You bid for domiciles while in training, and when a vacancy bulletin comes out (depends on time of the month you start), the awards include those in training. There are no guarantees of LGA being available when you're in the mix, it all depends on who leaves what bases and where everyone else wants to go. The overwhelming odds are that LGA will have openings, though, historically not too many people want it. If it doesn't have vacancies, the next time a vacancy bulletin comes out with openings in LGA, you can probably get it unless some folks senior to you want it. Your bid is a permanent bid that stays on file for all vacancies until you change it with different desires, say you want CHO after a year.

 

I should be in the July ground school and I'm planning on bidding for SBY. I was told there was a lot of movement there with a low cost of living. If this is wrong feel free to correct me. I just don't want LGA...too high a cost of living. Not to mention SBY is about an hour and a half from my parents house...free food . Anyone know how long the reserve at SBY is right now? Is reserve at PDT ready reserve at the airport or do I have to be at the airport within an hour or some other period of time?

Sorry to hijack the thread...

 

As far as I've seen, SBY is not low cost of living, but that's all relative. Relative to NYC or CHO it is cheap, relative to ROA or SYR, it is kind of expensive. If it's where you want to be, it'd probably be just fine and not an expensive place to live, all things being equal. It's a nice little base, park right next to the terminal, 2 minutes from the crew room. Ocean City 30 minutes away, most everything else you want within 15 minutes or so. If you lived there, you'd probably love it.

Reserve call out in SBY would be 75 minutes, that's the default. 90 minutes for an airport with a busing operation, 120 for metro areas (LGA). No ready reserve, the rules for it are too restrictive for the way PDT runs. How long the reserve is changes rapidly, right now new hires might be getting lines, in a few months new hires may sit reserve for a while. Everyone's mileage varies, but I hadn't heard of anyone sitting reserve for more than a couple of months anymore, the way things are going.

Good luck!

 

Interesting to hear that SBY is not that low. I would've figured SYR would've been one of the more expensive bases, being that its in northern NY. Any idea how the movement in SBY compares to the other bases? I've heard that New Bern is a really slow base.

Glad to know about the reserve. I would hate to have to sit at the airport all day...especially a smaller airport like SBY. At least this way I can hang out at home waiting for scheduling to call. I've also heard that people on reserve still fly a lot...is that realistic?

 

Well, I wouldn't state that as a rule SBY is more expensive than SYR, but overall most of the accommodations I've been a part of or heard of have been that way. SYR is cheap from property values on up, a good house can be bought for not a lot of money, and good apartments or whole houses can be rented for reasonable rates. SBY can be pricier because it is a vacation destination, property values are higher, and everything goes from there. Don't get me wrong, it's not like CHO or worse, LGA, you should make enough money to have a decent place to live with no worries. If you're into living there, it can be a fun place.

The movement, maybe someone else can tell you, but I don't believe it's that senior there now, and a LOT of FOs are leaving from all over the company.

Amount of flying on reserve can also vary greatly from time to place, but for the most part reserves are flying all the time right now, they don't have nearly enough pilots to cover the flying they are committed to do. I believe everyone is flying their butts off right now. Everything is subject to change, of course. The good thing about working every reserve day is the money, it's much more profitable to work every day than sit around and goof off. Goofing off can be more fun, and like you said, it's not bad sitting reserve at home, or at the beach in Ocean City (as long as you can get to the crew room in 75 and have phone coverage, you can be anywhere you like).

 

Awesome. Thanks for the help. I'll probably be bidding for SBY. Just gotta get a class date. At least being in SBY means I'm near scheduling. I think on my days off I'm gonna take them out for lunch to get on their good side.

Where are you based and how do you like it?

 

Quick question about this airline. Are most of your trips out and back, or do you have overnights? Also if based out say SBY are you able to fly system wide? Also how is the QOL?

 

Just be cordial to them when your schedule is getting screwed around, it's not completely their fault, and they'll like you. Not working there anymore, but I was based all over. I will say commuting to PDT is pretty rough. Living in base makes all the difference but I was not willing to do that, I won't move, and the schedule and lack of hope for the future was killing me. I had fun there most of the time, though.

The trips are a mix of everything, ranging from out and backs to 4 days, with some 5 days on the build up lines (never published). Certain based crews end up in the hub their base services the most, with some intermix. Some multiday trips will see 3 different hubs. Some trips are all in and out of one. I think SBY sees mostly PHL, and some CLT. You can trade trips with someone from another base but you're on your own to get to the start of the trip in the other guy's base and get back home after. QOL varies, but mostly is OK. Some better than others. If you live in base, QOL would probably be much higher. If you don't mind getting your schedule jerked around and possibly a lot of junior manning on days off for extra money, you'll be ok. If you want a commutable line and your days off to be sacred and not touched by the company, you will hate it. They are scrambling to hire and train new pilots, and going nuts trying to cover their flying every day. It's a mess and diving into it right now can be frustrating if you can't roll with the punches.

Hope all this helps you guys with your decisions.

 

Just be advised that if you go to a base where you end up on reserve, you will end up flying trips out of other bases. I sat on reserve in ROA for 6 months, and I flew with LGA, SBY, MDT, and CHO crews often. Of course if you go to ROA now, you'd get a line right away. Before I left I saw the May bid package - 27 FOs, 29 lines.

 

Hypothetically, if I were in class this Summer, do you have information on what the vacancies are for f/o's in each base? Thanks