Nice! yeah at Lakes used to be MSP based but I am an east coaster moving to Chi-town. Glad its wide open

 

I wish we had this Brasilia setup when I was hired. I would have begged for the bro! I was grateful for the RJ just because of the pay but now I have been mega junior for over 6 years on the RJ with no upgrade in sight. When it does get in sight it will be on the Brasilia which I have never flown which makes me hesitant.

 

The bro is now the best deal for me hires, unless you live in the east and want to stay there.

 

Mega junior after six years? You must be in SLC or the northwest. I've been here three years and can hold a pretty decent line in almost every base except those. As far as no upgrade in sight, if you've been here over six years you are very close to a Brasilia upgrade.

 

They've only been upgrading about 10 per month. Even someone who is 200 numbers away from the most junior captain realistically has no upgrade in sight right now.

 

Even on the old pay scale I don't think RJ pay was that much better for the years on reserve. I made more money first and second year on the Brasilia holding 90+ hour lines than I would have making reserve guarantee on the RJ pay scale. By the time I transitioned I was bidding #10 in base with weekends and holidays off. Going to the RJ actually felt like a pay cut (but moved me closer to home). I would have probably waited 3-4 years to transition if I lived in or near a Brasilia base.

When I was a new hire we had an upgrade class with us where no one had ever flown the Brasilia before. They all said it was pretty hard but doable. None of the captains even came close to washing out. Most of them beat the new hires on the tests.

 

In the latest awards, there were no bro upgrades.

Word from training, they don't want to short change the RJ during the heavy block hour months. So for the next few months I doubt we see many upgrades into the Bro.

rcfd is correct, hired in Jan 2008, you're still at least 12-24 months from upgrading into the Bro. The only catalyst, attrition.

 

I thought there was something mentioned about no more EMB upgrades for the next several months.

 

Just a thought... how much longer do you think they will be able to sustain the 120 flying?? I guess when they really start having problems hiring then we may see the decision to end some of the pro-rate 120 flying and transition crews over to the RJ.... crews on the jet side are razor thin right now causing delays and cancels daily.

 

Not while the prorate continues to be profitable. I don't know how long you've been here, but even three years ago when we were severely understaffed on the jet (Summer O' Double Time Juniorman), they didn't cannibalize the Brasilia. It's always a cycle of some sort of staffing crisis here, either over or under. Moreover we are actually picking up new flying and new planes for the Brasilia side, where we had previously been drawing down the fleet (lost almost 20 planes in 8 years). I'd say weather has been a bigger factor than staffing, but we simply don't have the FO staffing to allow enough upgrades at the moment since a pilot in transition/upgrade is a pilot not online. March is one of the highest block hour months on record yet again. We have some planes coming off contract soon, I doubt the 700's won't be renewed, but the 200 flying is a question mark. Maybe we won't end up so short-staffed after all. Who really knows?

I do have to say that I am sick and tired of the 6 year FO lament. That's what happens when you get hired at the tail end of massive & rapid expansion and hiring, followed by five years of stagnation due to A65 and economic collapse. Even if that hadn't happened, we hired almost 1000 pilots in about a year, that's a lot of people ahead of you for what (at the time for people hired a year ahead of you) was a 9 month upgrade. It's a case of expectations vs. reality. And before you jump all over me, I was a 6.5 year FO.