You will have a standing bid that you can change at any time. You rank the seat and base that you prefer at that point.

You can put CLT FO as your #1 choice to start, and CVG FO as #2. You can change it at any time, but it will stand until you change it.

 

It keeps the bids stored so it's permanent. So as soon as your seniority can hold your top preference, you will get it. You can even put bids 1-5 as Captain bids. You obviously won't get it due to seniority and experience, but as soon as you can get it then you will, since the system saves your bids.

 

GoJet is still hiring direct hire captain so upgrade would be as soon as you get you 1000 sic. PSA upgrade is running at about 2-2.5 years at this point. It will take you about 18 months following OE to log 1000 121 sic. Trying to guess what the upgrade times or really anything in the aviation industry will look like in 18 months is a fools errand. The industry is just changing too fast at this point.

Commuting is (almost) never better than living in base. And commuting to reserve is its own little ring of hell.

At GoJet you will hold a line almost right away out of training and have to chance to be based in DEN at come point.(guessing 9-11 months)
At PSA you cannot use the SAP until you are a round 1 line holder. (I'm guessing 8 months in CVG, Please correct me PSA guys)

If quality of life is your primary concern then you want to find a regional that will allow you to be based where you live. Skywest, TSA, or GoJet. Of those 3 Skywest probably has the best company culture, but also the longest upgrade and longest to hold a DEN domicile.
GoJet has the fastest upgrade and probably the quickest to hold DEN

Another option for you might be PenAir. It's turboprop and the pay is pretty bad, but the upgrade is relatively quick and they have a DEN base.

As far as days off for the wifes TDY; obviously you can try to bid the days of and then try to swap the days off. With most regional its not too difficult to swap to 7 days in a row. If that doesn't work then you can always call in sick. Sick days in this industry should really be classified as personal days, and in some airlines they are.

 

A May 2016 hire FO is a R1 line holder in CVG in February. So once training is over, that would be about 5 months on reserve.

Dayton is the most junior right now. An August 2016 hire FO is holding a R1 line in DAY in February, so 3 months on reserve.

These reserve times should drop once we start adding more CRJ700's again and increase the amount of flying that we are doing combined with the increased attrition and upgrades that we have right now.

 

Is that the Feb awards?

 

Yes. That is what it shows on FLICA for February awards.

 

Yeah, I don't have access yet since I'm not on property till Monday.

I've been floating between DAY and CVG. Unless CLT drops like a rock.

 

Can someone explain SAP? Sorry if it can be found someplace else. I understand you can't use it for a while and it allows you to flex your schedule to some level, but more details or a link that explains it would be appreciated. I've looked around and haven't found an answer elsewhere.

 

 

In a nutshell, once you've been awarded a Round 1 line, SAP is a 24 hour window in which you can swap or add anything from your schedule with open time (that is, trips that have not yet been assigned to anyone). Approval is first come, first serve, so if someone gets one of the trips you're looking to swap into first, you obviously can't get that trip.

SAP is not dependent on reserve coverage, so EVERYONE can drop out of trips that touch a particular day (like Christmas) and the company has no recourse while in the SAP. Also, you can drop your flying down to 65 hours credit, so you can get a lot of days off if you'd like.