Go Back  Airline Pilot Central Forums > Airline Pilot Forums > Regional > Republic Airways
Republic Airways FAQ - START HERE >

Republic Airways FAQ - START HERE

Notices
Republic Airways Regional Airline

Republic Airways FAQ - START HERE

Old 10-24-2019, 01:41 PM
  #1  
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
 
Joined APC: May 2017
Position: Guppy
Posts: 761
Default Republic Airways FAQ - START HERE

To all prospective pilots interested in Republic, welcome!

At Republic, you'll find a great group of fun, professional pilots, a good contract with many industry-leading (in the regionals) items, and a terrific opportunity to learn the ropes in the 121 world. I picked Republic over a handful of other good options, and I'm still really glad I did.

I'm hoping by posting this and possibly getting it stickied, it will give prospective new hires an easy place to obtain oft-requested information. I, along with others, are happy to help answer more specific questions.

All information is accurate as of late October 2019. As with everything else in this industry, things change rapidly. I'll do my best to keep it updated.

When should I apply?

Conditional job offers are good for 6 months, so conventional wisdom says wait until then.

How long does it take to get a class date?

Currently, our wait times are minimal. We did not have any new hire classes in September because we were prioritizing upgrades and check airmen qualifications.

I heard Republic's training footprint is taking 6 months or more due to training delays. Is that true?

It was, but not anymore. Due to some seriously aggressive hiring that took place in 2018, our Enhanced Flat Panel Trainers (EFPT) and sims were the choke points, and ultimately the training department decided to do basic onboarding and then send new hire classes home so that training could be completed as continuously as possible rather than providing multiple breaks in between each module.

Currently, the choke point is line check airmen (LCA) availability, something the company is working to address (see above). The current wait between your line-oriented evaluation (LOE/checkride) and the beginning of operating experience (OE/IOE) is approximately 3 weeks. We're hoping to get that reduced substantially.

As it stands, the total training footprint is roughly 3 months excluding OE, which brings it up to close to 4.

What are the new hire bases?

It depends on each class, but it's very likely the bulk of our new hire classes will be offered some combination of EWR, LGA, and PIT in varying proportions, with CMH and IND scattered in to a lesser extent.

How long will it take to hold X base?

The current junior bidder in MIA is a September 2018 hire, and the current junior award in MIA for February 2020 (see explanation below) is an April 2019 hire. The current junior bidder in IAH is a November 2018 hire, as is the current junior award for February.

This means that the most senior FO base at the moment based on junior bidders is Miami, but by February, it will be Houston. These two go back and forth, but you can count on them remaining senior.

All other bases should be fairly easily obtainable near the time you finish training. Exactly how long will fluctuate, but 1-4 months from date of hire to award for every base except IAH and MIA has been the norm for quite a while now.

How frequently do you bid?

Our base bidding is done every month, effective 4 months later. So our current October bid is effective February 1st.

Occasionally you might be asked to move early, and the union does process base swaps on an automated basis to try to get you into your desired base sooner. In general, this works better if you're trying to bid into the more junior bases.

How many days off will I get per month?

It depends on how you bid. If you are on reserve, you get 12 hard days a month off. So in a 30 day month, you're working 18, in a 31 day month, 19.

Junior lineholders will average 14-16 days off per month, but if you're bidding for higher credit, it will obviously be less. The truth is, once you're a lineholder, you can generally obtain what it is you're looking for. Some want more days off, and 17-18 isn't rare, while some want more credit, and being able to get 95-105 hours credit per month is also not rare.

We do have two rounds of Schedule Adjustment Period (SAP) where individuals awarded an initial line can try to drop and add trips to build a more ideal line, but if you ask most pilots here they'll tell you it's of limited effectiveness because it still depends on projected reserve availability that day. It's basically a meme among our pilot group that every request submitted gets denied.

How long will I be on reserve at X base?

Generally speaking, a new hire today will likely be on reserve for 6-9 months from the time they hit the line, just depending on the base. There were people in my class who held a line as soon as they finished training (with the aforementioned training delays), and others who are still on reserve.

If your goal is minimizing time spent on reserve, they pretty much move in parallel to the bases' relative seniority. Larger, junior bases like EWR, LGA, and PIT will have more movement in and out, meaning quicker opportunity to move up the list as those in front of you are able to bid into their desired base.

How much will I fly on reserve?

