Junior Lines & Base Assignments
 

The line question seems to come up a lot so I thought I'd make this little table indicating how long each base takes to hold a line (as of October 2018).
SAP = Schedule Adjustment Period, lineholders get 2 rounds of add/drop/swap opportunities, after that, the leftover trips are built into lines (if able) and given to those that did not receive a line in the initial run of bids.
Post-SAP lines are not broken down by composite vs full line, simply shows if someone got at least 1 trip after SAP.

The original base thread has also gotten way off topic and hasn't been updated in months so I thought I'd take a stab at that too.

Junior Base assignments as of September 2018
 

Junior base assignments

CA base seniority
 

It's not quite that easy once you upgrade. I've got a table of my own going to keep an eye on the trends for CA bases.

Least senior to most senior CA bases and the span of the bottom 10 DOHs...

EWR: 12/15 to 9/15
LGA: 12/15 to 6/15
PIT: 7/15 to 6/14
DCA: 4/15 to 10/14
CMH: 3/15 to 9/14
MIA: 3/15 to 3/13
PHL: 12/14 to 9/13
IND: 10/14 to 1/14
MCI: 5/14 to 3/11
IAH: 11/13 to 3/07
ORD: 11/13 to 6/07

Clutch.. I am a new hire.. is the DC line a typo in post #1? I would think the line holder would be senior to the post SAP junior line holder. Thanks again, this is awesome

Ah crap, good catch. DCA junior lineholder should read 10/30/2017.

So as a new hire with a class date of October 30th, I will get PHL January 2019 or May 2019? Not sure how exactly to read that chart? Or 2 months from my bid date?

The January '19 bids closed on September 5th. On October 5th the February '19 bids will close.

As a new hire, you will bid for a base in indoc, looking at the chart you can see the latest info we have (per the September 4th class) new hires got MCI, IND, PIT, CMH, and EWR.

If you don't get your initial bid in indoc (PHL in your case), you will have to bid in the system wide vacancy with everyone else. For you, if you didn't get PHL initially you could bid in the Nov 5th vacancy, which would be effective March 1, 2019. Does that make more sense?

So for the current junior PHL person:
They were hired on 7/10/2018, presumably bid for PHL and did not get it. They would bid in the August 5 vacancy, effective December 1, but they were denied that too. For the September 5 vacancy, this individual was finally awarded PHL. However they will not move bases until January 1 (4 months after the award).

Newbie question. Why does EWR get new hires when the junior line holder is almost a year and post SAP is 9 months?? High reserve usage?? Just curious I was assigned this base and trying to sit reserve the least as I commute

The September vacancy had an unusual amount of FO vacancies posted (over 100), no doubt because of the large number of people in training. There were vacancies posted for (I think) every base, EWR trumped every other base with 35 vacancies posted. The awards didn't fill anywhere near 35 spots in EWR so they filled the rest of those vacancies with new hires.

Makes perfect sense now...thanks so much!

SUperbusedil thread!! Thanks!!

AND MIA isn’t that on either side of the coin! Hopefully it stays that way!

Thanks for posting. Newbie question for me as well. Actually... three newbie questions.

If you get awarded a new base assignment in FLiCA, will it tell you when the assignment is effective? I know it’s 4 months, but I can’t math. :p

Question two: I live 3-3.5 hours driving time from ORD, so that’s definitely my preferred base. I know reserve call out is 2 hours, so I’d need a crashpad in ORD. I’d imagine that is expensive. Would you recommend bidding CMH for a few months in an attempt to get a line and then bid ORD when I can get at least a post SAP line?

Question three: I have access to FLiCA. How do you see this information?

1) In Comply the company will put out a (Month) FO/CA Vacancy document, on the 5th of the month the bids close. A few days later they company will post a new doc in Comply (Flight Ops->Memos->Crew Planning) called (Month) FO/CA Vacancy Awards. There you can see if your bid was awarded but there will also be a note in the doc telling you "these bids are effective _______ "
It's around this time that the vacancies get posted so expect to see the "February 2019 FO Vacancies" doc go up in the next few days in Comply.

2) Really depends on you. Can you drive to CMH? I'm not sure what the crashpad/transportation situation in CMH is.

3) A little bit of digging. Under the bidding Oct 2018 folder you can look at FO final awards and see the last person who got a line. Cross reference with the seniority list.

Thank you! Follow up question. Since (as of now) a vacancy notice for Feb hasn't been posted, is that why I'm getting no award in the "what if" bid? Or is it because I won't be able to hold ORD in Feb?

The base bidding was only just recently moved into rpa flica so I'm not sure where the "what if" scenario pulls its info from. You could try putting in every base FO in your bid and run the what if and see if it still says you wouldn't get anything?

34 Captain vacancies have been posted for the February 2019 bid. This bid will close on October 5th.

Additionally, 70 FO vacancies have been posted, also closing October 5th. The only base not listed is ORD.

Vacancy awards will be posted a few days after the bid closes.

