Does anyone know about CALs new hire training? I hear it is 9 weeks long but I was wondering if they could shed more light on it in regards to pay while in training and if the company pays for the expenses like hotel and per diem while you are in this training? Thanks for your insight.

Hotel is covered. per diem is paid and first year pay at the minimum guarantee. according to my roommate. oh, and no health insurance for the first 6 months.

CAL pays for a hotel. You check in the night before your start date and check-out after you finish. They also provide pass travel home on the weekends/days off. Per diem is paid 24/7 from the moment you arrive until the moment you finish. That equates to about $1,200 a month tax free, which is good because you're only getting paid 72 hours at $30/hr.

My first year plan was to continually bust different portions of training so that I could keep earning the per-diem and graduate with enough people behind me so that I wouldn't have to sit reserve. Unfortunately, it's such a cakewalk of training that I was unable to succeed at my plan and found myself in IOE a short 7 weeks later!

Thanks all....I am hearing that CAL is looking at addressing the no insurance part company wide and is hoping to add it for new hires in Jan 08 as well as a side letter for better first year pay.

where did you hear this?

Not sure where you heard that. It is an issue that needs immediate attention though.

First, I need to state again, that I "heard" this. Source is someone who sits in on meetings that discuss issues that CAL is facing and how to live up to the Most Admired Airline of 2007. The jest is that is seems that these two issues are at the forefront of the company's perspective and with wanting to hire high caliber people.

Don't hurry too fast through training. Your largest paycheck your first year will be the one with a full months training and the continuous per deim. I just got done with a 112 credit hour month (Rx days, assigned trips with releases after original pairing termination at 150%), and the paycheck was still smaller than my training paycheck. As for insurance, I'll believe it when I see it, thank god my wifes got a "real" job.

I hope you are right with everyone else starting to hire it will be harder to fill classes with quality people.

Your "real" job is one that a lot of guys would kill for. Why did you "take" it if you didn't really want it? I have a boatload of friends that would die to have your "fake" job. Everyone has been in the "no insurance" "low paycheck" part of a career. 99% of us have survived it. Some airlines have better pay/benefits to start, but I highly doubt many have pilots upgrading to captain in under two years......something happening at CAL as we speak. THAT could lead to one hell of a financially rewarding and great career............ then again, maybe flying an ERJ would be better than flying a Boeing product (since I've flown both, I wouldn't give you 10 cents for an ERJ). JMHO