Not sure I follow you. If you have a bid for Captain in that you have the seniority to hold, and can meet the FAA requirements and paragraphs 2 or 3, have fun in upgrade class. I don't know that you're locked in to one or the other.

 

Right, but you have to have an active bid in before the next award -- and you can't bid if you're sitting in systems class in DAY.

 

So I'm a 7 year FO at LASA and very very cautiously contemplating jumping ship. It is a very hard decision to make being the nature of our industry and the uncertain future of regional airlines as a whole. I would ONLY jump for an all but certain upgrade, which has its own risks. I'm not even certain the PIC time is worth it being that I'd be on reserve forever, lose my 3 weeks vacation, seniority, and risk being stuck as an FO at an airline who tops out at $39 vs $47 now. First year FO and training pay would be a very hard pill to swallow as well. Sitting on reserve as a captain vs a relatively senior line holder crediting 90 hours a month at my pay rate isn't that much more money. The majors are going to need so many people anyway, it might just work out without the PIC.

I'm sure my questions would all be answered if I read this whole thread, but I don't have the time to read all of that. So could someone give me a run down of the remaining aircraft to come to PSA, pilots required, pilots on list now, flow through agreement and upgrade situation. I'm hearing from places other then this forum that people are upgrading out of IOE. A look at the contract would also be a plus if someone would be willing to send that to me. Also, if I wanted to go to American, would going somewhere with a flow and a thousand people a head of me actually be a disadvantage vs staying put? Thoughts?

 

Do you have any chance of upgrading where you are now?

 

Absolutely none. Next vacancy bid they said they wanted no less then 6 to around ten. This will happen every month for the rest of the year they said. I'm a little over 300 away. Plus, I'm not sure how much longer we will be around

 

There were MANY FO's that came to PSA with the same or more seniority than you have. Most were Endeavor.

Right now, there are not enough qualified FO's to upgrade to fill the classes and some classes have been cancelled. The most recent class has about half a dozen pilots that were hired this past November. They need to upgrade at least 20-25 per month for the next couple of years to keep up with growth and attrition. If our SSP/flow increases, that number will need to increase. If we go to 10 per month, plus adding 3 airplanes a month, that number will need to increase to at least 25-30 per month in captain upgrades.

Nothing is certain. The airplanes could stop tomorrow and the SSP could stay where it is now. There are good regionals that are hiring right now. It depends on what works best for you. I came here primarily because I was tired of commuting, and the fast upgrade was the icing on the cake. The pay listed for PSA on this site is outdated, but the connect pay scales were listed on this thread a few weeks ago. It is about $2 higher per year, and we get raises every 3 months as the fleet blend changes.

PSA is not the greatest regional, but it has it's benefits. Right now, the steady growth is the biggest plus here.

 

As long as you're a pilot on the seniority list you can have a bid in. My whole class had active bids in while in Indoc. Some put in Captain bids at that time, not knowing that there would be a 3 month wait to start IOE.

 

Not sure I'm following you on this. I haven't looked to be absolutely sure, but didn't the last captain bid open positions match the last award? IE- there were X openings and X awards right?

Or are you referring to the near future?

 

Dude, why haven't you scheduled an interview yet? PIC time isn't everything, but it still means a helluva lot more than SIC. We'd love to have you.

 

We put our bid in on day 2 of indoc. I don't know what makes it active, but we were awarded domicile before the end of training.