Vacancy/Reduction
 

Did I miss something? Are they not doing a vacancy/reduction bid this month?

I think they usually send it out by the end of the day. But I am hoping they cancel the vacancy bid all together.

I almost expect things to not function the way they are supposed to these days. Seems, more than even, that management is checked out and not communicating any day-to-day goals/initiatives with the pilot group. Vacancy bids being messed up and rerun, ORD reserve grid opening up at less than 75% and now this. Is this to be expected until the merger? Hope not.

Hope in one hand and poop in the other

See what one fills up first.

Vacancy bud is staying, it’s been made pretty damn clear. They don’t have the staffing to fly what they consider to be the most profitable routes, so they have to move the crews to complete their fools errand. Jeff Miller. Haha. That guys a joke, almost as bad as Jyri.

Sorry I meant I hope they cancel the displacement bid. I do hope (and poop in my hand) that they will get their collective heads out of their asses and realize that uprooting pilots and their lives is severely hindering them.

I wonder if someone up there will realize that kicking pilots out of 3 legacy bases will just send those pilots to those legacy airlines…

Not only that...but having pilots now commute to some other base to do day turns or two day trips. Talk about disrupting people's lives. These guys are completely clueless.

Hopefully people considering Spirit right now do some research about how poorly this airline is run.

Free type rating and a great way to get to a legacy when you can attach Spirit pilot to your application. I doubt Spirit is #1 on anyones list right now, they are just the airline calling first.

That’s quickly changing. Doesn’t pay or make any sense to come to NK anymore. People are and will choose to stay at regional or now just get picked up by SWA. Atleast if they get stuck there they have a stable future.

Not to mention our new hire failure rates are almost triple what they used to be. Why risk coming here with the risk of getting a pink slip?

Wonder if its the pilots coming straight from ATP and other flow programs. I'd love to see those statistics.

We’re definitely getting less experienced candidates, We’re obviously training more than we’ve seen in awhile, so the failure numbers are fairly skewed. I remember when we’d see maybe 1 failure every other month or so. Now it’s 9-10 a month it seems regularly.

I get your point but nobody is commuting to do day turns. I'm in our largest base and there are all of zero day turns in open time, and when they do pop up they are usually gone in the blink of an eye.

I know that it is a constant complaining point on here but the supply of pilots willing to do them is plentiful. Red eye turns not so much....

I flew with a few of those WAY….back in the day at the school I worked for. They came in to rent our twin, which we did at the time. “I graduated ATP”, “I got xxxx multi time”, “I got 1 hour in a citation jet”…that attitude. After flying with some of them I wouldn’t let them near the keys to the plane, never mind the plane itself. One couldn’t keep a stable VISUAL approach to landing without having the ILS guidance, forget about doing it with one engine.

ATP teaches people to pass checkrides, that is all. I know this because I did a private multi there ages ago. I got my multi, but I sure as hell wasn’t safe to go out and fly one along with anything said airplane could throw at me or fly me into and I knew it. That was the last training I ever did there and I went out and found further competent multi instruction thereafter.

I don't know where you're looking but I am seeing it everyday. 1 and 2 day trips litter our schedules now. That is a fact. When the company displaces over a hundred plus families...what do you think they'll be doing. Commuting to do turns. The company has stated their goals publicly and they have already implemented the 1, 2, and 3 day trips.

People living in base may be willing...but when the displacements happen let's see how many people like flying to another city to pay for hotels between their day trips. These schedules are a radical departure from the norm. They are a band-aid to dealing with our unwillingness to invest in the companies infrastructure.

I bid for all turns and got one next month and I’m fairly senior and there are currently zero in open time. No one is going to commute to turns unless they want to and can hold them.

I'm bidding 34% in base and all my trips are two and one day pairings next month. 79 credit with a lousy 13 days off. I will be in my crashpad 5-6 days next month with three one day turns in a row. One day pairings are last in my bid group, and I'm still way to jr to get a four day. Most of my trips aren't commutable, but I'm lucky because I drive, even if its three hours. So yes, people are commuting to do day turns and pay for a pad or hotel.