As you've probably picked up by now, it really depends a lot. I don't think I'd be leading anyone astray to say 30-40 hours a month block is probably close to average. Some months it will be more than that and you might break guarantee, while others you'll hardly fly at all. I had a 5 week stretch in June-July where I had one 4-day trip and that's it.

What are the current upgrade times?

Our current junior upgrade award went to an August 2018 hire, which means it's 14 months to award, and 18 months until they'll hit the line. Looking at this individual's times this year, it does not appear they came in with any prior 121 time, and have been flying their butt off.

Note: It's extremely important to not base where you're looking on current upgrade times. It's arguably the most volatile aspect of everything discussed here, and a perfect example of the "past performance doesn't equal future results" mantra. As a case-in-point, if you'd ventured over to the ExpressJet board in January, upgrade times were 5-6 years. They're now down to less than 3, in just 10 months.

I'm interested in your new BOS/SDF bases which open in December. Will these be junior or senior?

Conventional wisdom around Republic is that SDF will go quite senior on the CA side because we have lots of SDF-residing IND CA since it was the closest base when SDF closed the last time.

Beyond that, it appears BOS and SDF should go quite junior, and could plausibly be offered to new hires on the FO side.

We've been told BOS will be predominately day trips, while SDF will be mostly a mix of day trips and 2 days.

What are the junior CA bases? How long will it take me to hold X base as a CA?

Mirroring the FO side, the junior captain bases tend to be EWR and LGA, but unlike the FO side, there's a lot more month to month variation because larger chunks of people have moved on. In general, if one were to take the first available upgrade, you would likely be able to move on to your desired base within the first 6 months of hitting the line as a CA.

The single constant is that ORD is absurdly senior, and no one should ever count on holding it as a CA. The current junior bidder (meaning at the bottom of the reserve list) is a February 2008 hire, meaning 11.5 years on property. ORD CA vacancies are Republic's version of a unicorn.

I will be a commuter. Is Republic a good place for me?

It really depends. The commuter aspects of our contract is probably the weak point, and appears to be something our union is planning to emphasize in the next round of contract negotiations which start soon.

Our commuter policy allows for 4 instances in a rolling 12 month period, provided you've listed for two flights that would get you to base on time.

Beyond that, the structure of our route and base network is not particularly commuter friendly. Because many of our largest bases are outstations for the respective airlines, most trips at those bases start early and end late, meaning you'll fly out on the first flight of the day to a hub, and then return on the last day on the last flight of the night. This makes commuting on days off a near certain reality. Some trips will allow either front end or back end commuting, but trips that are commutable both ends are exceedingly rare at outstation bases. Depending on where you live, IND has a large domestic FedEx operation and it could plausibly connect to your home airport in the early hours of the morning.

Life for commuters is better at the hub bases, which contrary to popular opinion represent a majority of our total bases (IAH, ORD, MIA, DCA, EWR, LGA, PHL, and BOS vs. IND, CMH, PIT, and SDF). There are more trips that have later starts and earlier finishes, allowing for same day commuting.

As always, life is better when you can drive to work, and that is the one thing that will improve your QOL over everything else at all levels of aviation, but especially the regionals.

Is it true Republic has a lot of "lifers" because the major airlines don't like to hire from Republic?

Ask 10 different people this question and you'll get 10 different answers.

Every regional that has something unique to offer will naturally have its fair share of lifers. In the case of Republic, it's able to offer those living in the larger Midwestern cities a terrific quality of life in locations with comparatively low costs of living. The "lost generation" of pilots hired on either side of 9/11 would now have to give up a lot, both in pay and especially in QOL, to move on, and with families and a comfortable life, it's justifiably tough to rationalize. Most other regionals have something comparable, whether it's Endeavor and their super senior MSP base, ExpressJet and their TYS base, etc.

Although I don't expect many people initially start their career planning to stay at regionals, a 20-year CKA could approach $140-150K, the ability to pick their days off, never work on a holiday, etc. It'd take them 2-4 years to make that much again at any other airline, and they'd likely never be able to replicate that QOL in the rest of their career.

With respect to hiring, I haven't seen any real evidence to support the idea that Republic is avoided by the legacies. There's not any reason why they would be. My own opinion is that much of our pilot group sees airlines like JetBlue or Spirit as good opportunities for a pay raise while mirroring our pilot bases and those airlines are the ones that are more likely to call first.

As retirements accelerate at the majors, I think getting to any specific airline will get easier. Exactly how that manifests at Republic I think will mirror most other regionals that fly for multiple partners.

