Conditional offer from XJT.

I've read the thread, very "spirited" at times, and have a few questions for the XJT folks.

When do you pick the type aircraft? Is that prior to training, as I assume they have to determine this prior to training location (ERJ = IAH, CRJ = ATL). Wasn't clear in the brief at the interview. I remember they asked us sometime during the initial briefing, via a show of hands, who was interested in ERJ and who was interested in CRJ. Not sure if that amounted to anything.

Assume I pick CRJ, the bids for base then occur during training correct? If so at what point during training? Piggy back on that, what about model (-2/-7/-9) does that happen same time? Or is it on an as needed basis?

Yes, we know reserve awaits the new hire. Where can a new hire get gouge on crash pads? Does XJT have some network to tap into to get the lowdown?

My home is in TPA, that is why I'm asking. I understand commuting to reserve is not optimal, but doable. What do the majority of dudes/dudettes on reserve do if they are commuters? Crash pad, or something else (e.g. best way to go about commuting)?

Thread is informative on the bidding for reserve (if their is such a thing, excuse my ignorance I'm new to 121 ops). My goal (background is ex-mil fighter guy with 3K + of turbine PIC) is to maximize my hours within regs (and not to upset the status quo). How would one go about that? Not trying to put cart before horse, I still have to get through initial successfully. But any info you can offer would be great. Feel free to PM me.

Thanks for your time.

I picked my jet at the end of the interview. The jet determines whether you go to Atlanta or Houston for training (CRJ and ERJ respectively).

I'm CRJ and all models and bases are on the table as of late. My class of 6 had 2 go to each base. You either fly the 200 or the 700/900. DFW only has 200s and DTW only has 700/900s. There is a lot of movement so if you don't get something on the initial drop you can change your standing bid while still in training and possibly hold your desired base shortly after IOE.

Crash pads are done by many. I am in DFW and the hotels there are only $30/night so I do that and have call me first on my reserve so I can get overnights and thus a free hotel. Not sure on the network but we have an internal classified page. Call me first is also going to be your best bet (on CRJ side) to get a call for more flying. ERJs have a aggressive pick up thing everyday that I'm not intelligent enough to talk about.

You'll be fine with training with your mil background. If you struggle they quickly give you extra sims and attention. They are there to pass not fail you. It's a friendly training department.

Jaww,
Quick question here. I'm not familiar with anything going on at the Regionals, but from what I've been reading it looks like the ExpressJet pilots voted down a T/A back in 2014. What is the current progress of contract talks, if there's any progress at all?

Aggressive pick-up on the ERJ side allows you to call the day before and have scheduling assign you a trip that is currently uncovered. There are some rules that go along with it though:

• You have to call during a specific window the day prior to the trip and it is first come, first serve.
• Window for the long-call (12 hour) reserves opens before short-call (2 hour) reserves so they have first crack at it. Also, a long call doesn't have to worry about the start time of the trip (see below).
• The trip you are trying to pick up has to fit the footprint of your reserve days. If you are good for 2 days, the trip must be a 2-day. If you are good for 3 days, you can NOT pick up a 1- or 2-day trip. However, if you are good for 4+ days, then you can pick up a 4-day, as anything longer than a 4-day is not typically built in open time.
• In addition to the above, the trip you are trying to pick up must fall into your call out window. If you are a short-call guy, the trip must start AT or AFTER your phone availability window and day 1 must finish before you would run out of duty time, since you are technically still phone liable until the report time of the trip. As an example, if you are an 8AM call out and you are looking at a trip in open time that starts at noon, day 1 must finish by 1130pm to be legal (8am + 15:30 contractual duty limit for reserves).
• Even if you line up all of these stars and scheduling gives you the trip, a line holder can still steal it from you up to a certain time. (As I recall, long-calls own the trip 12 hours prior to report and short calls own it 8 hours prior to report).

It's a decent system for those that want to fly and if there is a fair amount of open time (which there has been). Just don't be whiny when your sweet trip gets taken from you by a line holder and you get stuck with some crummy 16-leg 4-day.

Oh yeah, there is also "will fly" (aka "call me first") on the ERJ side but my experience was that those guys always ended up getting ready reserve/airport reserve which then puts you at the BOTTOM of the bucket to get called for a trip that comes open. For me it was always aggressive pickup if there was a decent trip or "no preference" and keep my head down and hope they didn't call.

I recently left XJT and since the TA vote there has been very little progress made. It seemed that for a time the company and the union were both sort of waiting and seeing how things shook out at PSA, Eagle/Envoy, Republic, etc. From what I am hearing from friends there, it sounds like as of late, both sides might be moving slowly again to get some sort of deal worked out.

As of right now, we are exploring the idea of separate contract extensions. So instead of a JCBA, the XJT and ASA side would both negotiate with the company to extend our current contract for a little period of time, along with gains in scope and compensation. We will mow if that is going to be the goal on December 7th.

I'm not sure about the ERJ side, but there are some good things coming to the CRJ side in the form of LOA's for us soon. One should increase our upgrades per month.

Thx for the replies guys,