Thanks! I could be misunderstanding how this works, but comparing number to number of the more junior folks, the percentages could be reversed? For instance, someone at xxxxx vs xxxxx +1 on the bus could be 80% on the bus and 70% on the 73? Or is it pretty even up and down the scale? Thanks for the help!

 

EWR 320 has lots of LGA trips so be aware of that.

 

Not to make your decision tougher but in IAD where you want to be based, (and probably will be based within 6 months) I’d be more senior on the 737 than on the Airbus. 26% vs. 44%. Some guys are more senior on one fleet vs. another but if you talk to another guy it is the other way around. Example: lots of people would be more senior on the 737 in most bases than the Airbus but someone hired a few years earlier is more senior on the Airbus in most of the bases. The company goes in waves where they will hire a lot into one fleet and then hire a lot in another fleet. Depending on when you were hired affects your relative seniority on one vs. the other. It’s a crap shoot. You could choose the 737 then the company stops 737 training and then puts a lot of new hires in the Airbus or visa versa. Going forward, it is hard to say what fleet is going to get the majority of new hire spots. We have more 737’s than AB and we are getting more 737 than AB. I’d say 737 is the safer bet and probably why AB is going junior in recent new hire classes.

 

There might be a reason why a junior person is getting Mexico City layovers! Avoid those like the plague.

 

Thanks—that was my going in assumption.

 

Lingo Check:

"More Junior" means that more people on this airframe have bigger (lower) seniority numbers?

and

"8-ball" what everyone who didn't get to pick gets stuck with?

 

What’s Guam seniority going?

 

But, for some folks it turns out LGA is WAY better. I'm local so doesn't completely equate, but fact is LGA trips pay cross town $94 per trip, and the vast majority are 2 leg trips per day with longish layovers versus EWR trips that are EWR ATL EWR BOS EWR BUF EWR . . . ok maybe I exaggerated a little, but you get the idea. Anyways, theres also this . . . I just flew with a new hire . . . like one month on the line new hire . . . from Raleigh, and turns out that for him LGA is better than EWR 'cuz he has a ton more direct flights out of LGA most of which leave from gates just next door. Point is, as others have said, it all really varies A LOT so you just gotta play it as it goes.

 

2015 hire I think

 

Absolutely. There are reasons to go to just about any seat in the company. I’d actually like to try the airbus. However, in NYC I don’t like the trips and flexibility even at 10% on it. The 73 base is huge with tons of flexibility and I’m able to either fly 75 hrs and get 18 days off or the opposite. Tons of flexibility on the 73 with Caribbean, domestic, Central America, etc. As a commuter I’d much rather do EWR trips...although I’m sure at 10% I could avoid LGA if I wanted to.

The bottom line for me...and I look at the awards every month...at 35% 73 I’m getting 75 hrs and 18 days off. At 10% bus I’m seeing a ton of 80 hr and 14 days off lines. If it changes or when I can upgrade I will highly consider it. As I said, I want to fly the bus at some point. If I lived in base I’d probably pull the trigger. I hear of senior FOs in the summer getting lots of senior manning and crediting lots of hours for little actual work.