Does Republic have a flow agreement or guaranteed interview anywhere?

No. If you're a civilian dead set on AA, the AAG wholly-owned regionals are the best, and most secure way to get there. Republic, based on its current ownership structure, likely won't have any sort of preferential programs. Allegedly we have an application review with Delta, but that program is somewhat of a mystery which I take to mean as not having much value vis-a-vis an off-the-street hire.

Outside of AA, I think a Republic pilot's odds of getting hired at any one specific carrier are as good as just about anywhere else. And it's my own opinion that I think the odds of getting hired as a civilian off-the-street at AA will have to go up out of necessity.

How much can I expect to earn as a first-year Republic FO?

This is obviously going to depend a lot on your specific situation, but as a part of the group that didn't hit the line until after 6 months (meaning I was making training pay for the first 30 days [$60/day stipend] and then minimum monthly guarantee [MMG] for the next 5 months), combined with being on reserve for the rest of my first 12 months (I chose to go to one of those very senior bases as soon as I could), I still grossed roughly $55K including the $2500 bonus for 1 year of employment and other parts of the bonus paid during the year.

That is essentially a worst case scenario because I had such a long period during training where I was making only minimum guarantee and no per diem, combined with large chunks of reserve where I wasn't working, not breaking guarantee, and not getting per diem.

Put another way, I only broke MMG in 4 of the 12 months of my first year. In the months I did break it, I averaged about 20-30% more over MMG.

I don't think it'd be unreasonable to expect the average first year Republic FO to earn at least an extra 10-20% over what I did.

How do the flight benefits work?

To me, this is the best part of working for Republic. Because we fly for American, United, and Delta, we get flight benefits on all three, regardless of whether your base flies for all three or not. Essentially, we're at the lowest priority, above only buddy passes but behind all active employees, retirees, and parents of active employees at those companies (and their wholly-owned subsidiaries). While it's not great being near the bottom of every standby list, I've never had a problem getting on, and if you're strategic about it, getting business class on long-haul flights is more than doable. What we lose in lower priority we make up for in flexibility. If weather hits an AA hub, the ripples will be felt far outside that base in the AA network, making standby travel very difficult. We have the freedom/flexibility to walk over to the United or Delta gates and get on one of their unaffected flights.

How about other benefits? How much do they cost?

Depending on which plan you select, medical plans will range from a HDHP that costs $110-$320 per month for yourself or a family to a PPO/HMO that runs $220-$550 per month.

Basic Dental is free for the associate, and ranges from $26-43/month for a family depending on which level is selected.

That's just a brief overview. Everything is pretty industry-standard as far as benefits go. 100% match up to 3% on your 401(k) for the first 5 years, then 5%. Vested immediately.

I hope this helps some people with questions they have and may make the Republic forum a little more user friendly for prospective pilots.
Longhornmaniac8 is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 01:51 PM
  #2  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Jun 2017
Posts: 962
Default

Awesome and detailed write up, Longhorn! Nice of you to take the time and offer your services on this way.
itsmytime is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 02:16 PM
  #3  
Line Holder
 
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 44
Default

Wow, thank you for that! Joining in December!
joefly is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 03:12 PM
  #4  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Aug 2016
Posts: 338
Default

Originally Posted by Longhornmaniac8 View Post
To all prospective pilots interested in Republic, welcome!

At Republic, you'll find a great group of fun, professional pilots, a good contract with many industry-leading (in the regionals) items, and a terrific opportunity to learn the ropes in the 121 world. I picked Republic over a handful of other good options, and I'm still really glad I did.

I'm hoping by posting this and possibly getting it stickied, it will give prospective new hires an easy place to obtain oft-requested information. I, along with others, are happy to help answer more specific questions.

All information is accurate as of late October 2019. As with everything else in this industry, things change rapidly. I'll do my best to keep it updated.

When should I apply?

Conditional job offers are good for 6 months, so conventional wisdom says wait until then.

How long does it take to get a class date?

Currently, our wait times are minimal. We did not have any new hire classes in September because we were prioritizing upgrades and check airmen qualifications.

I heard Republic's training footprint is taking 6 months or more due to training delays. Is that true?

It was, but not anymore. Due to some seriously aggressive hiring that took place in 2018, our Enhanced Flat Panel Trainers (EFPT) and sims were the choke points, and ultimately the training department decided to do basic onboarding and then send new hire classes home so that training could be completed as continuously as possible rather than providing multiple breaks in between each module.

