Although things seem to be picking up at Skywest, I'd question whether you could reasonably expect to hold a line (at FAT) right out of training. If you do end up on reserve, life is going to suck for you commuting from MCO.

 

I'm from SAN and chose Eagle. I'm based in DFW (commute) on the ATR and will hold the line in fairly quick out of the gate. Lots of ATR guys are going over to the open jet slots.

 

As of right now 60 lines in MARCH no reserves, 3 scheduled classes scheduled thru July (est 20 a class) if someone got April you would have a good chance to hold a line out of training in fat in the bro. Being a MCO commuter to FAT(4 of us) the commute is LONG but not that bad. Fat is the largest bro base, and there are quite a few trips that start or end with a DH. Plus any airport west of DFW you can fly into fat (den/phx/las/lax/sfo/slc/sea/pdx/ont). My route of choice is to lax, 6 flts a day to lax (ua/dl/aa/va). Either way I was lucky to get on in 2008 and had a line, sometimes composite, but still never got stuck. Plus the 2 redeyes to mco from lax, 1 from sea, and sometimes 1 from las help as with all the ones to Atl. I have done it on and off for 3 years and it sounds crazy but it isn't that bad. Besides the aa flts to/from Mia can be just as hard to get in as any other hub to hub.

But yes commuting to reserve to fat from the east coast like mco would be brutal. But except for one month in the 3 years in the bro,even during the months rumored to furlough when people took leave, we have had an avg 6 reserves in fat on a given day. Most of the time it had been below 3 or 4 reserve lines.

 

I received an offer from both Skywest and Eagle...and would love to go to either. However, my main concern is an ORD base. I know I can get one right out of class with Eagle, but how easy is it to hold at Skywest? I know that ORD is a junior CRJ base. If I don't get it out of class, how easy is it to transfer in, a few months?

 

If you're in the CRJ, ORD is easy to get. The Junior bases are COS, ORD, IAH, MSP.

 

So you're saying that you could get ORD CRJ out of class? And if you don't get it, I'm assuming you can base transfer in easily? Are bases assigned the first day of class, and based on the last 4 of your soc?

 

With regards to Eagle, they let the newhires pick equip/bases on Day 1 and it goes by age. If you are 22-23yrs old then you might not have the option to chose either CRJ or ERJ since youll be one of the last to pick (likely to see DFW/MIA/SJU ATR for the first year, then you can transfer to CRJ or ERJ). If you do get the ERJ or CRJ its a good chance of being based in ORD, but even if it is DFW/NYC then you should be able to transfer by the time you finish training or at the most you might spend 1-3months based somewhere else before you get to ORD.

We have been seeing lots of ORD CRJ and ERJ for the recent newhire classes

 

Are most new-hires going to the EMB? Are any going to the RJ?

I've read that MSP is very junior, and I'm curious about how likely it is to get hired into MSP right off the bat.

Thanks in advance for your insight.

 

I think the new hire classes are pretty much split between RJ and EMB right now. I wouldn't call MSP junior, its not senior by any stretch, but the chances of getting in are dependent on the base growing a bit.

 

Is ORD still pretty junior and easy to attain/transfer into as a newhire on the CRJ? Also, how do they assign bases in the class? Do you find out the first day?