Heard 4 more upgrades.

 

If you have the interview questions then you should be good. Unless they changed them.
You'll get the flows in an email after you're hired. And the POH the first day of class. I don't really have a way to email that stuff to you.

 

Any word on:

1) Current upgrade time? (Last upgraded captain initially hired ....when?)
2) How long you can expect to be on reserve in each base?

Opinions on:

Is this commutable from Dallas, TX, might need to do this for 6-8months due to wife's job. Is this doable, unlikely or insane? Best base to shoot for if I'm commuting from Dallas.

- Would still like any emails on POH, IAI flows, etc.

Thanks

 

Upgrade 5 years plus. The senior f/o's arent going to upgrade cause of how poor our reserve system is. Now if people won't do it for $70k then how do you think life would be as an f/o on reserve making $20k?
You can commute but 90% of the time you start reserve on day 1 at 5am. Finish at whatever on day 5. You won't be released before 5pm on your last day.
10 days off per month
No day credit
No credit for sitting hot reserve
No cancellation pay
No holiday pay
1/2 credit for dead heads
72hrs/month pay.

Basically you only get paid for the time you are flying. Figure 20-60hrs hot reserve per month for no additional credit.

Our senior pilots will tell you to suck it up and pay your dues.

 

I work Pt135 now, this would be my first 121 airline job. Can you give more detail on what some of these terms mean.

"The senior f/o's arent going to upgrade cause of how poor our reserve system is. Now if people won't do it for $70k then how do you think life would be as an f/o on reserve making $20k?"
....Why wouldn't somebody upgrade to Cpt? Do you even have the option to NOT upgrade ans stay an FO? This doesn't seem to make sense to me.


"You can commute but 90% of the time you start reserve on day 1 at 5am. Finish at whatever on day 5. You won't be released before 5pm on your last day."
...This part is clear and I am not looking fwd to having maybe 1.5 days off to relax due to commuting, but I can't move now so what will be will be.

"10 days off per month"
...Depending on your run right? Or are all PSA runs 10days off no matter what? Are there no better runs the more senior you go?

"No day credit"
...Unfamiliar with this term, please enlighten me.

"No credit for sitting hot reserve"
...Unfamiliar with this term, please enlighten me.

No cancellation pay"
...Give an example please.

The rest is pretty clear. Appreciate your time and input. Trying to see if this is manageable. I already turned down Piedmont and Great Lakes. Other interview is with Eagle which is my first choice, but keeping options open.

Any attrition in the company? Am I going to sit on reserve for 5yrs....really? If so I'll stay where I am thank you very much.

 

Senior F/O's are making $40-$50k. And have their choice of schedules to chose from. And get 10-15 days off.
If they upgrade they will end up on reserve, work weekends, no choices of overnights, and sit reserve. It isn't worth $20k to upgrade. So they are holding out till they can hold a line and not sit a day of reserve. They can bypass as long as they want.

Reserve for F/O's is about 1.5 to 2 years.
Reserve for Captains is going on 3 years plus.

Reserves all get 10 days off. If you are lucky the schedule can force them to give you an additional day off. So you may get 11.

No day credit means: Say you fly 72 hrs and its the 20th of the month and have 5 days of reserve left to serve. If you sit at home and you don't get called into work you get paid zero for being on call. If you get called into the airport to sit on HOT reserve and don't fly, you get paid zero on top of your 72 hours already flown.
If you are on reserve and sitting at home, they call you to do a Savannah round trip. You show up at the airport and they cancel the flight for whatever reason, you don't get paid for that trip.

Senior people think that you get paid 72hrs/month or 3.6hrs/day. Well 72 hrs divided up does equal 3.6hrs (20 days of reserve). But we don't get a day pay. Meaning if you fly 7.2hrs on 1 day then the next day you sit at home on reserve(On call) you don't get 7.2hrs plus 3.6. All you get towards the 72 hrs is 7.2.

So again if you fly 72hrs, then sit hot reserve for the last 5 days of your reserve month you will get paid NOTHING for those days.
But say you flew 10 hrs the whole month and sat 5 days of hot reserve you will still always get paid your 72 hrs.
Best way to think of it is that you get paid a salary of 72hrs/month. Regardless of what you do this is your pay. You can make more if you fly more than that or work on your days off.

Attrition is up in the air. We do have some people that are going to airways when they can and then almost every F/O will leave for anything better. The top 150 captains are most likely lifers.

 

Excellent information & explanation - thank you. I have decided to cancel the PSA interview and am going to focus instead on my Eagle and Compass interviews. Thank you for giving me the details I needed.

 

Interview experience is always great. You don't have any offer from Compass or Eagle yet, what if neither offer you a job and PSA now wont even be a back up.....Just saying I'd go and interview still as if I wanted to be at PSA.

 

I appreciate that, but I feel confident in interviews and my current job is really quite excellent. I am not is a desperate rush to pick a regional. I prefer to research and wait for a correct fit for me and my lifestyle. QOL at PSA with me commuting would not be great, so I will bide my time.

If I don't get Eagle or Compass, then it is not the end of the world - I continue to work where I am and look for other opportunities or reapply in 3-6 months.

 

LMAO, someone needs to show this to Mark Z. and Keith Houk. People would rather stay elsewhere, including far enough to not even use the place as practice, than come to this place. Good luck to Jen B in finding candidates for this place if ever there is an exodus.