. And while reserve may suck; the flying and the layovers will rock. Save Ghana and Nigeria and maybe LGW. My reserve gig is a bunch of tactical .9-1.1 sorties 2x a day....so I get plenty of up and down crap, if you will.

Now that being said, I don't have an illuminating answer to your question. It would appear that the most recent awards have a fair mix for all lineholders, but clearly the more productive (longer) trips skew towards the senior side.

Grab me tomorrow and we can jabber about it. We have a 6pm showtime but will be in the schoolhouse around 3.

I think its a crapshoot to a certain extent...but in this crapshoot there are no snake-eyes.

I'm all yellow fevered up....sorry I missed it. I have to go see the Frogs next week. REALLY lookin' forward to that one.

Same here. I am leaning toward bidding:

ATL7ER line holder
ATL767 line holder
NYC7ER line holder
ATL7ER
ATL767
NYC7ER

In other words, and given that the first two are definitely a pipe dream right now, I'll prefer having a line in NYC to being on reserve in ATL, even with the far easier commute to ATL for me. Likewise, if I'm going to be on reserve either way, I'd rather do it in ATL and move back to NYC when I can hold a line.

Probably going to miss each other this week. We've got the A periods, so I'll be back in the crash pad drinking beer at noon. (Hmm, I probably need to look over my procedures and get to bed...) Gretzky's awfully quiet tonight. You've got him all paranoid, haven't you?

Agreed. I am glad the worst thing that I'm looking at right now is widebody international on reserve as a new hire. Pretty cool, actually, but I do want to take the best advantage of getting in near the top of the hiring wave. In fact, it's just nice to be somewhere with choices, limited as they are as an FNG.

Me too. See you there. Wee wee.

P.S., we have hijacked the hell out of this thread, considering its subject... We'll have to stop in and apologize to the new class on Monday...and thank them for propping us up another 25 numbers in category, at least temporarily. Hope they don't figure out eCrew before the AE closes! ;)

BTW, congrats to all you guys! You're in for a very good experience over the next two weeks.