None the past few classes

Interesting. Not surprising. G4 plans and hopes for about the same; 20 a month. There’s no pool and we’re averaging about 30% no shows.

We are running classes of 20 each Monday.

Dang, weekly classes and I couldn’t get a call back.

Ancient have you moved on to someplace different? If not, and are looking for a quick resume builder maybe put in an app at G4. We have no training contract, a free 320 type, then bounce.

I was looking at F9, NK, and G4. I have a class date at G4 in the next month. If there’s no training contract I may keep my apps up to date.

Why only those? We have a lot of FOs bailing from NK to the legacies in their first year, so the legacies are fishing from the the same pool.

I was sold on the option of being home more with the kids while they are younger and still want me home. F9 I saw was doing more day trips and that’s what G4 sells people on. To be honest you’re right though. I should expand my options.

I mean, you will only be home more if you live in base. Ask about 300 NK ORD pilots how those day trips are looking now... Bases will come and go, F9 just closed ORD, we halved it, same can happen in any spot. Would rather work for a place were I make enough so I don't have to work as often.

I know G4 management told you the home every night sales pitch, in that is all they have. You will be initially assigned one of the small Midwest bases, i.e. Flint, Des Moines etc. From there I don’t know. Problem is micro bases constitute 20 mini airlines unto themselves. Seniority is stagnated at almost all current existing bases.

Real problem is they can’t staff these small bases with F/As either. Combine this with the pilot recruiting/retention problem it's becoming obvious the 100+ small base strategy will fall apart. Management grossly underestimated what they are willing to pay for this to work, i.e. industry leading contract. They are going to make some big changes after April. Probably going to shift to more multi-day trips to cover these small bases. So, you most likely will not be home every night.

It will be a nightmare. G4 is not remotely equipped to logistically handle significant amounts of over nighting aircraft and crews. Come and see for yourself. Like I said we don’t have a training contract at G4.

When does 2nd year pay kick in? DOH or the anniversary of training completion? Or something else? TIA!

DOH thank god and you are counting down the days

make sure you don’t complete your last distance learning module until after your anniversary doh date so that you get distance learning credit at 2d year pay and not first year pay.

They rebased me and wasn’t able to capitalize on the distance learning on 2nd yr pay. Womp womp.

probably on purpose. The lengths they will go through to save a nickel amazes me.

Anyone give an estimate on what most reserve guys are crediting per month? I imagine pretty easy to hit the min gurantee.

As an FO I regularly exceeded guarantee pretty handily. Airline pilots don’t like four day trips that start at Oh Dark Thirty. Particularly on weekends . So it wasn’t hard to rack up hours if you had the had the right RAP.

As a CA I only break guarantee if there’s some kind of extenuating circumstances or some training module gets added or something.

They also quit calling for seat support once I hit second year pay. Or maybe I just sucked.

Thanks for the response

As a first year FO you will over credit every month and get used nearly every single day. You are junior (reserve is awarded reverse seniority order) and you are cheap with the first year pay. Good for a commuter I guess but bad if you live in base and are looking for more time at home. Ain't gonna happen.

On the CA side, it’s not easy to break guarantee unless you accept move up pay or other circumstances which would be paid over guarantee. You do have to chase after crew pay to make sure they correct those type things.

This is YMMV. I have only broken guarantee twice and once was over by an hour.

Not anymore, not with the attrition. Don't even need to be IROPS, reserves are Red across the board as you approach the day and by the day off nearly every single available reserve has something on their schedule. If you are low seniority and on first year pay it is game over.

Not my experience. Again, YMMV. I’m in a dying base though.

two years on reserve now and I’ve broken guarantee one time.

Well over a year of that was COVID and attrition wasn't kicking our butts until now.

As a DFW reserve I have broken guarantee 3 out of 6 months. Could have done it 2 more of those months but I hold them to the contract and enjoy not flying.

Never broken guarantee ever and average about 25hrs or less per month. It’s very base/seat/RAP dependent

What base is that?

DFW


filler

Also I see we're offered a discounted fare when buying tickets on spirit as a team member? Is that a certain % off the flight?

Basically the same price as spirit.com but with free bags.

you pay the same fare as a walk up passenger booking on spirit.com
but you get 1 checked bag and 1 carry on bag included where the walk-on passenger has to pay $30 for the checked bac and $35 for a carry on…. So i guess that’s a $65 discount? Of dubious utility?

Edit I knew bag prices are variable based on when you paid for your bags, but I guess now they’re even variable based on how far in advance you purchase your ticket and what time of day your flight is departing, so there is no standard bag fee. It changes on many different variables.

What is DTW reserve life like these days? Assuming DTW remains a base, what's the estimated time to a line? I have read the same questions that were difficult to answer in light of the COVID-related slowdown, but am asking again after about a solid year of post-COVID demand. I am considering jumping to Spirit from a regional but have to consider how to deal with the healthcare gap, reserve QOL, and the presumed likelihood of DTW base reduction at Spirit. Thanks for your help!

The displacement bid has been delayed due to a "IT" issue...... Oddly happened roughly the same day as the B6 announcement.

No one knows what is happening with displacements so any information at this point about those bases is going to change.

Impossible to know how long for a line at this point as the reduction bid has been delayed (probably until July). There’s a lot of movement on the FO side, so doubt it would take too long to how DTW. Until now it’s been a junior base.

Pilot contract renewal
 

When does Spirit pilot Contract come up for renewal or review? What are the likely outcomes especially regarding these possible mergers/acquisitions?

Never. There will never be another Spirit contract.

The current contract expires March 2023. But, it all depends on what happens with these merger offers. Whatever the Spirit Board of Directors, shareholders decide in the coming weeks will determine which airline we will have to begin a new JCBA with. No matter which airline wins the bid and can close on the deal we have to start from scratch and negotiate a JCBA with either one of them. So, we are all just playing the waiting game as of now basically.

If any potential merger doesn’t go through for a variety of reasons there certainly would be.

Spirit isn’t being acquired because it’s insolvent or unable to function as a stand alone company. In the event there is no merger we continue with the same business plan we had before the offers, and we still need a pilot contract which is still coming up on being amenable.

Not quite sure I agree with that statement lately.