Ouch! That's a bummer and a little disheartening to hear. Which base?

sounds like you need to learn how to use pbs better

Bidding 47% in base and I get all 4 day trips with no redeyes. Maybe hire PBS gurus or another company to do your bid because with that seniority you can get almost everything you want.

Apparently these guys think it's your fault the company has built in so many 1 and 2 day trips.

I have personally seen it on a weekly basis. Friends on reserve are only flying 1, 2, and some 3 day trips. Our pilots will in fact be commuting to do turns. That's how the lines are being built. Also, October is a slow month. Not a lot of open time. Gonna get real ugly. That's fine though, just another shot in the foot of the company increasing attrition.

Got all weekends, Thanksgiving and the day after off, and no redeyes. Those were my priorities. The pairings are dog sh!t, and very few are commutable on both sides. I know how to bid.

He's most likely in a base with more 1-2 trips on average.

I got everything off that I wanted and Thanksgiving. The reason I have so few days off is because three of my pairings end just before midnight, and are technically considered ending the next day.

Yep, all depends on what base you’re in!

What do these 4 days credit?

Generally 15-17

Yeah but that's reserve which is a whole different ball game. I'm sure they do get them on reserve when others call out sick, or they get the DH out to fly one leg back. That just comes with the territory of being on reserve though.

Just for context, there are hardly any day turns in CA open time for the remainder of October more than two days out from now. MCO has quite a few but outside of that FLL and DTW each have one (late PM turns), and LAS/ORD/DFW all have a grand total of zero day turns in open time. I'm sure they will lose a few pilots over this, but the sky is hardly falling as most seem to be quite okay picking them up.

Trust me I wish more people hated day turns as much as I hate a 15 hour layover in at the LGA Marriott on a four day will all short layovers.

well I’m on captain reserve in FLL and I fly just about every day…. Lots of open time trips I have to cover and I’m R3

It depends on how the pairing is constructed. If it's a true 4 day, generally 20-25 hours. The later number very rare. Like the other guy said 15-17, if it's a 4 day that really gets in at midnight on the 3rd day.

These low credit redeyes need to go.

Yes they do!! And my understanding is they want to increase efficiency by building more. We need an override in the next contract... my uniform isn't brown and my paycheck reflects that as well.

Override on top of a better system than we have with the trip averaging nonsense.

And that is why I don't look at the amount of calendar days, just TAFB and commutability. Calendar days means nothing, at least not in LAS with start/end times all over the clock.
Trip A starts with a redeye to FLL leaving at 23:45, jungle turn, and gets done at 00:15 on day 4 with 3 duty periods, so 15hrs credit.
Trip B starts with redeye to IAH that leaves at 01:00 next day, jungle turn, and comes back to at 2300 on day 2 (I know, illegal, 2 check ins in 1 day) 3 duty periods, so 15hrs credit.
Is trip B really two times better than trip A?

Yup, and that's why I wrote that reserve is a whole different ballgame. Once you can hold a line in FLL you'll never fly another day turn in your career if you so please, unless you get canceled and rescheduled into one.

I have a few friends asking me about the DFW base here and I have no clue. I don’t have access to that info yet on Flica. Can anyone shed some light on DFW? All I know is that someone shouldn’t come to Spirit for it, but that person didn’t give me anymore info/context.

The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchored by the major cities of Dallas and Fort Worth

There ya go. Your friends should be all caught up with DFW. Maybe a little more clarity on the info you want will help with speculation on the base

it’s shrinking by around 60 captains and 15 FO’s on the big reshuffle bid next month. Could shrink more in the future, could stay the same, maybe grow? Nobody knows. But after this bid it’ll probably take 8 years or so to home Dfw captain.

Thanks for the info! So, no one should come here for a DFW base?

Reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit is it?