LoitaHills

No FO DCA awards for the October base bid award (published June 9), only back-fills, and that was one pilot.

No one in the 5/31/17 new hire class was awarded DCA.

LH

AxeJammer

Once your schedule is set for the next month, what are the options available to change it? (getting days off you want for b-days, school event, etc)

thump

Your best bet is to use a GDO (guaranteed day off). They are 3 consecutive days off that are pre-awarded before the monthly bidding begins. They do not have any credit assigned to them, so it wont change how many total days you get off, but it is guaranteed before monthly bidding begins. You only receive two GDOs per year. You can use them back to back, or partial, but you can't use two days here and the remaining day elsewhere. GDOs also can't be used in close proximity to holidays. I forget the specific days prohibited there.

After that, you can bid for the days off through the normal monthly bid process. If you are a junior line holder, it helps to bid voluntary reserve if you are desperate for a specific day off.

After schedules are awarded (line/reserve) you can try to drop the days, but that is very difficult unless it's a slow month (I.E. not summer/spring break/christmas/new years).

Trade board, but that's hard unless it's a day trip or two day trip.

Lastly, if it's something important like a baptism etc, you can ask the chief pilot for the days off in advance.

And "extra lastly" if that's a thing, you can always call off unavailable (and get an assistant chief pilot call) or you can call in sick.

GRDWN3Grn

I start in the August class, I have had people tell me I won't need a crash pad and others say that I will.
1. Can I bid a schedule that is commutable up and back?

2. I figured while on reserve I would probably need one knowing that I more than likely wont have overnights.

3.Once a senior line holder is a crash pad needed? It will be a one leg commute for me for Lga, DCA

How hard is it to find a decent clean pad?
Thanks

Captain Slow

Decent pads are plentiful in DCA, and you will need one for reserve.

You can bid for whatever you want for commutability, but until you are relatively senior you can't really count on getting it. I have four trips this month, all commutable on one end... so that's four hotel rooms (with a crew rate, cheaper than a pad for a month).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

GRDWN3Grn

Thanks, that doesn't sound too bad. Guess I will use that bonus as my commute expenses to build enough seniority to where I wont need any.

Captain Slow

That said, housing/expenses in LGA are significantly more expensive. Crew rates at hotels in DC typically run around $50 a night from what I have seen. In LGA I haven't heard of anyone getting a rate under $100.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

KCaviator

Looks like we'll have SAP in the near future.

Bill20000

Any news/date when the SAP is supposed to be implemented?

KCaviator

According to the union email today, "we are getting very close to implementation..."