dl773

You can hold a line at Republic in less than 6 months too, and you have more base choices. You also don't have to worry about the FO year 3 pay cap if/when the industry turns south again.

And no junior manning.

stringandrudder

Yeah having benefits at 3 majors encompassing thousands of destinations is definitely poor indeed. I'd rather have a "chance" on all 3 legacies with my passriders than just 1. But hey that's just me. We all know AA is the best though


SIGN ME UP FOR PSA RIGHT NOW!!!!!

According to the AA travel guide for '16 , we (any non wholly owned regional employee/pass rider) are not "last," all the time.

The priority is listed as follows:

Skitz

The other guys are correct...the policy used to be that you would receive bennies only for the airlines your base supported. As of Jan 2017, that has changed and everyone gets all 3 if they wish (there are some small signup/segment fees associated with each airline so some peeps don't sign up).

Using myself as an example, I am a single (as in not married) dude with a live-in girlfriend. I have her on my Delta bennies as the "domestic partner". With this she gets the same priority as me (S3C). This is below mainline folk but above buddies. It's not great, but we make it work. We travel a lot (I am a "senior" FO and she has a flexible job). The past 3 plus years we have been to 34 countries and have only been "stuck" one night in Brazil. We got out the next day no problem. We are in Delta One (DAL version of First) 90 percent of the time on the long haul stuff (lay-flat beds are a game changer). She also gets all of my ZED fares, which is are super deep discounts on other foreign and domestic airlines. This really helps when traveling abroad (taking DAL to Australia and using Qantas to bounce around for example).

On my United bennies, I have myself and 2 friends. I don't non-rev on UAL often but I do find I am often near the bottom. My 2 buddies travel extensively on United and it seems from their experience DAL is better. They do manage to get upgraded on long hauls but they have to pay a decent fee (usually around 200 bucks).

I just received the American last month since I am a Shuttle guy. I designated another "friend" for the AA bennies. I haven't really used them, but I understand they are the worst of the 3. I do know that there is no way to get upgraded to First for us on AA.

So my scenario in a nutshell:
DAL: Girlfriend unlimited and gets ZEDS (50 dollar annual fee)
UAL: 2 buddies get unlimited travel (I think its 250 annual fee)
AAL: 1 buddy gets unlimited travel (can't remember the fee but it's like $1.55 a leg)

Hope this helps....

Flightcap

Two types of reserve; Short Call Reserve and Long Call Reserve. Technically the contract allows Airport Standby Reserve but the company has never used it.

Short Call Reserve:

Can bid for AM or PM shifts. AM shifts are typically 0300-1300. PM shifts are 1000-2200. May vary by base, I'm not sure. In my base, the company looks for lots of AM shifts, a few PM shifts, and just a couple of Long Call Reservists.

2-hour callout. Timer begins at first attempt to contact by the company - you have 20 minutes to call them back if you miss the first ring.

If the company hasn't assigned you anything by 4 hours prior to your normal release time on the last day of reserve, you are released from duty. This is nice because if you're an AM reserve, you are released by 0900 and basically have the day off.

Like most airlines, most junior guy is assigned first. Assignments work in "buckets" of available time - if a four-day trip needs covered, they look first to see if there are any four-day available reservists. They only split a trip among different pilots if no one is available for all four day.

Long Call Reserve:

Approximately a 12-hour callout. Very useful for commuters.

All assignments for day 1 of your availability period must be on your schedule by 8 pm the night before. No assignments may start earlier than 1300 local on your first day of reserve.

Can be converted into SCR by the company up to three times per month. They must give you notice (I think it's around 12 hours) of when they will do this.

Geardownflaps30

Additionally LCR gets used first, so as long as company has advance notice, LCR's get it. To that end, LCR's tend (operative word = tend) to fly more than Short Call Reserves (SCR). "YMMV"...

Palarran

Only thing to add, is that within each of the buckets it's first in-first out. So the guy who is the longest from his last worked flight is the first picked. Once a bucket is exhausted, then the company can use whomever. I assume that's when they go to least senior.

Flightcap

True. I also found for the time I was on LCR that the trips weren't that great. Maybe it was because you tended to get the trips people most wanted out of? I only bid LCR for one month though, so I'm far from an authority on it!

pilot2804

How many people are leaving RJET to head to the Majors/Somewhere else each month? aka, hows the short term/long term growth of FOs.

I know, don't chase an upgrade, but I also don't want to sit right seat for 5 years

170driver

That's a loaded question because everything could stop tomorrow. But on average I think about 20-30 people are leaving a month.

knewyork

Attrition of those at RAH greater than 1 year:

Aug: 35
Sep: 29
Oct: 27
Nov: 21
Dec: 23
Jan: 35