Eagle - San Juan Overnights?
 

Any Eagle people have info on how the overnights are if you are based in San Juan? How about typical trips? Are they mostly day trips or do you get to stay at some of the islands?

If I make the jump to the regionals, I am really thinking of Eagle and asking for San Juan. The commuting would stink ( I live in Virginia) but flying the islands would be GREAT!

Any thoughts on San Juan? Thanks!

The overnights are usually short less than 9 hours. most trips are 2 two day trips in a row. there are some 3 and 4 day trips. The flying is incredible. the atr is a great airplane and youll see and do stuff with an airplane that will scare the **** out of you. On the other side though its a joke airline with executive. they make mesa look like south west almost. also san juan is not a nice place to be based in. going to the beach is great but getting shot at on the way home or ran over by lunatics in cars tends to ruin the day. if you want to know any thing else let me know i spent 6 months down there.

Friend of mine down there has the same impression as you... FWIW

How so. Just curious.

maybe i over spoke on that but the way the operation is run is pathetic. they treat the employees and passengers like JO treats his employees. Its what you would expect if you were based in a 3 world country.

Well. With all due respect to "Killer51883" I will somewhat disagree with what he says. First of all 6 months experience at SJU is hardly enough time to make the statements he's making (Culture shock, calling it a "rock", 3rd world country, etc.). Did you all know that over 80% of high school graduates in PR go on AND finish college?. As I will take no offense in those comments, I shall get back to topic. Yes, SJU is warm, all turbo-prop flying, and of course Puerto Rico is a mostly spanish speaking community. Bear in mind that IT IS NOT A 3rd World Country. It is in fact a U.S. Territory and U.S. Commonwealth, you can actually travel there from the mainland WITHOUT needing your passport. Puerto Rican born men and women are US Citizens just like ANYBODY else born in the mainland. In the 9 years I worked for Eagle as a Shorts and ATR Captain/Check Airman I had a chance to instruct and fly with kids like "Killer51883" and I'll tell you this. A lot of these kids come to SJU sort of "pre-disposed", allready wanting to leave before they even get there. If it is the commute that's understandable as I myself commuted when I was there. As to the flying I will totally agree with him. To this day I miss it every day, as you will shoot some very unusual approaches to about 2 dozen places in the beautiful Caribbean. I tell you guys, SJU is what you make of it. There's a lot of Spanish but all these guys/girls speak English as well. The lifestyle is very different from what you've seen in the Mainland. The airport is very close to the beach and it is right in the hustle and bustle of the tourist area so you will always see plenty of activity going on. Old San Juan is just a mere 10 minutes away and there are several malls in the Metro Area.

Now, as far as the "current operation" goes I can't tell you much since I've been gone from Eagle for 4 years. But by the time I left I was pretty much on a 1st name basis with almost everyone at the base and yes, while it can get busy with MOC and Ops I got what I needed almost all the time. But here in the Majors I can tell you that things get quite messed up here as well every now and then (the grass is not always greener... ) Remember of course that this operation flies to mostly international islands and therefore clearing Customs can be a nuissance especially when you do it a few times a day, folks, it is one long walk I remember that.

All in all San Juan is a beautiful place, lots of sightseeing to do, I knew F/O's that would kitesurf every day, others scuba dived, etc. The islands are incredible in beauty and as it has been mentioned the flying is fantastic and unlike anything you kids have done learning to fly over land here in the mainland. It will challenge you every day. As to the culture difference and comments about crazy driving, etc. I do layovers all over and that I see everywhere as well. After all that is part of being an airline pilot, cultural diversity, seeing and experiencing new places, is it not?

In closing, I'm not saying SJU is paradise because you will work your behind off and will give that right seat a lot of use!! Sometimes I remember I didn't stop sweating for hours (seemed like the temperature never went below 85!!!) ,but sitting on the beach in Grenada sunbathing in the middle of January when up here deicing is the rule certainly drew a smile to my face.

Hope this long post was able to help someone out. Remember, do your research and see for yourself, google is your friend. For all you folks wanting to have a change of scenery and wanting to do some supercool flying then a tour in San Juan (it is not a rock by the way) might strike your fancy and dont even get me started on the beautiful girls LOL !!

Take it from someone who was there 9 years instead of a few months.

Island flying is fun but filling those damn customs forms out 10 times a day would drive me crazy

Well said Flytank.

Guys like "killer51883" that probably has NEVER been out of mainland till going to SanJuan,will find it shocking. Diff culture yes just like going to NY,MIA,Utah, etc.
Actually PR might be more advance than some Southern States.If you are a mature person and dont mind being away from Mommy and Daddy for 1yr try it.
Plenty of women&booze.

I think it would be the worst choice ever to go to eagle let alone pick san juan for a base...that would be a great commute

Wait a min, if your young and single, why wouldn't you be all over this? Yeah, I bet it could be tough, and yes I understand it's hot. But are you kidding me? Latina women everywhere with tourtist sprinkled in (Your a super secert agent? ((as she bats big, wet eyes (yessah, tourtists they're the best!!!)), anyone ever herd of Bacardi's? (orginally made in PR and still is I think), and not to mention amazing sights? Explain again why this would be so "bad"?

