Please point out the demeaning part in my reply.

The only part I saw that might have been demeaning was his; "...don't even care if it's Delta."

 

This thread here gives you a good idea of schedules, actually, as well as how the heavy flying is done @ Delta, United, and American, as well as a non-sked.

 

By sample schedule I mean what did you fly last week, last month, etc. I figure if I can get a couple of them to shed some light on a recent trip they've had, that's a sample. And by 'don't care if it's Delta' I meant if your a 747 pilot for another airline, I'm interested as well. I guess I'm not up on the whole forum thing where people without any information give information any ways. Good info 80ktsClamp, Sniper. Thanks.

 

Last week I was on vacation, I went to my daughter's graduation. The week before that I was off. The week before that I flew a 29:20 five day ATL-Dubai trip, one leg over, one leg back, 48 hour layover. The week before that I did the same. Next week I'm doing it again. And in two weeks, again. And again some more, into July.

Our bidding system limits the amount you can be initially scheduled in the bid awards to somewhere between 67 and 82 hours. For most of our 777 trips that means two and a half 4, 5 or 6 day trips per month, with the other half trip spilling over to the next month to keep you below 82 for the month. That usually means working about 12-14 days per month.

There are a few longer trips worth more time, like the 6 day Sydney worth 38, two of those gets you 76 hours in 12 days, 4 of which you should not even show up if you live on the west coast, because they are scheduled as deadheads to/from LAX-ATL to get into possition to fly LAX-SYD. I did 3 of those in January-Feb.

The really senior guys usually bid the 3 day ATL-Tokyo trip, worth 27:00, three per month=81 hours for 9 days of "work". But think about this, each of those 3 day trips has a 24hr. layover in NRT...so really you are only 'working' (flying) 2 of the 3 days.

And since it's over 12 hours both ways, there are 4 pilots, (two Capt.s, two F/O's) so you are going to be in the bunk -half- the flight, both ways...so...really, on that 3 day trip, you are actually "working" only about 1 day. The other time you are in the bunk or on the layover. So, if you can hold it, seniority wise, you are really only working 3 days per month, for 81 hours. That's what I used to tell my MD-88 buddies. And that's why it's senior. I flew it for two years straight when I was a senior F/O on the MD-11, 13 years ago. If I never drink another Asahi I'll be happy.

The Junior guys have to fly to Lagos every week and risk bodily harm or malaria, that's why it's junior.

The 747 guys fly a lot of longer trips, 10-14 days, starting in DTW they go to NRT and then in and out of Tokyo to all over Asia. Those longer trips pay more time so they only do 1 or 1 1/2 trip per month. I don't like to be away from home more than about 5 days at a shot so even though they just built some 10 day trips for the 777, (ATL-NRT-LAX-HND-LAX-HND-dh to NRT-ATL) I won't bid them. I'll be going back to Dubai or Joburg or Tel Aviv or Sydney instead.

What "light" do you want shed on a recent trip? You want to know where the best bars are in Sydney? Or the cheapest hookers in Singapore? Or both?

 

How long does it take to hold the 777 @ Delta?

 

In which seat? Left seat, I'm guessing about 20 years to be at the very bottom, sitting reserve, never flying, except to Lagos on Christmas, New Years and July 4th.

Right seat, I'm not sure who the junior guy is or when he was hired, I could look it up but it would take me about 3 beers, and by then I'll be in bed.

 

Junior 777 FO is a mid 2000 DL hire, which equates to a mid-late 1999 NW hire.

747 FO has being going almost 1000 #'s junior to the 777 FO.

 

Well I just looked it up, the bottom DAL 777 Capt. was hired June 9, 1988. So that's almost exactly 23 years ago and I'm willing to bet if there are any wide body displacements in this upcomming bid, he may be bounced off it, depending on who gets displaced and what, if anything, comes into ATL. (A330 time is the rumor, at the loss of 767-400 time)

So there you go.

 

None DL 777 schedules -

2 day trips to Europe. 3 day trips to Europe. Typically 4-5 in the month, depending upon your crew base(East Coast does 5, bases farther west do 4).

4 day trips to South America. Typically do three of them and a Europe trip.

3 day Asia trips. Do two of those and a Europe trip. Or maybe 3 Asia trips.

Most of the guys holding the 777 lines could be Captain, and the real senior guys could be 767, or even 777 CA's. So by the time guys can hold the 'sweet' 777 trips they have the option of upgrading to Captain on a domestic n/b.

 

Apparently the super premium widebody flying is so good, you get really grumpy when you have to come home and peruse the forums.