Would anyone who works for Xtra be willing to share some pay, schedule and basing and upgrade information? I live near Boise, Idaho and know there corporate office is located there. I've read some on these threads, but wanted to get a clearer picture. Thanks, feel free to PM as well.

There is no flying out of BOI. Bases change all the time almost every 6 months. everyone is on a pay cut right now and furloughs may happen. Company is very broke and just lost a big contract when direct air closed the doors without warning. Not the place to be. Besides there is no hiring going on right now. After everyone jumps ship there might be some hiring if the company is still in business. The cycle is- hire pilots for an upcoming contract. Contract doesn't pan out, give everyone a pay cut and furlough, pilots all leave, hire to replace those that have left, then start cycle over again. This is a one yr cycle. Could be a good place to work if they could make money and stop having the employees supplement the business model with their paychecks.

Thanks Hoover, sorry about the pay cuts and possible furloughs. Are you home based or do you commute? Also, is there a set on/off schedule or does it change with the contract as well? Thanks again, just trying to get the picture if the cycle does start over.

Almost everyone commutes. Since the based change so often it is difficult to be in base. That said some have lucked out and already live in a base, for now, others are homeless and just rent an apt at each base. The are no home base. Schedules are difficult to say. We all put in our requested days off and they build you a schedule. Not really seniority based mostly just what the company needs and definitively not out at any reasonable time. My April schedule came out on the 12th of April and only shows till the 18th. There is no way to plan anything. However, you do usually get most of the days off you want but you may not know you have them off until you are already off. If you do not say anything they will just leave you out on the line until you do. A lot of pilots work at least 20 days a month but they choose to. The pay is so low that the only way to make money is to work more. Not a bad strategy by management. There is no reserve lines every body has reserve it is built into your schedule. Fly one day reserve the next fly another. something like that. As far as upgrades go. It is whatever the company needs. This last round there was a lot of street captains since so many left. last time. If you have a 737 type already it dramatically increases your chance of upgrade. Upgrades are completely out of seniority as they will pick whomever they think is a better fit. They drool over flight hrs and especially if you came from another carrier. Its about 50/50 on how well the street guys do. even those who already have flown the 737 do poorly. It isn't the flying it is the copious amount of paper work that is associated. Pilots are responsible for everything except filing a flight plan. Catering, fuel, parking, loading, deicing, anything you can think of the captain does and can be potentially violated for by an over anxious FAA POI. some guys will not upgrade for fear of getting violated. Its not for everyone but pays the bills for now.

How is company support while on a trip? Good... bad... or indifferent? If events go pear shaped because of operations decisions, who gets thrown under the bus?

At my former 121 charter operation in Florida, ground handling was handled with the utmost incompetence. The usual tag line by this individual was "Oh... it must have fallen through the cracks". Being a friend of the owner, guess how caught a rash of doo doo... Now here's the kicker... her husband, at the time, was manager of ground handling at Jet Blue.

I think they just took a 10% pay cut and furloughed a few, didn't they?

The company support is pretty good it just takes them a looong time to make a decision. Never had they asked to do anything shady and maintenance is good. the ground handling is usually done by another carrier's personal they do an ok job you are just the step child and they will get to you when they aren't working their own plane. usually it works out but if the timing is off then it only gets worse. I think this is probably the same for most supps.

Everyone just took a 10% paycut, everyone. They were able to hold off furloughs for now since we had March Madness to help pick up the slack. The company has been in this position before; every yr.

they didn't take the paycut last couple of years. Have a friend been there probably 4 or 5 years, took a pay cut like 3 or 4 years ago. They furloughed then too. Several used them for type rating then left. He said big MX items came due all at the same time, plus overseas money promised never came (10 cents on the dollar) and a foreign contract just fell through. (Pacific rim stuff). They have also missed every contract they have started by months and many many dollars.....

well maybe not 10% paycut but the work rules got changed so there was a pay cut that way.Personal Insurance went through the roof. all these add up to a pay cut. 2010 hired 13, furloughed 3 before they finished training. Same thing, a contract fell through. Its a tough industry when you have to depend on someone else to have their stuff together to make money. Yes the gig in Saipan fell through. for some reason all the plane's C check are due within months of each other. I wouldn't say it is Xtra's fault that the contracts didn't start on time. I can not think of a single time Xtra was not ready and in position. It is usually the company Xtra is contracting for that isn't up to speed. Like the mexican vaction flights out of ONT where the other company didn't secure customs or even ask the mexican gov to fly the routes into their country. That was supposed to start back in DEc. may not happen at all now IMO. So you can see why it is so cyclical. You signed a contract saying you will provide X lift on XX start date so you go out get the planes hire the pilots set everything up and then the other company drops the ball. The only way to make it through is to go through at lest one furlough and keep enough seniority to make it through the rest.

Another XTRA Airways base closure? Heard from friend that they just closed Ontario without notice. Now being shipped to Laughlin. Whats up there? He didnt know, and said chief pilot knew nothing about it. They show 800's as seasonal aircraft....they havent had those for 3 or 4 years have they? They took second pay cut recently as well. I only know a couple of guys there, both nice guys but getting discouraged, said several were getting ready to bail.