Hey everyone! Just received my CJO and I’m beyond stoked. Trying to figure out what airframe I want. Not that I’ll have much say in the matter since my last four is 89XX. So I’m more or less expecting the 717. Is the upgrade time still only a few months? How impossible is commuting for the 717? How realistic is it that I would be able to get all of my reserve days in a row? Thanks!

congrats. With that social I would expect the 717. Upgrade times should remain relatively short, but will be dependent on the frequency of vacancy bids. There’s a few commuters on the 717, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. Getting all your days off in a row within a few months should be relatively doable. Just don’t expect it to be around holidays.

hello everyone,
im starting the research part of making the switch and i've read most of the other forums. just trying to get a better idea of what flying for hawaiian looks like. i'm drawn to the 717 based on the short upgrade and i'm not sure i would like the long haul flying. i've been told that the 717 crews would be home every night before southwest started offering inter island flights. if southwest can't make it work, and pulls out would the home every night schedule come back for the 717? what's the growth and or seniority progress look like on the 717? on average how many days off do the 717 pilots get and what's the credit ? what type of credit are the reserve 717 crews flying? i know these are kinda the regular generic new hire questions but it's a big decision for a lifelong mainlander. any input is appreciated.

I’m not sure who you’re talking to but I would not make any decision based on this dream…

very helpful thanks

southwest isn’t going anywhere any time soon and even if they did the overnights seem to be a large cost savings according to the company. 12-15 days off as a line holder depending on the schedule you can hold. Min credit is 4:10/day. Pay so based off of block or better, 60% duty, and 6 minutes per landing credit. Days can range from a min day to 6.0 credit per day. Once you are bidding 40% in seat day trips only is doable. Interisland isn’t growing. And seniority progression is an unknown, but should be fairly quick given growth on the 330F and 787 arrivals. Most new hires that don’t commute seem to enjoy the interisland flying, but after a while it’s a grind.

I wouldn’t decide anything on what SWA or we do if or not they don’t fly interisland. Especially not the quick upgrade! That’s not gonna be the case, a trickle if any but not the volume of the last year and how junior it went. I don’t see many upgrading within their 24 months equipment freeze in the near future. The training backlog and bubble we were in post Covid is mostly resolved. There are a few stragglers that need to move on to their respective bid award.
717 is a grind. It’s a lesser of the two evils, 8 legs or a one and done with a short layover on the west coast, even a DH in and out of Maui on both ends, ouch.
Junior and you’ll layover on the 717.
SWA isn’t pulling out soon, they have deep pockets, they aren’t going anywhere. Well who knows, but it’s not something to base a job decision on.

717 will continue to have short upgrade times for the foreseeable future. Once the next few vacancy bids staff the remaining Amazon freighters and additional 787s, this could reverse course but hard to predict bidding behavior long term. If hired soon, within a year (5 months on paper) you can be checked out as a 717 captain or be a senior FO flying only day trips.

With a potential fall start, and a 48xx social, would anybody know how likely it would be to get the A321? I haven't seen/heard anything recently about an LAX base - is that no longer happening? And is the A321 flying mostly red-eyes? Thanks for any intel.

When was there ever going to be an LAX base in recent history/news?