Currently, the choke point is line check airmen (LCA) availability, something the company is working to address (see above). The current wait between your line-oriented evaluation (LOE/checkride) and the beginning of operating experience (OE/IOE) is approximately 3 weeks. We're hoping to get that reduced substantially.

As it stands, the total training footprint is roughly 3 months excluding OE, which brings it up to close to 4.

What are the new hire bases?

It depends on each class, but it's very likely the bulk of our new hire classes will be offered some combination of EWR, LGA, and PIT in varying proportions, with CMH and IND scattered in to a lesser extent.

How long will it take to hold X base?

The current junior bidder in MIA is a September 2018 hire, and the current junior award in MIA for February 2020 (see explanation below) is an April 2019 hire. The current junior bidder in IAH is a November 2018 hire, as is the current junior award for February.

This means that the most senior FO base at the moment based on junior bidders is Miami, but by February, it will be Houston. These two go back and forth, but you can count on them remaining senior.

All other bases should be fairly easily obtainable near the time you finish training. Exactly how long will fluctuate, but 1-4 months from date of hire to award for every base except IAH and MIA has been the norm for quite a while now.

How frequently do you bid?

Our base bidding is done every month, effective 4 months later. So our current October bid is effective February 1st.

Occasionally you might be asked to move early, and the union does process base swaps on an automated basis to try to get you into your desired base sooner. In general, this works better if you're trying to bid into the more junior bases.

How many days off will I get per month?

It depends on how you bid. If you are on reserve, you get 12 hard days a month off. So in a 30 day month, you're working 18, in a 31 day month, 19.

Junior lineholders will average 14-16 days off per month, but if you're bidding for higher credit, it will obviously be less. The truth is, once you're a lineholder, you can generally obtain what it is you're looking for. Some want more days off, and 17-18 isn't rare, while some want more credit, and being able to get 95-105 hours credit per month is also not rare.

We do have two rounds of Schedule Adjustment Period (SAP) where individuals awarded an initial line can try to drop and add trips to build a more ideal line, but if you ask most pilots here they'll tell you it's of limited effectiveness because it still depends on projected reserve availability that day. It's basically a meme among our pilot group that every request submitted gets denied.

How long will I be on reserve at X base?

Generally speaking, a new hire today will likely be on reserve for 6-9 months from the time they hit the line, just depending on the base. There were people in my class who held a line as soon as they finished training (with the aforementioned training delays), and others who are still on reserve.

If your goal is minimizing time spent on reserve, they pretty much move in parallel to the bases' relative seniority. Larger, junior bases like EWR, LGA, and PIT will have more movement in and out, meaning quicker opportunity to move up the list as those in front of you are able to bid into their desired base.

How much will I fly on reserve?

As you've probably picked up by now, it really depends a lot. I don't think I'd be leading anyone astray to say 30-40 hours a month block is probably close to average. Some months it will be more than that and you might break guarantee, while others you'll hardly fly at all. I had a 5 week stretch in June-July where I had one 4-day trip and that's it.

What are the current upgrade times?

Our current junior upgrade award went to an August 2018 hire, which means it's 14 months to award, and 18 months until they'll hit the line. Looking at this individual's times this year, it does not appear they came in with any prior 121 time, and have been flying their butt off.

Note: It's extremely important to not base where you're looking on current upgrade times. It's arguably the most volatile aspect of everything discussed here, and a perfect example of the "past performance doesn't equal future results" mantra. As a case-in-point, if you'd ventured over to the ExpressJet board in January, upgrade times were 5-6 years. They're now down to less than 3, in just 10 months.

I'm interested in your new BOS/SDF bases which open in December. Will these be junior or senior?

Conventional wisdom around Republic is that SDF will go quite senior on the CA side because we have lots of SDF-residing IND CA since it was the closest base when SDF closed the last time.

Beyond that, it appears BOS and SDF should go quite junior, and could plausibly be offered to new hires on the FO side.

We've been told BOS will be predominately day trips, while SDF will be mostly a mix of day trips and 2 days.

What are the junior CA bases? How long will it take me to hold X base as a CA?

Mirroring the FO side, the junior captain bases tend to be EWR and LGA, but unlike the FO side, there's a lot more month to month variation because larger chunks of people have moved on. In general, if one were to take the first available upgrade, you would likely be able to move on to your desired base within the first 6 months of hitting the line as a CA.