If you never been out of USA,still live with parents,dont speak or try to speak Spanish,and dont have a open mind or a positive attitude then yes it would be bad.

BTW Bacardi Rum is not originally from in PR....

for some of you you might enjoy it but i didnt. The beach and booze and women were fun for a bit but I actually grew out of the whole party scene when i left college 5 years ago. Im sure some people still enjoy that stuff and its great but i didnt. The cultural differences were nice. I enjoyed the food and the lifestyle. I didnt enjoy being singled out as a white person walking across the ramp and being questioned about it by the puerto rican tsa agents while puerto rican crew members were able to do what they wanted with out being harrassed. I didnt enjoy having to go next to the (african american) store when i went to get gas. I loved the flying and all the islands but there are more important things in my life and i left for them. If that makes me some imature stupid kid then Im sorry but I am happier now.

So you dont like hispanics or blacks?

Whoa guys hold on. Please don't turn this into a racial thing...It's not. It is a post to portray flying with American Eagle Airlines at its San Juan base.

1. It is unfortunate that "Killer51883" had some bad experiences while he was based down there. Again, the story is different for everyone. For me, well, I met my wife of 10 years now when she was a flight attendant fresh of the schoolhouse. I could have gone to the "RJ" as a Captain years and years ago, but I chose to stay there and enjoy my seniority.

2. Commuting. I'd say that half the pilots in SJU commuted when I was there. As I said, google is your friend. You will see that almost every US airline flies to San Juan. American of course has the monopoly at SJU, they do 72% of the flying there, they fly direct to several cities in the mainland including MIA,MCO,JFK,EWR,DFW,RDU,ORD and a bunch more. Delta flies to MCO and ATL that I know of. US Air/AW to CLT, PHL, etc. United, NW, JB, Spirit, Continental...they ALL fly to SJU. Guys, commuting in general sucks but I dont recall SJU being particulary harder than my commute today. Smart planning is the trick here, have a Plan A,B and even a C. I've had some close calls, but in 16 years of flying so far I've never missed an assignment.

3. I am not sure where "Killer's CrashPad" was at but I lived right by the beach in Isla Verde (the beachside area) and my experience was the constant presence of tourists and locals alike having fun at the beach. Not sure what afro-american place he meant. I guess what I am trying to say is that everyplace you go you are responsible for watching your back and take care of your safety. I mean I do that everywhere I go on my layovers. San Juan to me was not any different than anywhere else.

4. The infamous Customs clearance walk. Well, on a given day you might find yourself doing this 3 to 4 times a day tops. Eagle is at the Gate 1 area and the Custms/INS station is past gate 12. The bus will pick you at the A/C and drive you to the curbside and offload everyone into a sterile area where you will then go up escalators and proceed to walk through a very long hallway with 3 moving walkways (sometimes they are turned off) and you will reach customs after walking anywhere from 4 to 7 minutes. You will clear INS and then take the escalator downstairs to then clear Customs and walk outside into the terminal to then go through the TSA and walk again back to the Eagle facilities in Gate 1. The process in all can take anywhere from 18 to 25 minutes depending on how many crewmembers are clearing at the same time. Be advised that Eagle blocks their flight with 50 minutes in between when one of these walks are required (or at least they used to when I was there).

4. You will see beautiful women down there (no offense to the female readers of this post), going to the beach was a feast for your eyes, LOL. Not to mention that you will also work with some of the prettiest FA's you will ever see. But be advised, they know you're down there "temporarily" and therefore are very skeptical to dating someone from "out of town". At least that was the consensus when I was there. But, I also know of several guys that actually met someone and chose to stay there for a while and I can count quite a few succesful relationships that developed and survived as well.

Again, in closing San Juan could be the blast of your life if you just give it the chance, specially you young guys starting in this business with no ties, fiancees, closeness to Mom and Dad, etc. It will give you a whole new perspective on flying (ohhh those flights to Port of Spain in the dead of the night crossing 600nm of open ocean in total darkness, no VOR, no NDB, no terrain to identify, just black, black, black LOL). You will polish those stick and rudder skills landing in very short runways with strong crosswinds. You will love searching for iguanas after you land in SJU, gosh where those big or what LOL.

One thing is for sure, you will be flying customers that come here to vacation, totally unlike the regional flying you'll do stateside. People come to the caribbean to have fun and pay for it. You'll be a part of that and get paid (albeit not a lot) while doing it.

Last but not least, it is my understanding that YOU can now select your domicile when you interview with Eagle. So it really is you guy's choice to come to SJU or not.

Check the site: www.americaneaglecareers.com

Hope that this helped you guys again, Flytank

You know as soon as I posted that I relized I was wrong, dooh. Anywho, your exactly right, this is a great job if your young (me) single (me) loves to party (me, but know my limits) and want to live in a different part of the world (me, orginally from Boston). Umm, yeah, adding up the logbooks now. It's just too bad for that long, long upgrade time. We'll see how it goes.