Could someone break down the chart for me? I've read through and still am not really comprehending how it works at RPA. About 6 months out and hoping for a DCA base. I know a lot can happen between now and then but I am just trying to understand as much as I can.

Thanks

What’s the deal with ORD? Is it quickly becoming more senior than the rest of the bases?

Nothing. Probably just don't anticipate any FO upgrading out of there that month.

The jr base assignments image shows the most junior pilot awarded DCA with a hire date of 6/12/2018. 3 months on property to get DCA, but likely reserve.

The jr lineholders image shows a pilot hired in 10/2018 could hold a line in DCA. Someone hired in 12/2018 couldn't hold a line but used the schedule adjustment period (SAP) to get a line.

The most jr captain in DCA was hired in 4/15, so a new hire wanting to upgrade in that base may wait 3 years 5 months. I expect this would be reserve, but the jr captain post doesn't specify lineholder vs reserve.

Summary:
3 months to get DCA reserve
6-8 months reserve until holding a line
2.5 years later become a captain

YMMV, this is a historical snapshot and won't accurately predict the future.

So based on the training timeline its a possibility you could have DCA when you finish all the training?

Thank you for the break down! I appreciate it! I know it must get old having to explain this stuff...

Unlikely unless you are awarded DCA in your initial bid in indoc. This hasn't happened since the 10/30/2017 class. Not to say it wont happen in the future, just unlikely.

What's more likely is you will get assigned one of the bases that are listed with "New Hire" in the snapshots, and will then have the opportunity to bid in the system wide vacancies (along with 2300 other pilots) for whatever base it is you want. Once you get awarded your base, the effective month is 4 months later. For example, the other day they posted the vacancies effective January 31, 2019. These bids close on October 5th. If you were to be awarded DCA in this vacancy, you would stay in your current base until January 30, 2019. On the following day, January 31, you would become a DCA pilot.
Does that make it a little more clear?

This is all true, but you can also email Crewsupport and let them know that you are willing to transfer early if the opportunity arises. I was in the same situation, but was able to get to my base 2 months earlier then the award because there was somebody wanting to swap out and was willing to do that early too.

That does make it more clear! Thank you very much! I appreciate you taking the time to explain it! Look forward to joining the RPA team here soon!

Of course that's an option once you get your base awarded. I'm trying to keep the 'what if' questions simple enough for the new & prospective hires asking them.

So EWR reserve is about a year if I’m right? Why is it so long if the vacency is so high?

October (Feb '19) vacancies have the same deal. They didn't fill all the EWR vacancies, plus posted a total of 70 vacancies presumably for the ~200 people in training right now. Maybe EWR lines will come down, maybe they won't. Just my theory.

With LGA being nearby, virtually the same commute, would it be smarter to bid for LGA due to getting a line sooner? Trying to figure out what the best decision is. Commuter not wanting to sit on reserve forever.

Yes. Most of the new hires in LGA recently have been on reserve for a month or less. This might increase slightly with the slower (less flying) winter months.

Im hoping to get LGA. Hope it works out.

New Hire
 

Greetings,

I start class DEC 11th, 2018. After a few days of paperwork, go home for 4-6 weeks. Assuming class/sims/IOE takes about 3 months would it be difficult to get ORD as my first choice? I live in KY and they're a lot of direct flights everyday to ORD for the commute. Also, if granted ORD out the gate how long would I sit reserve before picking up a line?

Welcome aboard!, the search feature is a good tool for questions like these (usually a bunch of people have already asked and answered them). I think right now its about 6 months give or take from Indoc to ORD. The initial assignments recently have been LGA,EWR, IND, CMH but we've all been told we would really be able to be where we wanted by the end of OE or a few months after (except IAH and MIA)

I will update the thread tomorrow, but as far as ORD goes:
Per the October Vacancy Awards (keep in mind these go into effect on January 31st. Read the beginning of the thread if you don't know what I mean), a 7/24/2018 hire is the junior individual awarded ORD. So they had to wait a little over 2 months to get the awards, and it will be a little over 6 months from DOH when they are actually moved to ORD.

Right now we only have data through the 9/5 class. No word yet on the 9/18 or 10/2 classes.

Yes, it is possible. ORD had one of the lowest reserve times for FOs. As a matter of fact, for most of the summer there were zero FOs on reserve. Not sure how that will evolve, you are still a long ways out and they way it is now won't be the way it is then.

Buddy said 14 EWR, 13 CMH, 5 PIT for 10/2

Anyone know what went to the most junior person in class and the age range? I would assume that with most people being young, a month or two of age difference can be a big deal as many are 22-25 years old.

Not so fast on the age. It varies per class. My class had almost 60% above 30 years old. And you can never predict how bases are assigned as you never know what the “senior” guys want.

New Hire
 

Thanks for the response guys. Very helpful. I'm hopeful that the logjam at the SIMs will clear up by January 2019.

They told January classes won't see a plane before summer. So not likely.

Here's the October awards and bidders, with data through the 10/2/2018 class.