Spirit QOL?
 

Looking for some mature info on quality of life at Spirit. Just general stuff.

Thanks

Numerous Spirit threads opened.

I would try and get your hands on their Contract. I have read through it several times and they have some really strong language! With the exception of the transition, the company to every extent possible must have FIVE! days off before a set of work days, with an absolute minimum of FOUR. That alone right there is a thing of beauty. There is a ton of soft time too. I know this may or may not help you, especially considering I am not a Spirit pilot, lol but just figured I would tell you to see if you can get a copy of the contract :)

I agree with Joey. The Spirit contract is good and their pilots fought hard for it. People sometimes assume that just because Spirt may offer a cheap product, there pilot contract would be junk as well.

Where can you find a copy of the new contract? All I can find is the old one!?

PM me your email

Life here is pretty good. FYI, it's four days off between pairings. Guess it depends on where you came from and what you're looking for. If you want a place with lots of movement, planned growth and a pretty fast upgrade- Spirit is your place. Although, all that could change with a merger or oil spiking....

Four days off between pairings sounds great!
And when my wife asked, "what do you do at work on those four days between trips?", I told her nothing, you sit at home, she's getting more and more excited about this!

At this rate, I think my wife wants me gone more :). I kid I kid ;)

I leave tomorrow morning for a 5 day trip, but come 1 Feb, when I'm sitting around the house, she's gonna say the same thing, "don't you have a trip or something to go on?"

Hmmm, there is Barber or Road Atlanta...

Our transition has protections, not quite the same but close. They cannot drop days in the middle but only from the end and pay protect you. I had 10 days straight over the Jan/Feb. transition and when our final schedules came out yesterday I was down to 4 working days. The 6 dropped days are pay protected and if I want to work over those days it goes on top of guarantee. Right now 21 days off worth 75 hours with 25 block hours. I'm a senior FO but this is an example of how transitions works.

whats year-3 FO real-world pay

If you were hired now your 3rd year pay would be $77.73/hour. You would easily be a line holder in any base with the flexability to fly as much or as little as you want.

Just for fun 80 hours X $77.73 is about $6,220 a month. So yearly is around $74,500. 80 hours is probably on the lower end because most of our schedules are built between 75-80 hours. Its very easy around here to credit 100 hours a month.

If you want a great QOL Spirit is your place. Before DFW opened I commuted to reserve in both FLL and LAS. Even commuting to reserve, QOL was better here at Spirit than as a junior line holder commuting at my last regional.

thanks brother

This is what I like to hear!

Pay is important, don't get me wrong, but for me QOL trumps pay.

Working with a great group of guys, for a growing company and enjoying what you do, doesn't get better than that.

for entertainment, interested in "start up" , "small airline" Spirit, I looked at their route map

Spirit Airlines - cheap tickets, cheap flights, discount airfare, cheap hotels, cheap car rentals, cheap travel

I almost choked on my ham sandwich when all the routes popped up

I get heart burn every time someone writes "it's four days...." It's FIVE! 5! FIVE! to the maximum extent... That was until the company screwed with us and we had to arbitrate it. You must not have been here for that. A lot of lines have 5-6 days off between some of the pairings. Yes there is more likely to be just 4 but the contract says 5 so please stop saying 4. By accepting 4 as the number the company wins.

We are not a "start up." Small? Yes but you can wikipedia our history.

390setblue- I stand corrected. And no, I was not here then. Wish I would've been. My last 12months of pairings rarely had five days between.

Btw- it's just "390 blue" now... I kid, I kid..

no I said that as sarcasm and for any naysayers against you guys

I am a former military guy, currently a regional FO. About 4000 total, with about 1500 PIC in the military. Would I be competitive at Spirit without internal recs? And can a new hire get based at DTW?

If you were hired right now, approximately how long would it take to be a lineholder in DFW?

In no particular order:

The good:
- Commuter friendly contract
- 4 days off between block except transition
- Average 2 legs per day, average 2h+ per legs (I expect this to change over time for the worse, some bases like LAS do have 4-5 legs per day but still not on average).
- There is OT and some guys living in base are making real good money working their asses off which compensates for the low base pay... but only for those who are willing to destroy their QOL. It gets better with seniority. But it is hard when you can't hold a line or commute. So for most it is the base pay only.
- Schedule integrity, no reassignment without the consent of the crewmemeber, this is true even on reserve once you get an assignment you can't be reassigned.
- You can drop trips without pay or for vacation as long there is reserve coverage, no need to call either all done online.
- 100% pay protection for all cancellations.
- 100% Deadheading pay... not a lot of deadheading either.
- 90% of the time good layover hotels.