Where do I sign up?!! I live in Orlando and I'm seriously considering AE when I graduate this December. I know that I could have MIA or SJU as a base and hopefully it wouldnt be too bad of a commute. And yes, Puerto Rican women are beautiful!!!!....I couldnt ever get tired of seeing them!!!!;)......:D

Correct me if I am wrong, Do you fear Hispanics and Black people, cause if you do You are one culturally Challanged and Narrow minded person.. Good luck with trying to succeed in this business if you are really a Bigot..

I have no idea how this quickly degraded into me being a racist wich i deffinately am not. The coment was simply about a store wich was in carolina south of the airport wich i was embarassed to see because of the name. My expirence in puerto rico was not very different than those of my friends who are still down there or have left already. It was not my first time away from home nor will it be the last. It just wasnt the place for me and I simply was trying to express my oppinion about the operation down there.

Dang,Use spellchecker next time son.

They do have a sweet factory down in PR...but yea it was born in Cuba.

Agreed. The best is the free samples you get at the end of the tour.

Question about customs in general: If you're just doing a turn and you're not even getting off the airplane, or just switching to a different plane in SJU, do you still need to clear customs??

you go through customs after every flight aside from the st croix, st thomas, and maintenance flights. Turns in san juan are usually scheduled for an hour so its usually just enough time to go to customs and get back to the plane. also very rarely do you keep the same plane throughout the day.

WOW what a HUGE pain...I didn't know that. I hate clearing Customs. I'd rather work for Go jets:eek:

And THAT says a LOT!! LoL I think my hand would fall off filling out all those dec's...maybe you can figure out a system of mass-producing them (with your information conveniently pre-filled), perhaps?!

I know, lol. Lets see...I have jeps, logbook, headset, badge, ramen noodles, clothes, and condoms.

Speaking of those unmentionables LoL - I have no place to slip them in discreetly in my new "Purdy Neat Stealth NG" bag...not to purdy neat if you ask me haha...My TravelPro (though a piece of junk) at least had tons of little pockets inside ;-)

Oh well - until I become a moonlighting-seamstress and figure out something smarter, I'll just keep 'em under the base lining hehe...

BTW - how do you cook ramen in the hotels?!?

Killer51883. I also don't know how it turned into a racial post. I asked to get back on topic a couple of posts above and instead talk about what flying with Eagle out of SJU was as well as the layovers. I've tried to be as humane and realistic while describing "my own" experience while being there.

Again I will direct anyone to read any of my long posts on this thread to get "my" personal experience while I flew down there from 1995-2004. Again I'll be honest with you, I'm already going on 3+years while flying the majors and can tell you that I miss it a lot !!! But it is a closed chapter in my logbook and now I get to fly a Boeing all over the country experiencing flow controls, ground stops, de-ice, holding, CAT 3 apps and all the "fun" I never got while in the good ole Caribbean. From drinking a tropical drink in a great Caribbean Island watching the waterbreak I went to "run like hell" to the hotel van before your eyes freeze !!!! LOL But you know what, it is all relative as I now enjoy the feeling of flying in this kind of system and the pride it brings everytime you complete a flight which has also tested your abilities under such conditions. Anyway, back to topic. Killer51883 I congratulate you on making the decision to go where your interests take you and to stand your ground and clear misunderstandings on this thread.

Again anyone with questions on Eagle out of San Juan please read my other posts on this thread or shoot me a P.M. And remember, Eagle is so short right now that they are offering you the chance to pick your base before they employ you !!!!! At least that is what my "contacts" are telling me.

Boy and by the way you guys are lucky, in the mid-90's Eagle was incredibly stuck up in their hiring, Jeeesh I got on with 2600 total and 2300 of those multi and It was still a pain the arse....isn't the law of supply and demmand amazing ??

All the best, flytank.

Speaking of the infamous Customs procedure. What most of us used to do is carry a book of Customs forms and fill them out in cruise flight and stick it in our hats or pockets. "Going" thru Customs/INS was actually pretty painless "most of the times" and it would take you no more than 5 minutes including going thru the INS guy upsatirs and the customs guy downstairs. Every now and then they would "select" you for a random bag search and they would briefly go through your stuff and let you be on your way, that would add another 5 or so minutes and would probably happen to you 10 to 12 times average in a year. Again not a big deal. What messes this procedure is the looooong walk just to get there (again see my post on this somewhere above) and then the long walk just to get back to the Eagle lounges. In all going through customs and back to Eagle takes about 15 to 20 minutes tops, unless you're clearing behind Iberia or any other International crew which is before you, then you are SOL and will have to wait until all 10 to 15 of them have cleared !!!! We actually ran to the INS guy when we saw a Iberia/Lufthansa herd coming from the other side in order to beat them LOL !!! I also suggest to all to get a good bag with nice wheels and strap everything to it, you'll be glad you did.

Flytank

yeah it actually became part of my cruise check flow to fill out the crew dec. the actual process just as fly tank described isnt bad just the walk to and from. However combining that with the summer heat and no apu helped me lose 35 pounds in 6 months.

In the coffee pot! :D