516 and growing. The lounge was designed when there were 500 total pilots in Houston including captains. It’s getting kinda tight in there.

516 According to the last vacancy award. I believe for schedule bidding it was around 480sh.

Good info...one thing, reserve future block liability is 5 hours per day for blocks 3 days or less, 4 hours per day for blocks 4 days or more. If it's the beginning of the month and you have mostly 3 day blocks, picking up can be an issue.

Also, you can bid straight, but I'm seeing lots of straight bids by senior FOs on stuff that would never go straight a before last fall, especially on weekdays when jr FOs will have days off. I wouldn't count on any open time as a new hire during the off-peak season until the imbalance of Capt/FO is corrected. That way you won't be disappointed.

Good news is that a typical reserve pilot makes 10-20 tfp over their line value if they choose to fly.

A while back I saw a map of where people from different bases actually lived. I can’t find again. Does anybody have it?

Thanks!!

DEN: outlook, commute & CA seniority
 

Crystal ball time, but what’s the most likely intermediate-to-long term outlook for DEN? (Growth? Contraction? TBD based on UA, F9 & many other factors?)

Are there any significant issues in commuting from DEN while a junior FO? (Looks like DEN would set up pretty well to most bases at a glance.)

For CA’s, how senior is DEN currently?

Thanks much to anyone good enough to help.

Mid Junior for captains. Juniorish for FOs. Maybe 5 months to hold.
Nothing but growth in the outlook. Sucks as a commuter base due to hotel transportation and train ride to/from terminals. May take an hour and a half to get to hotel. Other than that, the flight situation is good since pretty much all carriers fly there.
The crew lounge is like the Centurion Club of Crew lounges. It’s really nice.

Den is a good base that has room to grow. I think we're just shy of 1000 pilots and they want to have 1200+ within a few yrs. Most people based at den live in the area. Commuting out wouldn't be a big deal until you could hold den but that won't take long. Cpt side is juniorish but like I said most live there so who know what will happen in the future.

14 more gates coming to a SWA DEN C concourse. This could be the biggest base someday.