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Las Vegas Base
Good Morning,
Just wanted to inquire about your base seniority levels. What is the most and least junior and how does Las Vegas play into that list? Thank You |
LAS
https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/spirit/116180-jr-bases-spirit-2.html
This thread says about 5mos as of Nov this year. |
Based on the latest vacancy and the current standing bid, you can get LAS while in training. There’s a very small chance you may have to go to another base such as DTW, FLL, or MCO for a month or less until the effective dates of your LAS award. There’s not much growth in LAS. We are finally seeing some vacancy for LAS CA, so the senior LAS FO are finally upgrading.
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Upper management has stated several times now that we’ll be growing LAS. I’m guessing double pumping some routes and maybe... just maybe international. For newhires that want LAS, it could become a pretty good deal in a not so distant future.
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Originally Posted by Silver02ex
(Post 2943353)
Based on the latest vacancy and the current standing bid, you can get LAS while in training. There’s a very small chance you may have to go to another base such as DTW, FLL, or MCO for a month or less until the effective dates of your LAS award. There’s not much growth in LAS. We are finally seeing some vacancy for LAS CA, so the senior LAS FO are finally upgrading.
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Originally Posted by korg128
(Post 2945026)
so to clarify which would put you closer in holding a line. FLL or MCO ?
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MCO seems to be leaning senior compared to FLL. Boat fulls of new hires getting FLL but getting into MCO seems to take about 1-2 months of getting stuck in ACY/FLL first
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Problem is most of those new hires never actually bid in FLL they transfer out before they get released to the line so you have a lot of artificial seniority there.
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Originally Posted by korg128
(Post 2945026)
so to clarify which would put you closer in holding a line. FLL or MCO ?
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For those based in Vegas, what’s life like? I’ve heard more than a few pilots mention that the flights out of LAS are horrible but haven’t heard many specifics. How are the opportunities to pick up trips at premium?
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Originally Posted by Spectre186
(Post 2948100)
For those based in Vegas, what’s life like? I’ve heard more than a few pilots mention that the flights out of LAS are horrible but haven’t heard many specifics. How are the opportunities to pick up trips at premium?
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Red eyes to start but then what’s the rest of the trip look like? Does it continue to be all red eyes?
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Originally Posted by 93Sierra
(Post 2948228)
Red eyes to start but then what’s the rest of the trip look like? Does it continue to be all red eyes?
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Originally Posted by NK Bumble Bee
(Post 2948239)
Mixed. Some go back west on the second duty period (after day rest, or early following day after long), some east coast back west on last day, and the gems that go to FLL and do 2 nights of redeye jungle turns and then go back to LAS late on the last day.
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Originally Posted by ASAPsafetyGUY
(Post 2948751)
Love those trips. lol. I actually do.
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Originally Posted by Spectre186
(Post 2948990)
In all seriousness, what do you like about them, and can you give an example of one of your LAS based trips?
Next night red eye turn to Nicaragua Next night red eye turn to Nicaragua Next evening FLL-LAS end in Vegas about 11pm. Some people like them because they are usually fairly high credit and often commutable on both ends. I got on a red eye to Dfw after finishing that trip and home by 5am the next morning. |
Redeyes are much easier for those who are acclimated to the pacific time zone. The worst schedules in the system are those out of MCO/FLL that go out west on day 1 with an 11pm report time in LAX/LAS on day 2 (that's 2am Florida time to your body), 24 hours off in PIT/EWR/etc to flip your body clock and fly 3 legs on day 4. Damn brutal and only worth around 19 hours since it's three duty periods.
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Originally Posted by SSlow
(Post 2949240)
Redeyes are much easier for those who are acclimated to the pacific time zone. The worst schedules in the system are those out of MCO/FLL that go out west on day 1 with an 11pm report time in LAX/LAS on day 2 (that's 2am Florida time to your body), 24 hours off in PIT/EWR/etc to flip your body clock and fly 3 legs on day 4. Damn brutal and only worth around 19 hours since it's three duty periods.
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Originally Posted by Qotsaautopilot
(Post 2949266)
I know exactly the trips you’re talking about and you need to be filing a fatigue report on each one. Even if you aren’t calling in fatigued you can file an informational. That last day is an accident waiting to happen. One leg from the NE early that morning to Florida is one thing but the kicker turn to the Caribbean is begging for fatal mistakes to be made.
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Originally Posted by SSlow
(Post 2949280)
Complete agree. I didn't realize we could do that without calling in fatigued.
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Originally Posted by MCDUmanipulator
(Post 2949294)
Seems like a good way to set yourself up if something were to happen. “So you were fatigued, but didn’t call out?”
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Originally Posted by SSlow
(Post 2949280)
Complete agree. I didn't realize we could do that without calling in fatigued.
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Originally Posted by MCDUmanipulator
(Post 2949294)
Seems like a good way to set yourself up if something were to happen. “So you were fatigued, but didn’t call out?”
