beech1980

Seasonal flights from MSN, STL, DFW to RSW and TPA. apparently there are 5 more routes being announced tomorrow.
This will only work if they raise the total package. Pay, retirement, QOL. The whole package at SY is decades behind. Look at the new TA for JetBlue. FO pay on the bus is captains pay at SY. Every one of their work rules/rigs dwarfs SY’s.

Think about it.... Reserve at SY = 10 days off a month. Try commuting with that. The caviot with the quick upgrade is probably 3-4 years on reserve with all the pilots bypassing. Miserable QOL and flying garbage trips with horrible vacation bidding power as well.

Listen! SY is not built for commuters and they have almost drained all the locals that are willing to take less in pay to not commute.

3rdGen

Was called today by Sun Country to come in for interview. I have read a lot of the posts on this forum, just looking for more info from current pilots there. Thanks

trip

I'm hearing RNO-PDX will be SunCountry.

Pull and Rotate

Yeah, 5 new seasonal routes out of PDX announced today.

Goatpower

Sun Country currently have enough pilots to support the growth?

Roverruckus

Regarding the schedules once making it as a mid seniority line holder how many days off could one expect, and how easy is it to get longer streches of time off such as 6-7 days in a row just with an initial bid or trading into a front or back loaded schedule?

beech1980

Not gonna happen. Only if you can hold day trips.

Even then most of the time you will only see 3-5 days off in a row. Those kinds of lines as an FO are held by people with 4-5 years of seniority at a minimum and they aren’t upgrading because of the schedule. 1/3 of the FO’s are bypassing upgrade. Pilots are upgrading to leave not because reserve is so awesome....


Captains...
I’d say the captains that can hold those kinds of turn lines have been at SC 23-25+ year.

Your only other chance is to trade away your reserve days or trips. QOL is lacking at Sun Country for the bottom 80%.

ChrisPilot1

Hi Guys

Wondering if anyone can help me out here , just some general questions regarding Sun Country.

What are your typical schedules? 3/4 day trips at a time? Good hotels?

How many months on reserve?

Overall what’s the morale of pilots at the company? Coming from a Regional carrier, I’m wondering if people at sun country too are just using it as a Stepping stone to try move onto a major or is this a place I could see myself staying happily at for the rest of my career?

How long is training? Is it all done in msp ? Training pay?

Many thanks
Chris

Pull and Rotate

From your earlier questions it sounds like you live local. Only you can answer the question about whether commuting to a a Regional vs. coming to Sunny would be a better move for you.

Here's a quick answer to your other questions. Training pay is 75Hrs, no per diem, training done in MSP, not sure what the footprint is now with AQP but under the old footprint I was done with IOE 11 weeks after starting, reserve is 4-6 months, junior lines are mostly multi day trips with maybe some day trips on either end and 14-15 days off.

Some are here to stay and some are looking to move in. Great group of people. We're going through a transition and it could be a great time to come here with the growth that is planned. I'm optimistic, but that's in my nature. We'll see what the future holds, but if you live local I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to make a decision.

beech1980

Most junior lines are trending to the 5/6 day trips. The morale is not great with what the new ownership is doing with the place. I would say most pilots that are coming here now are using it as a stepping stone as half the pilots they hire are usually gone within a couple years.
The hotels are hit or miss. The company really doesn’t respect the language of the contract and they ultimately put the pilots where they want and the union files a grievance. Remember during training you are on your own as far as housing goes. The company doesn’t pay for a hotel.
Reserve for a new hire isn’t that long like the other poster said probably not more than 6 months. Don’t let the company fool you upgrades are 2-3 years but you will be on reserve for another 2-3 years. You cannot pick up flying on reserve so you will be at 70 hours for quite some time.
The company is really struggling with attrition. The grand plan to grow to 50, 60 or 70 planes will be a challenge with the current pay, benefits and QOL. It’s all about those factors. Until they realize that they will struggle.