The bad:
- Below industry standard base pay... and it is here to stay for many years. I doubt we will get a raise before 2019.
- Horrible 1st year pay $38. United is $61. Who is gonna come here once the legacies will be in full swing? I have no idea. Poor training pay, a flat $1700/month.
- Low block trips (some 4 days finishing with a redeye paying only 15h... ouch. Most 4 days pay 18h. Still very low.)
- No block or better.
- Pay protection is averaged to 4.5h per day on multiday trip so lots of trips have a big day followed by a short day, and end up paying only 4.5h per day or less. Lots of hotel time.
- Lots of red eye flying. The fleet has the highest utilization in the industry. Planes fly all around the clock. So do we. I suddenly have gray hair all over.
- Horrible MX. Especially in the past few months. I have seen airplanes with 20-30 MELs. Right now we are downgraded to CAT I only fleetwide. Like a C172. Mechanics are leaving all the time so attrition is high. Plus the planes fly all the time so there is no time to fix. The result is ongoing MX delays and me filing countless MX related ASAPs. Fun.

The big picture:
- Growing airline copying the Ryan Air model (I think their net income was 400mill Euros or so in 2012 in a tougher environment). We are still only serving 1% of the market. So the opportunity is huge. If our growth will look like anything Ryan's was File:Ryanair pax fig.JPG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia this place will be huge. Projection is 200 planes by 2020. I am not saying that it will happen.
- Spirit has no debt so we are in a decent position to survive if things turn for the worse.
- Horrible customer service.
- Highest complaints rate in the nation.

This is just some stuff on top of my head. I guess right now we have a ton of people applying and it is hard to get in. But that will change soon. I can also see a lot of FOs leaving for the legacies in 2013 and on.

I am here, left set soon, so I am not going anywhere. If our growth happens as projected I am sure we will get a contract with good base pay next time around. And the fast movement eventually compensates those who are willing to be in the right seat for 3-4 years. Although pay may be better at AA or UAL or DAL, since you won't see the left seat for 10-15 you will end up making more here. But you have to survive 1st year.

I hope this helps...

I really wish people would stop comparing this job to a regional. Yes, it is better than a regional. It should be. You're not an intern anymore. Keep comparing yourselves to a regional, and the company will start doing the same.

Normann, don't confuse trip averaging with not having block or better. We have block or better. If you fly an LGA turn blocked at 7.2 and you come in at 7.5 you get paid for it. The averaging is only over a multiple day trip and if you go over block on all of them you get the higher pay of the block or the trip rig depending on which one is more.

Trip averaging still sucks and we need to get rid of it. Ram is right. If we keep compairing our pay and QOL to the regionals we will never better our contract.

I meant block or better per leg basis. We only have it per trip. I.e. at RAH they have it per leg. If they go over on that LGA turn by 5 min on leg one, and under by 5 min on the return leg, they get paid 5 min extra. We don't.

Anyone, anyone?

A few months, maybe 2 to 4. Newhires and upgrading captains are all being sent there according to the latest vacancy bids.

How senior is LAS? It that a really small base? Is it pretty much all 4 day trips? Or is it possible for 2days or Day trips??

DFW would be brilliant! A nice easy commute from LIT.

We have a DFW FO who commutes from there. Never heard him complain about missing a flight.

About 40 crews in LAS. Trips vary greatly from day trips up to 4 days. Every month it changes a bit as well. Crew planning has a wonderful "optimizer" that always has us on our toes.

About the only thing that is constant is that you will fly redeyes.

So many flights from LIT to DFW, nearly everything out of Little Rock goes through Dallas.
Would be a very easy commute.

You guys have PBS? Ability to trip trade easily?

How much vacation?

thanks

They have Line Bidding. I'm more of a day trip, 2-day kinda guy myself. Either way, for local guys, trip mix is always nice

it's 5 off min 4!

Even better!!

how long to upgrade (approx)?

I just got hired and will be in class on 4 Feb. I'm really looking forward to it, and was wondering how long do you think it would take to get to be DTW based? I know it's been senior, so should I be ready for maybe a year or so?