Commuting FO new hire?
 

Assuming Air Wisky never works out or if I'm offered a job with another airline first, how hard would it be to commute as a new FO?

For example if I want to live in MD, and I get a job with American Eagle out of Dallas. Would this be suicide?

In a previous thread I asked what regionals fly out of BWI, DCA, PHL?

That's how I found out about Wisky & Piedmont. Does anyone else operate out of these airports?

Thanks for the help, I'll probably ask a million questions but I'd rather be over prepared than under.

The key issues for commuters are...

1) How many daily flights? The more the better (3-4 minimum).
2) How many direct flights? Two leg commutes double the stress.
3) How many different airlines? The more the merrier.
4) Does your own company have a direct route? You have priority on your own airplanes and affiliated airlines.
5) Do any of the airlines operate airbuses? they have TWO jumpseats.
6) Are you going to or from a large airline domicile? Lot's of pilots travelling.
7) Is you hometown a place that pilots want to live?


I have had great luck commuting when I have:
- Multiple non-stops on company/affiliated iron.
- At least one OTHER airline (SWA preferred) on the route.
- Airbuses.


I think you have a few things going for you...
1) Probably not a lot of pilots want to live in the DC metro area.
2) AA probably goes non-stop to DFW from BWI, DCA, and IAD. Look it up on the internet.
3) If you're going to work for eagle, you will have some priority getting on those flights. Try to find a local AA/AE pilot to ask. NOTE: AE used to deny travel privileges to new-hire pilots for 6 months...you need to find out if they still do that (other airlines give you travel/JS within a few weeks).

One of my favorite resources:

www.passrider.com

Good luck!

thanks for the help. trust me if it was up to me I'd move to the south or back to KY. but the woman wants to stay around MD *god knows why* :)

I guess its tit for tat. i'll be gone so she can be around her friends / parents etc.

but I miss the southern lifestyle of slow, no one cares, and oh so warm.

You can non rev immediately on Eagle\American as a new hire.

Help me out a little bit please. What is non rev mean? I see it a lot on the boards

basically it means flying standby for free, non-rev = non revenue, or non paying passenger. Paying passengers will get priority over you all the time, but, if you've got several flights to catch, and can leave the day before your trip, it isn't bad. Just don't get in a position where you'll be stuck, cause that could end up with you "stuck" at another airline. ehhh.

I don't think non-rev on eagle for eagle pilots is free unless there are no seats in the back and you occupy the actaul... or was that just for mainline?

Eagle charges you a service charge. All seats do not have to be full to jumpseat, they changed that rule in Jan 2005. The service charge can add up, but it is part of living where you want to.

Non rev doesn't have to mean free, it just means they are not making money. A service charge just covers the expense of you riding.

I am from LEX, my wife is from IND..and we plan on getting the hell out of Maryland just as quickly as we reasonably can. While we like it here, its definitely not "home"...

To answer your question I dunno about DFW, but there are hourly flights from DCA to ORD, and you could easily get from BWI to ORD via AA/UAL or Southwest via Midway and take the El. If you got hired at Eagle, commuting to BOS or LGA might be easier, though.

Are you in the hiring pool at Wiskey? I don't think things are gonna 'bust loose' anytime soon but I'd say they'll almost have to hire in another month or two at most to get properly staffed for summer.

I moved from MD to St Louis for my job, and still make it back to MD about once or twice a month. If you're in the same location as my parents are - equidistant from all three Baltimore/Washington airports - commuting will not be a problem. I've never had trouble making it between STL and B-more/DC, and I'm guessing that there're more flights from the area to Dallas than there are to St Louis. The two questions you have to ask yourself are: why would you give up days off to commute, and why would you stay in Maryland when you don't have to?

Rumor out the the training dept. is that all the pilot hiring has been turned over to the finance dept. As in they must give the "go" to new hire classes. The problem is that they don't understand it takes a new hire 3 months to get online, they think that if you hire someone they are online the next day, so be ready for some SERIOUS understaffing coming soon, attrition is sitting on average of 10 a month, so do the math, but the next class is slatted for March 19th. Also supposedly not only RDU will open BUT MKE too. Should get interesting in the next couple months.

Where did you hear that from? I understand bean counters run the world...but gimme a break.

Also where did you hear about MKE in addition to RDU?

Keep the rumor mill turning kids!!!

WTF, over?

I want MKE!!!

BTW, just to make some of you guys sick, I have now been transferred to DCA and for March I will not have to work 'til the 14th. This turns one week of vacation into precisely one month off. The DCA schedules are really soft at the moment.

I am wasting away my vacation in ATW, hometown of all the ZW rockstars.

That's an understatement...;)

Maybe you can drop into the Center of the Universe during your vacation and see when we're taking deliveries of the 700s and when ORD is going to reopen.

:D :D

RGS.....I guess S.O. wants a new hire class now, but the bean counters think we are "adequately" staffed and refuse to look into the future. MKE comes from the top, they are just waiting for approval from the counters also (not that any of us would EVER see MKE). Just relaying info, don't shoot the messanger!

700's? its E-190's flown at the old contract 146 rates and it is gonna be ORD, ATW, and DEN opening! :D

We'll never see ATW again..... :(

But MKE would be a nice compromise. I remain skeptical of any of this news. We have heard it all before and none of it ever happened.

The only thing which I think might actually happen is RDU. That makes some sense. MKE is a HUGE carrot they are dangling and nobody should fall for it IMHO.

As far as attrition, I have not seen numbers lately, but it sure seems slow. I did hear a couple guys who I know are leaving, but that was just a couple. Relatively senior captains though, so it helps us all.

One is going to NetJets and one has the tough choice of SWA and UPS. Job offers at both!!:eek:

Was that T.B. by chance?

Not sure who T.B. is.

It was not someone I knew personally, just chatted with quickly in the crew room of PHL. Tough choice and one which has to be made based on lifestyle.

I would probably choose UPS if I had that enviable dilemma.

Yeah it must have been T.B. I just flew with him a month or so ago when he was waiting to hear, got interviews at both places with NO letters of rec, and was leaning toward going to UPS. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

thanks for the help. I'm from LEX as well, and while I've lived in DE for the past 3 years, its as you said not home. My reasoning for sticking it out up here, would be so that the woman can be by her friends / family. I'll be flying so she would have someone to hang out with, instead of making her start all over. showing her the pay chart for UPS was one way to get her back to KY, hell I think she'd beat me there :)

to be honest I wish I was in the hiring pool for Whisky however I've still got 30 days left in the Air Force and I'm still deciding which flight school I'm about to give my soul.