UnprotectdPilot

That’s pretty awesome for customizing a schedule. Is it true that you have to have 1:1 days on/days off in a sequence (if 4 days on, then 4 days off)?

Also, what % of trips are turns / 1-day trips out of a base?

Balker

F9 : I think ORD is pretty Jr.
Your relative seniority will happen faster and end up in a better position.
Ability to pick up trips on your days off while on reserve.
More variety flying, except South America and little less Caribbean

NK : ORD is fairly senior for us. If they grow it that might change, but who knows
If you get hired now, you’d be mid pack seniority wise (based on current aircraft
order and assuming no exercising options for additional 50 frames.
No trip or reserve period pick up on days off while on reserve. You’re stuck
with min. guarantee (maybe you’ll brake it in high season but don’t bank on it)
Less variety flying compared to F9. Expect flying between the same big cities all
the time.
Ability to drop to 0 credit (line holders only). BIG ONE for me. And pick up out of
base too.

ULLI

Not labor friendly, however very successful businessman. Quick summary
BF pushes pilot /management tensions to a new level. However now that the contract is over with everyone is just back to business.

Sidenote, what Super E ez said about having indigo /bf on the resume is completely untrue and not an issue whatsoever. Just an outsider not knowing what he is talking about.

CAirBear

The ability to drop is, simple put, a game changer. It sounds like you can drop at Frontier, but you still have to pick up trips and fly 60-70 hours. So that’s good, but I feel that requirement may hamper what you want to do sometimes. At NK, outside of major holidays, you can drop everything to 0 hours.

For December, I dropped a trip and swapped into two better ones. I have 19 off and crediting 65. I did give up about 7-8 hours of pay, but I really don’t care. I’m going on a 7 day cruise in the middle of the month now 😎

You will never ever have less than 4 days off. When your junior the system might build you a 3 day followed by a 3 day (so 6 days on), but then you will have 4 off. It isn’t hard to get 4 day trips and 4 off right after.

Even if you got a bunch of 6 on 4 off blocks, you just go and drop it all and build your own schedule anyways.

There are day trips out there. Not sure the percentage, but they would be easy to do. There are quite a few of them in open time so if you live in base it’s easy to grab and do.

I left a competing Airbus LCC (not Frontier) to come here. My old company just announced a base here where I live (commute from). I just laughed! Seriously. Absolutely zero regrets and am extremely happy to have made the jump. I don’t plan on leaving and I say that with sincerity. Our attrition is very low.

I think the variety of flying and scheduling of flights is better at Spirit. I know when I was at my last job, F9 was
Doing a lot of the same flying as I was. 2-3 Days a week to small markets to LAS. They do some MX, but not sure how much in the Caribbean, Central America and Parts of South America they go (If any).

I enjoy going down south and the variety of flying. Some guys hate it, but I enjoy it every so often.

Finally, the orders for F9 aren’t technically F9s. Indigo owns F9, Volaris and one other airline. They all fly the Bus. So... I could see Indigo whipsawing these around and maybe not getting them all.

Spirit, on the other hand, will be getting our planes unless we decide to cancel or swap out. Given the hiring and upgrades I don’t see it.

Ed Force One

Except the transition. They pretty much have carte blanche over the transition. So you can have 6 on, 1 off, 6 on as long as it's legal under 117.

I'm sure most airlines are like this, not just Spirit. I'm only trying to prevent mis-information and false hopes. You absolutely *will* have less than 4 days off.

Omniscient

I know what you're saying; and totally correct.

But there is a way to help with that; if you know you're ending a month working the last days, you could always bid for the first 3 or 4 days off to start the month, to prevent that from happening. I cant imagine there being that much unstacking needed for a coverage award on those days, so I bet almost all line holders could secure those days off. One of the things I have loved the most of PBS is getting the specific days off I needed.

flyingpuma1

If you’re at envoy and have been there for a few years I would stay for the flow hands down. I’ve been at NK for a while now and would leave to go to AA if they would hire me. Yes you can drop to zero but the grid has to be green and you have to be off reserve. Reserve here at NK is pretty terrible now with the new contract, I’m not sure what Frontiers reserve is like. ORD is pretty senior (at least on the ca side) not sure if it is at F9 or not. We do keep adding pilots to mco so there’s that. Good luck with your decision.


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SFA320

At F9 we can’t drop to 0, but yes you can manipulate your schedule however you want. Major holidays are “restricted drop days” meaning more reserve coverage is required but you can still drop them. While you are manipulating your schedule you can drop to 50 hours, you just have to be sure and build it back up to 60 or 70 hours pending on the month. As an example in December I’m at 71 hours with 20 days off. QOL is great at F9.
If Indigo was going to “whipsaw” us they would have done it during this last negotiations. The bulk of those deliveries will be basically done before our current contract is even expired. They are coming to F9. We are at 98 airframes right now, we will be 220ish by 2026. With the addition of 5 more Thomas Cook airplanes we will now receive 20 next year.
Yes, it was contentious during negotiations. But isn’t that basically every other airline? https://www.google.com/amp/s/skift.com/2017/05/08/spirit-air-sues-its-pilots-union-after-airline-had-to-cancel-hundreds-of-flights/amp/
Now that we have a contract all is back to normal. I don’t feel disrespected or abused.
I don’t think you could go wrong either way. Frontier is in a growth phase, Spirit is a more mature company. Contracts are very similar. I’ve enjoyed my time at F9, I don’t foresee myself going anywhere else. Like Spirit the indigo crew won’t be around forever.

Trowserchilli

Bad info here.

Indigo only owns one airline, Frontier. That’s their bread and butter.
They own controlling interest in Jetsmart which is an upstart.
The other airlines Indigo only has a stake in.

We have dedicated deliveries at F9 no different than Spirit.
We just have more. Plus the 321XLR.

SSlow

I would not hesitate trying to get on here at NK if you want MCO. Last time I checked AA doesn't have a pilot domicile at MCO and there are hoards of commuters as I'm sure you have figured out by now. Plus, I'm over here upgrading on the bus while other pilots who started their airline careers when I did are still at the regionals waiting to flow over so they can commute to reserve or uproot their lives to whatever junior domicile they can hold. No thanks.