Mustache

Title says it all

WhiteMorpheus

Right now, it's not.

Pluses:

• Relatively short reserve times as FO (base dependant)
• Immediate upgrade at 1000hrs of 121
• Recent and additional flow increase
• Rotor Transition Program
• SAP (for now)

Minuses (things others do better):

• Pay (compared to Endeavor)
• Reserve rules
• Forced upgrades
• No assistance/displacement pay when forced(compare to Envoy)
• Flow times (realistically 7-8 years or more)

I'm sure others have their own lists. This is my first regional, so my view may be limited and short-sighted.

JayBee

All in all, its a regional - so like any regional... it has its minuses. Its easy to come on here and gripe and not speak of the positives. That said I do not avoid the negatives by any means. That said I agree with the list above but will add two more cents worth.

Plus

• First year pay with sign on bonus was pretty dang good, I made 60k without really working very hard at all
• I was able to make a very commutable schedule with the SAP
• several times I took a SAPcation of 10 days off in a row and still did 80 hours of flying(pay)
• great travel benefits on largest airline in the world

Minus

• contract, though written in plain english and 20 6th graders could all come to the same conclusion about what something means = the company will interpret it in a way you could never possibly imagine
• our weaksauce union will say "the company is free to interpret it however they want" instead of sticking up for its members and fighting tooth and nail for you
• LoAs and contract has more holes than a swiss cheese factory
• union communication with the exception of a few great members is somewhere between sucks horribly and non-existent
• union blame shifts its shortcoming onto its members, which is laughable because they pass stuff without basic communications, surveys, input or votes
• the company advertises 20k retention bonus on your one year anniversary on its website, LoA wording can make it take up to 18 months to see the first 2500 payment - I've consulted a lawyer, there is precedent, I'm considering pursuing it...

there's other things but those are the main ones. Again, all in all, day to day most of the time you show up do your job go home get paid no worries no issues. Its a job, could it be better - sure. Problem the most significant thing to me is the very toxic us vs them that the company seems to have against the employees that the union has seem to absorbed. Of course I speak for my interests - why would I speak for the companies interests, that's their jobs.

V12Merlin

Is the 1000 hours pic 121 at PSA? Or 1000 hours 121 from anywhere?

TallFlyer

Anywhere.

(Filler)

V12Merlin

Thanks tall.

Do u work there btw?

MarkVI

I don’t think you can quantify why any single regional as “best.” Let me explain:

Endeavor pays the top in the regional game — but to get that pay you’ll wait three quarters or more for a class date. If you haven’t already gotten a date, expect to be placed in the pool for when they need you down the line. If you’re willing to sacrifice a significant amount of seniority up front and money is your absolute strongest desire, Endeavor is the place you want to study for.

If you live in Orlando (as I do), Silver offers a no-move in-base option. The cost of that option is quite simple: you’ll fly Saab’s and ATR’s and get payed below industry average. But, you’ll be in-base.

If you’ve got to drive an E175 (for some reason this is big for some guys), the Envoy offers a great fleet of E175’s backed by a mainline parent.

It’s all about perspective. I think PSA is great, because it fits my specific wants and needs. Does it need improvement in some areas? Yeah. But I’ll also argue that a lot of that is attributed to the pilot group letting the wrong combination of people (save for a few) sit down with the company.


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TallFlyer

Affrim


(filler)

Ski Bird

I've got a question.

I see comments like "reserve sucks at PSA" a lot.

From the outside looking in (I have a conditional job offer, but this will be my first 121 job), I'm following along on a lot of the conversations here, but lacking context, I know I'm missing some of the finer points.

Can one of you guys break down why reserve at PSA is worse than reserve elsewhere?

Sitting reserve is kind of bad everywhere, right?

Is there something that the bidding process / crew scheduling is doing to make this special hell somewhat — I don't know — more of a special hell?

TallFlyer

Before I chime in, I'll just state the caveat that I've maybe done 6-7 months total of reserve here. Less than a month of LCR as an FO, and several months SCR as a CA.

Long before I was an airline pilot I flew 135 in Alaska. Now, while not the same as charter in the lower 48, and I was (99% of the time) home every night, my day to day was completely random. I would show up to work each day not knowing what was going on until I got there. It was kinda fun actually.

There are pilots at PSA who view any kind of contact with crew scheduling as a negative. Now, I will grant you that there are some in crew scheduling who perhaps deserve that reputation, but the bottom line is that while on reserve you exist to fill the holes in the schedule, and those holes sometimes change on a minute by minute basis. Those holes are also exacerbated by certain features in our contract, but that's a whole other discussion. Bottom line, if you're willing to accept that reality about life on reserve, that's a large part of the problem right there.

The rougher parts of reserve (IMO) are the first and last days, where scheduling exercises their contractual rights to the hilt. I'll give you two personal examples.

- "We need you to ride the DH." These are probably the most dreaded words you will ever here from a scheduler, especially if you live in a hub but are based in an outstation. For example, I live in CLT, was based in DAY for a time, and just about every first leg of a reserve assignment is a DH somewhere, usually another hub, like DCA. So I get an assignment that involves a DH to DCA, the operating out of there. First question I ask?

"Can I self myself to DCA?"

"No, we need you to ride the DH in case someone doesn't show up."

"%^*%$#@^(^&!!!!!!!"

In this particular case, that meant taking a much earlier flight to DAY because it was the latest flight that got me in before the DH (never mind the fact that to protect myself with the commuter clause, I would have had to take the flight before that) which resulted in a 2.5 hour sit in DAY before my DH. Then, that DH gets massively delayed, like another three hours, we finally get to DCA, and my flight that I was operating was then delayed by almost three hours because I had been sitting on my tuchus in DAY waiting for my DH, and all the pax at the gate give me the stink eye because apparently my lazy backside couldn't be bothered with showing up on time. Oh, bite me.

- On the last day, the goal is to get released as soon as possible so one can commute home. We do have some auto release language (more on that later) that provides for a release at 1700, but many times if you're already operating flights, you'll just keep getting extended. No soup for you. Doubly painful if you're assigned flying that prevents you from commuting out that same day.

Now, our auto release language states that in the absence of an assignment which departs by 1830, "in no case can be released later that 1700 on his last day."

So this one time when I was based in DCA I was given a double DH back to base on the last day, which included a connection in CLT. The connection landed just after 1700, so on the taxi in I called scheduling. That conversation went something like this:

"Hi, this is TallFlyer, I'm in CLT and I'd like to be released."

"Um, you have an assignment."

"Actually I have a mainline DH to DCA and nothing after that. It's past 1700 and I'd like to be released now."

"Um, hold on........"

(cue Jeopardy music.....)

"So I talked to the supervisor and they said we could force you to ride back to DC, but just this once we'll release you."

"Gee, thanks......" Translation: bite me.

So what are the takeaways?

- Reserve does involve a certain zen mindset to realize that your life is going to be dictated by some scheduler whose average experience on the job is about 3-6 months. If you can manage that, that's 75% of the battle. You too will no longer be junior one day.

- Living in base is HUUUUGE. If you're able to do that, first and last day issues are relatively benign. Yeah, sucks if you're getting in a lot later than you wanted on the last day, but at least you don't then have to commute.

- If you have to commute, ESPECIALLY a two leg to an outstation, or even a hub to an outstation, well, Peace be upon you my friend, this too shall pass.