The single constant is that ORD is absurdly senior, and no one should ever count on holding it as a CA. The current junior bidder (meaning at the bottom of the reserve list) is a February 2008 hire, meaning 11.5 years on property. ORD CA vacancies are Republic's version of a unicorn.

I will be a commuter. Is Republic a good place for me?

It really depends. The commuter aspects of our contract is probably the weak point, and appears to be something our union is planning to emphasize in the next round of contract negotiations which start soon.

Our commuter policy allows for 4 instances in a rolling 12 month period, provided you've listed for two flights that would get you to base on time.

Beyond that, the structure of our route and base network is not particularly commuter friendly. Because many of our largest bases are outstations for the respective airlines, most trips at those bases start early and end late, meaning you'll fly out on the first flight of the day to a hub, and then return on the last day on the last flight of the night. This makes commuting on days off a near certain reality. Some trips will allow either front end or back end commuting, but trips that are commutable both ends are exceedingly rare at outstation bases. Depending on where you live, IND has a large domestic FedEx operation and it could plausibly connect to your home airport in the early hours of the morning.

Life for commuters is better at the hub bases, which contrary to popular opinion represent a majority of our total bases (IAH, ORD, MIA, DCA, EWR, LGA, PHL, and BOS vs. IND, CMH, PIT, and SDF). There are more trips that have later starts and earlier finishes, allowing for same day commuting.

As always, life is better when you can drive to work, and that is the one thing that will improve your QOL over everything else at all levels of aviation, but especially the regionals.

Is it true Republic has a lot of "lifers" because the major airlines don't like to hire from Republic?

Ask 10 different people this question and you'll get 10 different answers.

Every regional that has something unique to offer will naturally have its fair share of lifers. In the case of Republic, it's able to offer those living in the larger Midwestern cities a terrific quality of life in locations with comparatively low costs of living. The "lost generation" of pilots hired on either side of 9/11 would now have to give up a lot, both in pay and especially in QOL, to move on, and with families and a comfortable life, it's justifiably tough to rationalize. Most other regionals have something comparable, whether it's Endeavor and their super senior MSP base, ExpressJet and their TYS base, etc.

Although I don't expect many people initially start their career planning to stay at regionals, a 20-year CKA could approach $140-150K, the ability to pick their days off, never work on a holiday, etc. It'd take them 2-4 years to make that much again at any other airline, and they'd likely never be able to replicate that QOL in the rest of their career.

With respect to hiring, I haven't seen any real evidence to support the idea that Republic is avoided by the legacies. There's not any reason why they would be. My own opinion is that much of our pilot group sees airlines like JetBlue or Spirit as good opportunities for a pay raise while mirroring our pilot bases and those airlines are the ones that are more likely to call first.

As retirements accelerate at the majors, I think getting to any specific airline will get easier. Exactly how that manifests at Republic I think will mirror most other regionals that fly for multiple partners.

Does Republic have a flow agreement or guaranteed interview anywhere?

No. If you're a civilian dead set on AA, the AAG wholly-owned regionals are the best, and most secure way to get there. Republic, based on its current ownership structure, likely won't have any sort of preferential programs. Allegedly we have an application review with Delta, but that program is somewhat of a mystery which I take to mean as not having much value vis-a-vis an off-the-street hire.

Outside of AA, I think a Republic pilot's odds of getting hired at any one specific carrier are as good as just about anywhere else. And it's my own opinion that I think the odds of getting hired as a civilian off-the-street at AA will have to go up out of necessity.

How much can I expect to earn as a first-year Republic FO?

This is obviously going to depend a lot on your specific situation, but as a part of the group that didn't hit the line until after 6 months (meaning I was making training pay for the first 30 days [$60/day stipend] and then minimum monthly guarantee [MMG] for the next 5 months), combined with being on reserve for the rest of my first 12 months (I chose to go to one of those very senior bases as soon as I could), I still grossed roughly $55K including the $2500 bonus for 1 year of employment and other parts of the bonus paid during the year.

That is essentially a worst case scenario because I had such a long period during training where I was making only minimum guarantee and no per diem, combined with large chunks of reserve where I wasn't working, not breaking guarantee, and not getting per diem.

Put another way, I only broke MMG in 4 of the 12 months of my first year. In the months I did break it, I averaged about 20-30% more over MMG.

I don't think it'd be unreasonable to expect the average first year Republic FO to earn at least an extra 10-20% over what I did.

