buffalopilot

What would a new hire DEC schedule look like? I know it’s all reserve but days on/off? How much are they being used? Would you say a crash pad is necessary or will I be flying a lot? Anything commutable?
weekends off during training to go home?

Tinstaafl

Seniority is by date of joining, and by age within your indoc class. Your base will depend on what positions are open in the bases and your in-class seniority when you bid for your base. Bidding for lines and reserve occurs in two rounds 8n your base. R1 is all trip lines. Then there are a couple days where R1 awardees can swap & pickup trips. Trips left over are then grouped into a another round of lines, reserve lines are added, and then R2 bidding opens to those who missed out on a R1 line or bid directly to R2 (usually because they want reserve).

Your seniority in your base as a new CA all but guarantees you'll get Short Call Reserve (SCR = 2 hr call out) so unless you live in or near base you'll need a place to stay while on-call. SCR can start at 0500, 1100, or 1300 and you'll get a single time for the entire month.

Long Call Reserve (12 hr callout) is also available but tends to go more senior amongst reserve holders. Ditto the R2 trip lines. The general preference tends to be SCR0500 --> SCR1100 --> SCR1300 --> LCR --> R2 trip line --> R1 trip line in increasing seniority, although there are always some depraved individuals who choose SCR500.

Your system seniority will mean that any FOs who started before you will become senior to you for bidding once they upgrade which will delay when when you would improve your in-base seniority. Given a DEC and an FO in the same indoc/upgrade class, the FO will get seniority to improve bidding preferences quite a long time before the DEC because they're already some way up the seniority ladder when they upgrade. A DEC is starting at the bottom.

Our contract guarantees a minimum of 11 days off, with at least 2 x 3 days off in a row, so that's what you'll get when you bid reserve. It's possible to make it 12 with some smart bidding and joining the end of one month's work week with the next month's starting week but that's not always possible.

Reserve days are generally in groups of 5, with a 6 day week only allowed to be assigned during the schedule blend from one month to the next. SCR holders can & will be assigned Airport Standby a.k.a Hot ReserVe. HRV has about 15 mins to get to the gate once notified of a flight.

CA have been flying a lot 'cos we're short, but than can change from one week & month to the next. Contractual priority to assign flights to reserve is LCR --> SCR --> HRV.

Vegaspilot

Is it still about 3 years seniority to hold CLT if hired as a DEC?

buffalopilot

How long is reserve for DEC?

Tinstaafl

No idea about how long for a DEC to hold CLT. It's rather fungible, depending on how many slots open, where they are, and how many others bid in & out of CLT. Similarly so with reserve duration with the caveat that it's heavily affected by the number of available lines which is itself affected by how many CA we have available. More CA == more trips we can crew == more lines.

I upgraded from within. It took me 9 months to get back to CLT after getting my #2 base choice, have been on RSV for about 1 1/2 years, and likely won't even get a R2 trip line for many (many, many?) months more, let alone the holy grail of a R1 line.

Brickfire

The answer to all these questions is 98% dependent on the state of the airline X years from now. Really nobody knows.

Wormburner

I see GoJet and Mesa advertising a 24 month flow for DEC's to United. So reserve would be about... 24 months over there.

saltbae

5 years to hold a line

SetMCT

That would be in DCA only. Every other base is well over 5 years. CLT and DAY is around 6 years. Basically coming in as a DEC plan to never hold a RD1 line in any base if you're coming to get your time and move on. If you are coming to finish out your career and have more than 6 years to go there is a possibility you could hold a line but remember that every single FO on the seniority list when you're hired (that sticks around) will be a CA at some point and will be senior to you. You will be and remain at the very bottom of the list for a long time.

TallFlyer

The short answer to the QOL question is that if you can live in base, it's probably not a bad deal. You'll be hating your life as a commuter and your friends and family back home will soon forget who you are. Hope the money was worth it to you.