ah... thanks

 

My home life would be significantly degraded by the commute, enough so that I'd find other employment or move if faced with no choice but to commute. I'm not going to commute again.

 

Yes, this exactly.

If displaced pilots could only go to bases that had openings, I'd bypass for quite some time before upgrading just to ensure I never get displaced and have to commute. If they simply close my base entirely, I'd probably move.

 

At least no displacements in the next vacancy, kinda

 

If I'm remembering correctly, this has been multiple months now with big fat ZERO's on the vacancy bids. How are we this horrendously stagnant? March is supposed to be this massive bid shift (with a new base to boot). Don't we at least need to place a few new hires somewhere? It was so bad last year that I had to downgrade back to FO to keep my sanity. Don't regret it for a second. If United, et el, begin hiring thousands en masse next year, I can imagine our stagnant pond will be very attractive. I guess it was a 10-year upgrade when I was hired; I'll be a 10-12-year upgrade still.

Something has to give around here.

Poopoo out...

 

Sorry, I disagree with this. If they decided to close MCO and open HNL with no other vacancies I don't think the correct response should be for everyone to be displaced to HNL regardless of what their seniority could hold otherwise. Secondary displacements are no fun, but juniority is never fun. I think a better response would be TDYs or some other method of limiting shifts during periods of little to no hiring.

 

I think everyone would agree to this yet we have no language for it in the contract

 

I was surprised that there was no movement at all, but there are also no bodies going into the system for this vacancy, so any movement would have been tiny adjustments. Also, just because there are zeroes doesn't mean nobody is going anywhere. There will still be bodies shifting around the system a bit.

As far as upgrade time, who knows...2022-24 were heady days. We got over the AirTran hump and upgrade went from 8.5 years to 6 years in the matter of one month due to a seniority gap. Now we have another 2 year empty gap to fill. I always just assumed it would be a worst case scenario and was slightly surprised I went earlier than 10 years. I think the next couple vacancies are going to see the flow start a little bit and then it is really going to start moving after that. I put zero reliability of any rumor. I just go off of confirmed and publicly projected numbers.

 

The thought of needing another six years to reach a 10-year upgrade is daunting, to be honest. When I first arrived, I knew we had longer upgrades, but perhaps ignorantly, I thought, 'Who cares?' Now I am far from a disgruntled FO, and I bring no animosity to the job, but I am only into year four; ten seems like a lifetime away. Who knows, as the years go by, seniority improves, schedules become more favorable, vacations increase, and so on, plus who knows what will happen with any new base, merger, or new fleet, and so on.

 

You hit the nail on the head. Being a senior FO is some pretty tall cotton. You definitely get tired of the right seat, but getting what you want all the time is a nice feeling. If you play your cards right, you will be making more money than junior captains and work less days. I am glad I took first available, but only because I had a couple of years of hiring and the Lance program to pad the seniority hit.

I don't really think it's going to be 10 years, but if you are prepared for that eventuality, you won't be disappointed if it is.