How do the flight benefits work?

To me, this is the best part of working for Republic. Because we fly for American, United, and Delta, we get flight benefits on all three, regardless of whether your base flies for all three or not. Essentially, we're at the lowest priority, above only buddy passes but behind all active employees, retirees, and parents of active employees at those companies (and their wholly-owned subsidiaries). While it's not great being near the bottom of every standby list, I've never had a problem getting on, and if you're strategic about it, getting business class on long-haul flights is more than doable. What we lose in lower priority we make up for in flexibility. If weather hits an AA hub, the ripples will be felt far outside that base in the AA network, making standby travel very difficult. We have the freedom/flexibility to walk over to the United or Delta gates and get on one of their unaffected flights.

How about other benefits? How much do they cost?

Depending on which plan you select, medical plans will range from a HDHP that costs $110-$320 per month for yourself or a family to a PPO/HMO that runs $220-$550 per month.

Basic Dental is free for the associate, and ranges from $26-43/month for a family depending on which level is selected.

That's just a brief overview. Everything is pretty industry-standard as far as benefits go. 100% match up to 3% on your 401(k) for the first 5 years, then 5%. Vested immediately.

I hope this helps some people with questions they have and may make the Republic forum a little more user friendly for prospective pilots.

Pretty sure a 20 year CKA is making close to 200k. I was a 14 year CKA, and made 180k my last year, prior to the pay LOA.
ORD170 is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 04:42 PM
  #5  
Gets Weekends Off
 
mrfishy's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Sep 2019
Posts: 147
Default

Originally Posted by Longhornmaniac8 View Post

How much can I expect to earn as a first-year Republic FO?

This is obviously going to depend a lot on your specific situation, but as a part of the group that didn't hit the line until after 6 months (meaning I was making training pay for the first 30 days [$60/day stipend] and then minimum monthly guarantee [MMG] for the next 5 months), combined with being on reserve for the rest of my first 12 months (I chose to go to one of those very senior bases as soon as I could), I still grossed roughly $55K including the $2500 bonus for 1 year of employment and other parts of the bonus paid during the year.

That is essentially a worst case scenario because I had such a long period during training where I was making only minimum guarantee and no per diem, combined with large chunks of reserve where I wasn't working, not breaking guarantee, and not getting per diem.

Put another way, I only broke MMG in 4 of the 12 months of my first year. In the months I did break it, I averaged about 20-30% more over MMG.

I don't think it'd be unreasonable to expect the average first year Republic FO to earn at least an extra 10-20% over what I did.
Could some more people chime in on some pay/time off questions?

My understanding is that on reserve you're pretty much only going to make the guaranteed min unless it happens to be super busy. Once you're able to hold a line, how hard is it to get as much credit as possible? Does it take a little bit of time to get enough seniority to be able to bid lots of credit? Are there specific bases where this would be easier/harder? Unlike the majority I don't really want to maximize my days off currently.

I understand you are guaranteed 12 days off per month. Can I volunteer to work during those days off?

During my interview they mentioned the paid holidays. What does that mean? Is everyone paid a set amount on those holidays even if you don't work?

My goal is to crank out as much credit as possible. What base would you recommend for me?
mrfishy is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 06:50 PM
  #6  
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
 
Joined APC: May 2017
Position: Guppy
Posts: 761
Default

Originally Posted by mrfishy View Post
Could some more people chime in on some pay/time off questions?

My understanding is that on reserve you're pretty much only going to make the guaranteed min unless it happens to be super busy. Once you're able to hold a line, how hard is it to get as much credit as possible? Does it take a little bit of time to get enough seniority to be able to bid lots of credit? Are there specific bases where this would be easier/harder? Unlike the majority I don't really want to maximize my days off currently.

I understand you are guaranteed 12 days off per month. Can I volunteer to work during those days off?

During my interview they mentioned the paid holidays. What does that mean? Is everyone paid a set amount on those holidays even if you don't work?

My goal is to crank out as much credit as possible. What base would you recommend for me?
Your understanding is basically correct. Most months on reserve you won't break guarantee (if ever). Any flying you do on days off will go on top of your guarantee. With only 12 days off, though, it's generally pretty tough to add much onto your schedule and still be legal under FAR 117. You can't work more than 6 days in a row, and you must have 30 hours free from duty within a week long period (the way our software works, it's actually 32 hours to have a buffer in the case of overblocking).