This isn’t the regionals; pilots are empowered to speak up about issues they believe to be a threat to safety. |
It’s unfortunate so many pilots in this industry conflate fatigue with being tired, or a long day, or just a crappy pairing.
Fatigue is cumulative, and everyone’s level varies. Going into a pairing like the one described, most pilots would experience an increase in fatigue, but not to a dangerous level, or even a “call out fatigued level”. Another pilot could already have a higher level of fatigue starting the pairing and it gets worse from there. This is where informational reports are valuable, to track pairings that have potential to push fatigued pilots to more critical levels. Every pilot is different all the time, and we don’t work/live in a vacuum. Sleep habits, stresses, home life etc etc all play a role in ongoing fatigue accumulation. Ironically, the high degree of schedule flexibility and manipulation that we enjoy is also the reason that fatigue planning/scheduling is so difficult. Waiving days off, swapping for commutable flights and long days, picking up extra/premium flying in lieu of rest. That doesn’t mean that fatiguing pairings do not exist, but this is why fatigue calls are investigated, to determine what other circumstances are involved. |
Originally Posted by RemoveB4flght
(Post 2949483)
It’s unfortunate so many pilots in this industry conflate fatigue with being tired, or a long day, or just a crappy pairing.
Fatigue is cumulative, and everyone’s level varies. Going into a pairing like the one described, most pilots would experience an increase in fatigue, but not to a dangerous level, or even a “call out fatigued level”. Another pilot could already have a higher level of fatigue starting the pairing and it gets worse from there. This is where informational reports are valuable, to track pairings that have potential to push fatigued pilots to more critical levels. Every pilot is different all the time, and we don’t work/live in a vacuum. Sleep habits, stresses, home life etc etc all play a role in ongoing fatigue accumulation. Ironically, the high degree of schedule flexibility and manipulation that we enjoy is also the reason that fatigue planning/scheduling is so difficult. Waiving days off, swapping for commutable flights and long days, picking up extra/premium flying in lieu of rest. That doesn’t mean that fatiguing pairings do not exist, but this is why fatigue calls are investigated, to determine what other circumstances are involved. While I agree with a lot of what you’re saying there is a difference between chronic vs acute fatigue. Not all fatigue is cumulative. But I agree that we all should be filling out these informational fatigue reports because some of these pairings need to go away. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
Was just looking thru the January pairing out of LAS and was floored when I saw a few five leg days...ouch!
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Originally Posted by SSlow
(Post 2951228)
Was just looking thru the January pairing out of LAS and was floored when I saw a few five leg days...ouch!
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Originally Posted by elmetal
(Post 2951237)
Been happening many months.
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If it’s the LAS- BUR truffle shuffle ending in SAN then it’s not big deal.
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Originally Posted by SSlow
(Post 2951228)
Was just looking thru the January pairing out of LAS and was floored when I saw a few five leg days...ouch!
Oh God, and I was outraged when I had to do a 4 leg |
Originally Posted by SSlow
(Post 2951228)
Was just looking thru the January pairing out of LAS and was floored when I saw a few five leg days...ouch!
Also despite LAS crew’s imagination, they’re not the only ones being hammered by red eyes. The rest of the bases are also carrying the load, even with 2-leg red eyes. For those trying to make it over to Spirit, keep in mind that red eyes are part of our lifestyle now. Once you’re senior you can avoid them. The occasional one leg trans-con won’t kill you. If you are the kind of person that can’t handle a red eye at all, please reconsider your options. We’re in the business of lowering costs, which means flying the airplanes round the clock and optimizing gate space. This surely is becoming the airline that never sleeps. (Nor our passengers for that matter) |
The legacies do plenty of narrow body red eye flying.
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Are there any trips out of LAS to central or South America? Got my app in now, hoping for another meet the chiefs in Vegas sometime.
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Originally Posted by Spectre186
(Post 2976647)
Are there any trips out of LAS to central or South America? Got my app in now, hoping for another meet the chiefs in Vegas sometime.
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Jungle redeyes...I’ve never seen any of these destinations in daylight but the credit is good for these trips out of LAS
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Originally Posted by Qotsaautopilot
(Post 2951921)
The legacies do plenty of narrow body red eye flying.
I don’t think the Legacies have 2 to 3 red eye duty periods in a row on a 4 day trip. Most of the LAS trips are fly all night and day sleep. I have seen some trip improvement recently and we’ll see what the summer brings. |
Originally Posted by Qotsaautopilot
(Post 2951921)
The legacies do plenty of narrow body red eye flying.
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Originally Posted by LandGreen
(Post 2978059)
the difference is that legacies have a much higher percentage of flying during normal hours. Yes they have red eyes but they don’t make up the high percentage of flying that our las base has
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Originally Posted by RemoveB4flght
(Post 2978094)
and it means a more profitable company that can afford to pay us more come contract time.
They could have afforded to pay us more last time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
Originally Posted by flyingpuma1
(Post 2978124)
They could have afforded to pay us more last time.
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