2008 hire, 65% overall seniority and living in DC area. Pre-Covid I could have been in the bottom 10% of 777 FO or bottom 25% as 787 FO. DC widebody is pretty senior, although there’s always 1 or 2 super junior pilots who get in… but trust me, they’ll remain junior for a decade or more.

Bottom 10% of 777 equates to global reserve and threat of rolled days off. Bottom 25% of 787 would be a junior lineholder, but DCA 787 did a ton of Beijing and a fair amount of London. 777 had more trip variety, lots of Europe and also did Japan/Guam flying. In either jet I’d be a bunkie and go back to DEN every couple months for landing currency.

Some folks love that lifestyle, but for me, I chose to fight the 737 trim wheel and enjoy better seniority. And DCA in a post-Covid world is still very stagnant with extremely limited widebody flying. It’s supposed to return by next spring so hopefully things will improve.

I’d definitely recommend EWR. In any jet, you’d be much much more senior in EWR.


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Thanks for the info. With the risk of sounding like an idiot, I’m going to ask, what is “global reserve” and what is “rolled days off”?

global reserve is reserve on fleets in bases which have global flying, essentially Europe and Asia (Deep South America may be in there to, I can’t remember). This changes the reserve rules slightly. You get 6 “holy days off” which they can’t roll trips into. These 6 days have to be consecutive. The rest of your days off can have a trip rolled into given certain parameters.

fleets that don’t have global flying have only one flexible day off per month, a trip can be rolled into that given certain parameters. You always get those days off back later in the month.

Hey all,

I'm currently waiting on a class date. I live 1:30 away from LAX and will likely be bidding for the 737 out of training. I know things are in transition right now but just looking for a timeframe of seniority to hold a 777 line out of SFO? (or what it was before the pandemic)

Also, if anyone knows what seniority the plug is on the 787 out of LAX, it would be appreciated.


Thanks in advance for your insight.

This is a hard question to answer because of impending movement, but at the moment the 787 plug in LAX is what looks like a mid-2014 hire. The bottom several captains in LAX are early to mid-2015 hires.

Congrats and welcome.

[QUOTE=pilot123456;3261722]Hey all,

I'm currently waiting on a class date. I live 1:30 away from LAX and will likely be bidding for the 737 out of training. I know things are in transition right now but just looking for a timeframe of seniority to hold a 777 line out of SFO? (or what it was before the pandemic).

The current g-line for SFO 777 FO is about a 2000 L-UAL hire or 2007 L-CAL hire. So, it shouldn’t take 21 years to get a WB FO line, but it will certainly be many years.