Like I said, you're generally able to get what you want, even if it means doing things like trip trades and pick ups after bidding is complete. Our monthly lines average 78-85 hours, so any awarded line is likely to be above guarantee, sometimes considerably so.

You can set your personal credit threshold to whatever you want, and the scheduling software will keep adding pairings to your month until it either reaches your threshold or can't legally add any more pairings in the month. As a junior lineholder, the computer may not have a lot left to select from by the time it reaches you, but generally there will be opportunities to pick up flying if you want to. It may not be in your base, though.

I wouldn't say one base is better than another, but I think it's probably a better bet to be in large bases that have lots of flying. IND, LGA, EWR, and CMH are all big bases. One advantage of being based in or near NYC is you have both EWR and LGA to pick up from.

Holidays are paid as an extra min day (4:12) if you are on duty that day, meaning you have a trip scheduled or a reserve day scheduled, regardless of whether you get used on reserve or not.
Longhornmaniac8 is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 07:08 PM
  #7  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Mar 2019
Position: Phenom driver
Posts: 147
Default

How many failed sim events do you have at Republic since January 2019? 35-45-55-60 pink slips?

any new hire should take into account the washout rate, the upgrade washout rate and the recurrent washout rate. How come an airline on the AQP program has had so many failures in the past 12 months? Or are these only rumors?

Some CKA love to brag about their $300K/year pay thanks to all the retraining they have been doing recently. Fake news?

From what they say, washout rate is much higher than Endeavor, Envoy or PSA who seem to have more established AQP program where candidate are "trained to proficiency"?
Shenzi105 is offline  
Old 10-24-2019, 08:55 PM
  #8  
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
 
Joined APC: May 2017
Position: Guppy
Posts: 761
Default

Originally Posted by Shenzi105 View Post
How many failed sim events do you have at Republic since January 2019? 35-45-55-60 pink slips?

any new hire should take into account the washout rate, the upgrade washout rate and the recurrent washout rate. How come an airline on the AQP program has had so many failures in the past 12 months? Or are these only rumors?

Some CKA love to brag about their $300K/year pay thanks to all the retraining they have been doing recently. Fake news?

From what they say, washout rate is much higher than Endeavor, Envoy or PSA who seem to have more established AQP program where candidate are "trained to proficiency"?
There's a lot of speculation in there that I don't think is with real foundation, but I don't have the numbers to back it up.

I think speaking very broadly, Republic has a high standard for training and a comparatively short leash. Individual circumstances dictate the company response, but from what I've been able to gather, it does seem like other companies are willing to invest more time before giving out a pink slip.

Which approach is right or wrong really isn't for me to say. Holding the hands of people who are struggling just so they don't have to wash them out isn't necessarily the right approach, but neither is cutting someone loose without giving them a chance to prove themselves.

All I can say is I thought the quality of people in our training department was high, and the quality of training was high. I was given every chance to succeed, and was treated from the outset as if I would. I've not heard from anyone that we have CKAs failing people just to fail them.

I consider our training department to be one of the positives at our company based on my experiences with them. Others may disagree, I'm not sure.
Longhornmaniac8 is offline  
Old 10-25-2019, 08:24 AM
  #9  
Gets Weekends Off
 
LoitaHills's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Jul 2009
Position: Captain 121
Posts: 103
Default

Originally Posted by ORD170 View Post
Pretty sure a 20 year CKA is making close to 200k. I was a 14 year CKA, and made 180k my last year, prior to the pay LOA.
This is accurate, and the annual salary posted above is attainable at 15 years as a Check Airman. 20 year Check Airman are making over 200K. With the current and predicted training projections, with the D30 aircraft currently being delivered and 100 airframes starting deliveries in 4th Qtr 2020, that annual income will increase.

LH
LoitaHills is offline  
Old 10-25-2019, 11:00 AM
  #10  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Feb 2018
Position: *click click, click click* Time to do pilot sh*t.
Posts: 152
Default

We did have new hire classes in September. I know for a fact there were classes that started on 9/10, 9/17 and 9/24.
FlyingDawgg is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Frisky Pilot
Regional
20
01-01-2022 05:02 PM
Sr. Barco
Republic Airways
193
09-17-2015 11:35 AM
RPC Unity
Union Talk
149
06-30-2011 08:39 PM
Sir James
Major
0
03-15-2005 08:35 PM
RockBottom
Major
0
03-07-2005 11:04 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread
Your Privacy Choices