Quote:
Originally Posted by Retractable
So, from your numbers it seems that NJA is up there with SWA and Alaska.
Isn’t that a competitive upgrade if an applicant liked this type of flying Bruh?
Good upgrade times at Spirit... but I wouldn’t want to fly those type of people around. Too much grit and drama and riots when flights cancel.
Specifically, Alaska looks like it’s exactly equal to NetJets projected upgrades... we’ll be taking on something like 40-50 jets a year with 15 of those being growth airframes. Is Alaska?
Very curious why someone would leave for Virgin or Spirit two years ago and call that a win today facing the exact... same... or worse upgrade time (in the case of Alaska) or the realities of flying “Spirit World”.
Unless they really wanted to fly airline type of flying.
And of note is that these are upgrade times to be on reserve in a junior base. That isn’t possible for many pilots to embrace without a commute.
NetJets still features 110+ bases to start and stop trips from without a commute, changeable every could of weeks if desired. The whole basing and commute thing is a non event. Once a new pilot just lets go of the need to know where their trip will take them, the days on the road are extremely manageable. Crews simply manage rest, nutrition, etc and the destinations just happen.
Last trip we literally flew from California to St Thomas and saw every season, including fire season in California. We didn’t care where we flew or where the overnight was or what time we arrived/departed the overnight. Some great overnights, some average overnights, some great flying, no TEB. I used the restroom on the ground... no standing in the lav.
I really can’t imagine a NetJets where because I upgrade, I’d sit around on reserve or get scrap trips and be forced to report to a single base 3 time zones away to do that.
The difference is at NJA with no retirement age you can not conclusively base your upgrade time on anything besides potential growth.
Let’s look at AK for example on the other end.
Retirements in next 5 years- around 288 based on age 65 rule.
Growth- 50 firm plus 25 firm from an earlier order. That’s 75 BUT those could be always pushed or sold or etc. AK in investor calls has indicated it is a net growth of approximately 4 percent a year.
So looking at just attrition you are looking at 10 percent movement in seniority list. That is as close to guaranteed in this industry. In addition you have 4 percent growth or about 115 per year so about 500 after five years.
That’s not bad at all. A movement of 288-788 pilots.
That’s why someone would move on. You have a guaranteed retirement age with the additional growth potential while at NJA it is based on potential growth and that’s it.
As far as QOL, that’s subjective and is not relevant to any discussion on these boards. Many people commute 3 time zones and are on reserve and are perfectly happy with their 17 days off. Others live at base have 19 days off and are not happy at all. It’s subjective
In a counter to your trip, I flew 3 days and 10 legs, averaged 17 hours off and went from Cabo to SEA, never saw a cloud except for the marine layer moving in at night. I started work day one at 1800L and ended at 2300L on last day so that’s only 53 hours away plus the drive into work and back. Then I had 5 days off. I bid 50 percent in base so it’s not even a senior trip. I don’t ever use the bathroom inflight, I refuse but I’m an old commuter guy so it’s a matter of pride. So you just do and we can all get along....