Haha! great summary! that made me laugh...

 

I think the times to upgrade are going to be shorter over the next 5 years then they have been in the last 4 years. But who knows, this is, after all, the airline industry.

 

For those of you who are at Eagle and have been there for a few years, and are still on reserve, what is the average amount of hours you have flown each month?
Thanks!

 

Hours flown:

JAN 51, FEB 38, MAR 52, APR 62, MAY 75, JUN 62, JUL 68, AUG 34
SEP09 44, OCT09 58, NOV09 28, DEN09 67

DOH: March 2008 (still on reserve)

As I commute a lot I am reminded how bad reserve is at other regionals. Eagle has one of the best contracts for a regional. Many Eagle pilots forget that others don't have a proffering system: a method to bid for open time. Most other regional pilots are at the mercy day after day of crew scheduling. Most other regionals dont have a system to see where they sit on the reserve list or look at open time. Many regionals dont have a computer system like Eagle has. Eagle pilots are capable of "stalking" the work of crew scheduling, others don't.

I will NOT disagree with any comments made on this forum because Reserve makes me want to quit! But it's better than most...if we were staffed correctly.

I have heard a few times we cancel 10% of our flights because of pilot staffing.

If you can find a job that pays well and still afford to rent an aircraft or buy a Cessna do it. I am generally an optimist, but it's the truth! I didn't listen to the advice when I was deadheading for my job interview given by a mainline First Officer: "run as fast as you can away from airlines".

 

Yeah, the times will go from 10 to 9 The next 5 is too far to predict. 8 to 10 year upgrades will be the norm here until we go bye bye.

 

Can somebody explain how a displacement works? If a new hire can possibly hold a line on the CRJ out of training in New York, but "one big displacement could fix that", what exactly does that mean? Sorry, first time in the 121 world.

Also, is it possible to review the contract? I would like an opportunity to see what it says before training starts.

 

Let's say they park some aircraft..and have to realign flying.

For example, if Eagle moved 10 CRJs from ORD to LGA. There would no longer be a need for XX amount of pilots in ORD, they would need to go to LGA instead.

At this point, a displacement bid would be posted, which essentially is a warning to "put in a preference, because there's some shifting going on."

So you're a new hire in LGA...and the 10 CRJs that are moving affect 100 pilots. Those 100 pilots, if senior to you..are going to now have the opportunity to bid anywhere their seniority can hold.

Since they're senior to you, they might choose to follow the aircraft from ORD and take CRJ in LGA, either pushing you down the list, or totally bumping you out of the base, to whatever base your seniority holds. So this might mean you become an ATR FO out of DFW, or a EMB FO in ORD...even though you didn't bid for it...and even though you CAN'T bid for either of those airplanes contractually..you can be bumped to them if you're displaced (which essentially means a more senior pilot took your spot..this can't just happen..it has to be forced)

Since your seniority can no longer hold CRJ LGA because of those 100 guys that are coming over from ORD (or other bases if it's a system wide displacement bid)..you're going to get bumped to whatever you CAN hold.

This is why it's important to have a standing displacement preference bid, so that if this were to happen, you have a bid in for something...

Make sense?..sorta?

 

Great summary, but I think you mean a standing displacement preference bid?

 

Oops, fixed!

 

Thanks Andy. Let me know how you like SJU.