phl08

Do you have any say in base preference, and if not given can you defer until it's available? If deferral is not an option, what's the process to request next available opening that you're eligible for at said base?

Obviously, everyone wants to avoid a commute but for those who live in cities that are already a base is seems to be counterproductive to assign them to somewhere that involves leaving home many hours earlier (or the night before) to fly their assigned trip.

HockeyPilot1

Philly is the junior base, all new hires start there. Likely can hold Harrisburg out of training. Junior FO in Charlotte was hired in October of last year. There’s a vacancy bid every month and you list your base order preference in that and will be awarded what your seniority allows you to hold.

There isn’t an airline in the world where you can “defer” or whatever until you can hold your preferred base. Basically every airline pilot has had to commute at some point

Brickfire

Counterproductive is not a criteria in the process.

Everything is assigned by seniority. As the new hire, you pick from what nobody else wanted yesterday. So long as they keep bringing in new hires, your lot will improve soon.

The seniority system can produce odd results, but if you don't assign by seniority then the other options are pretty much 1) random and 2) "merit" = company favoritism. You would MUCH rather commute out of your base for 3 months rather than spend a career wondering if you'll get based in Altoona if you write up too many things.

phl08

Thanks for the insight. What happens in a scenario where you're freshly minted out of training and based at one airport on reserve, but you live more than 2 hours commuting distance to that airport? Do you need to commute to that base and find a crashpad and potentially not even fly? Or how do they determine if you are on a 2 hour or 12 hour clock to get to the airport in that kind of situation?

Cleared4appch

I don’t think any airlines go out of their way to determine how far of a drive all their reserve pilots are from said bases, though I could be wrong on that. I do know at my carrier that they will determine how far out you are if you’re applying for the commuter hotel benefits. So people can’t cheat the system. But if you’re worried about not being close enough or just outside of that 2 hour drive ‘window’ from a base near you that you’re assigned, it would be best if you moved a little closer. Or you could get a crashpad or hotel and be very close. Sucks in that you won’t be at home much, but you don’t wanna be the pilot that can’t report to an assignment on time. Not a good look. Exactly how far out of the window are you for say 2 hour call out?

phl08

I am 30 minutes door to door to PHL and about 80 from EWR. LGA or JFK would be 2 hours in good traffic (if I left home the second I was called up). I don’t plan on moving so I’m trying to determine the best route to go in applying to regionals and - if given the choice of offers - which would potentially minimize commuting during the time I’m on reserve. It would be icing in the cake if I got PHL or EWR as a line holder. But I’m more willing to commute when I’m no longer on reserve.

When someone upthread mentioned that juniors at piedmont mostly go to PHL as of now, but then could be assigned MDT…that would be an example if something that’s not commutable in 2 hours from where I live if I was assigned reserve there, and I can’t imagine crashing somewhere closer to MDT only to not be called for duty.

Ravenwing

If you want the job, you are going going to have to pay your dues and start at the bottom. A lot of pilots fought hard for the contract that determines how bases are assigned, and things would be a lot harder for you if they hadn’t.

It also doesn’t do you any good to choose between regionals before you have the job offers. Put in the work to get the CJOs, hope you get multiple class dates, and if you are lucky enough, then you get to choose what is best for you.

Lots of pilots before you have been stuck getting crash pads in far away places only to rarely be called to fly. I have been there done that. If you are lucky, you might avoid it, but you are not entitled to special treatment and you don’t get to cut in line.

phl08

Thank you - I expected a response like this and should have clarified that I do understand all you mentioned about paying the dues and start at the bottom. My *hope* is that my current living location in a metro area close to several large bases (for many of the regionals and all the majors) gives me some better options to avoid the crashpad reserve commuter life, how short or long it may be. If I have to suck it up, sure - I'll do it. But I get that I should probably apply the regionals that have enough bases East of the Mississippi and see where the chips fall.

Ravenwing

What you have going for you is that PHL and LGA especially tend to be junior bases and are likely to stay that way. And even if you did have to get a crash pad in New York, it’s a lot easier when you can drive there in two hours. Some people even pack a bag, drive closer to their base and hang out to see if they get called, and drive home when they don’t get called or it’s passed rush hour so they could get there in time.

If I were you I would focus on your long term career goals. The legacy airlines prefer to hire from their competitors rather than hurt their own feed. If you go to Piedmont, you have an excellent chance of getting to UA or Delta but AA doesn’t hire many wholly owned pilots outside of their flow. Many people jump to a LLC like Jet Blue and then keep applying to airlines they would rather work. Piedmont would position you for getting hired at United, quite possibly within the first year with as much hiring as they are predicting, and EWR seems to be available in every United new hire class. New York is a junior base for Delta.

Endeavor would position you for a job at AA or United. Republic is trickier because they have codeshares with AA, Delta, and United. I think the legacies are still slightly less likely to hire from Republic than from their competitors. But I know lots of Republic pilots are getting hired, it just might slow you down a bit depending on where you want to go. JetBlue is a perfectly good destination airline for someone living where you do also.

You have to get the class dates first though, then you get to choose.

MisterNarwhal

At Piedmont, you're guaranteed to get your #1 choice of base (so long at that choice is PHL). I don't think anyone has been assigned MDT recently, although has been a TDY (temporary duty) assignment for a few months. But that comes with its own set of rules and benefits, and there have been plenty of volunteers in the last couple of months. The latest bid had only 1 TDY slot. Current junior FO in Charlotte in April is Aug '22 hire.

It doesn't matter if you live 10 minutes, 3 hours, or 13 hours - short call reserve is a 2 hour call out. Plan accordingly. If you need a crashpad for reserve, it sucks, but that may just be the reality if your unable/unwilling to move. Good news is that it will temporary. Also good for you, with PHL being junior, you won't have to worry about any of this.