Upgrade Times?
 

Hey all -- I was curious as to what the latest upgrade times are for those joining as a new FO with no previous 121 experience. Looked at a couple of older threads but we know that this always in flux.

Any comparisons to Envoy or Endeavor upgrade times? I know historically it's been longer than some other regionals, but is the time decreasing at all?

Any info would be appreciated!

Just went to a recruiting event in Phoenix for the Cadet program and the upgrade times are still 2.5 - 3 years. Might drop a little in the future as hiring starts ramping up but RAH seems to have more captains that stay for an extended time than other airlines

Industry changes so fast that chasing upgrade times should be one of the bottom things on your list when choosing a Regional. Upgrade times today won't look anything like upgrade times 2 or 3 years from now.

Junior award in the latest vacancies went to a Feb 15 hire

54 CA vacancies system wide. Expect upgrade times to drop to 2.5 years and additional flying/aircraft to come online.

Don't confused vacancies with ugprades. Those are vacancies that current captains can bid on. We've been having ~50 vacancies but usually half of those are upgrades.

We haven’t had a ~50 captain vacancy in a long time, probably not since the Republic/Shuttle merger. I think the largest most recent vacancy had 36. While agree that this will not equal out to 54 true upgrades, I think it will significantly effect the upgrade time here.


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Unless we shrink there are usually backfill awards filled by FOs.

RAH is where careers go to finish, not start. Many lifers, not bad, just the reality.

Really no more than anywhere else.


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And it really is about QOL anyways. To some folks it means money, to some commute, it’s always different.

At the end of the day it’s our job, not our life.

Thanks all -- great feedback. I plan on submitting an application to RAH so this info is very helpful. Keep it coming if you have any other thoughts, upgrade times or not....

The CA vacancy bid results will come out around March 9th so we’ll see how far the upgrade reaches. Of course, it doesn’t mean much for a new hire now since a lot can change.

Upgrade Times?
 

Down to 2 years 7 months for the upgrade award. August 2015 DOH. 51 upgrades (that’s a record during my time here, for sure).


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Upgrade Times?
 

Deleted. Double Post.

And everyone gave me a funny look when I told them it was gonna be under 3 years. It was inevitable.

After last months award, absolutely. The drop in upgrade times last month was a huge surprise for me. In the last 2 months it has dropped 10 months.


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Yeah I definitely didn’t know how long it’d be when I first came here but after 2 years of the same attrition ahead of me, something have had to have gone wrong for it to be over 3 years.

So the plan is to have 2.5/3 year upgrades for the foreseeable future?

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a plan, but it seems like it’ll stay in that range. We’ve had some pretty large vacancy bids the last couple of months that have brought it down.

We are supposed to see 7-10% growth over the next 2 years according to our esteemed leader so that may drive it down further.

Just like anything in the industry, it is a dynamic situation. It depends on attrition and hiring.


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I don't see how it can't keep coming down with the pilot shortage and some of the lifers at RAH retiring in the next couple years.

Upgrade times these days should be the last thing on the list when picking a Regional because they are going to be short no matter where you go.

Republic has a lot of lifers. i Think most of the top 600 will stay, unless they get a dream job offer. Most aren’t trying to leave. When I left republic 14 year captains were on reserve in ORD. Those guys love republic and are mostly happy. Upgrade will probably settle around 2 years, which is probably about right for a new 121 captain.

Upgrade Times?
 

I think 600 is very much on the high side. ORD is sort of a one off and has many factors contributing to it being so senior it’s more than just a lifer “problem”. I also don’t think they have anymore lifers than any other airline.

Do captain and FO seniorities regarding bases look similar?

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I’m not sure I understand your question.


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My bad. Are the junior or senior bases for FOs also junior/senior for captains, or are they different?

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There are slight differences. CMH, for example, is a junior FO base but a somewhat senior CA base. CA seniority in CMH has been coming down so it's starting to even out.

Are there particular bases you're interested in?

Not really. I've been lurking for a year now, and I was just curious. I'm at 0 TT (starting in the summer!) so it'll probably be another 5 years before my question is actually relevant to my life. And who the hell knows what'll be different then... part of the fun I guess.

Kudos to you for getting informed. Just don't let it bother you too much right now. You have it right when you say that everything will be different by the time you are interviewing.

Spent 9 years in the right seat between two regionals. Man, how times have changed. I’m happy for you guys.

Thanks guys for the info -- I will keep this thread going over the next couple of months. Curious to see if upgrade times will be coming down to the 2-2.5 year mark. That would make RAH very attractive overall for hiring.

Since we're here, what is the most junior captain base? my semi-informed outsider guess is ewr

EWR LGA and DCA are all pretty junior on the captain side

How long does it currently take to hold CMH on the captain side?

Latest vacancy awards came out today and for the 3rd month in a row we are sitting at 2 yrs 7 mos. This is good, upgrade time has really coke down and hopefully continues to-do so.

Junior CMH captain is a 3/2015 hire, so about 3 years. Junior lineholder captain is around 11/2012. Expect to sit reserve a while.

Junior line holding Capt for May was 01/2014 in PIT...

I'm referring to CMH obviously

Jesus. It would take 6 years to hold a line as a captain in CMH?
So if you want to upgrade relatively quickly at republic, one would be looking at a base of LGA, DCA, or EWR? Yuck.

As with most Regionals, holding their most popular bases as Captain is a lot harder than FO considering you don't have people moving up opening up space like on the FO side, just the people moving out. So you get a lot more stagnation at the more senior bases. I know everybody at Envoy goes to LGA and Skywest have some senior bases you'll never get into as a CA.

I’m referring to company wide, obviously.

🙃