Application Question
 

Ok, so I am working on my airlineapps for United and it asks for “any” traffic violations and details for each. As many people I have had tickets in my past, however they were all many years ago and no longer show up on my MVR. I have called the courts and Department of Motor Vehiicles and none keeps records far. Enough back for me to get info on the tickets.. I don’t want to be in-truthful but I do not have the II formation to enter. Anyone know what I should do?

You can put an approximate date. Don’t lie. When they say ANY they mean it.

The worst thing that can happen at an interview is that you get caught in a lie. Even if you don’t get caught, you will probably trip up your interview because you’ll be nervous that they will find out. Worse, if you get through the interview, you’ll be wondering if they will discover the lie in your background check. Bottom line, admit to it and move on. They probably don’t care about a few tickets and it takes the stress off, allowing you to focus on the interview.

I suggest paying for one of those online background check websites. My tickets showed up there while not showing at the DMV sites. It’s not very expensive. Hope that helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What he said. I faced the same issue as you. Be as honest as you can. Mother U isn’t about holding your feet to the fire. Unless they catch you in an outright lie.

I had a similar issue with a couple of them. I used approximate dates.

Never thought twice about it, I imagine it's a very common situation.

I had a handful from when I was young and dumb. I ballparked when and where for the ones I couldn't piece together. They didn't show up on online background checks or the national driver registry. I went to court for each and they were knocked down but I didn't remember which ones were by how much but I did vaguely remember the original tickets X over speed limit Y. So I just listed the worst case scenario even though I plead guilty to a 7 over ticket. They really don't care unless you have a list down to the floor and/or are still actively driving like an idiot. They want honesty and being caught in the teensiest oops raises so many questions that it is an immediate move to the "never call again" pile. If they bring it up during the interview (rarely happens) just explain you were being completely honest but some were so old you couldn't remember specifics.

The most important thing is to get your airlineapps polished and ready to go RIGHT NOW. Once the Hogan is emailed to you it starts the process and your airlineapps info is locked in until your interview day. Any changes or deletions aren't going to matter but if you show up on interview day and add 5 speeding tickets, a checkride bust, or a college gpa that was a 2.5 vs the 3.0 you claimed when they called you... It won't end well. Take that stress off you right now.

Back before Doris retired and before they let us check on friends applications...Doris lookd one up for me. She said my friend didn’t have any traffic violations listed and that actually reduces the scoring on your application.

Its not that they want you to make up traffic violations if you didnt have any. It was more an indicator of truthfulness. A majority of applicants have some sort of violation listed and the ones that don’t are sort of the odd balls. Doris recommended that I tell my friend to dig deeper into his memory bank and think back to that time when he may of been pulled over.

It worked like a champ. He updated his application and three months later...this former L-1011 Captain, 767 Captain, 747 Captain still hadn’t been called. Sorry Danno!

On this topic, I have really been worried that my record might affect my app. Gone with Centerline Prep and they (Keith) did not voice any concerns (great experience with him BTW). I have 9 total tickets with 6 of them occurring within 30 days of each other (accident that lead to failure to yield, just had expired registration and inspection, not knowing I had a court date after I thought I paid it all off, so failure to appear... just 19 year old dumb kid logic). Anyways, now 9 years later and I am wondering from anyone who has been hired with a hand full of tickets, how big of a speed bump was that for you in the selection process. More importantly, how did it go in the interview? What I'm wondering here is how much they frown upon those teen years and if I should try to do things like attempt to get any expunged/dismissed? Last ticket is now over 4 years ago. Thank you very much for the replies!

Just answer YES to the “any” question.

I’ve told this story on APC previously but here it is again as I personally witnessed a new-hire classmate being escorted off the property during indoc because the background check came back right after class started.

He thought his record was clean because a serious driving incident as a youngster had been expunged by the state due to being a first offense and good behavior (it was part of his sentencing). Thus, his printed record from the DMV was spotless.

He made a mistake starting out but clearly learned his lesson, moved on, and had a successful journey up the aviation food chain all the way to UA.

However, 10+ years later it was still in the database of the company that did background checks because they simply scooped up all public records in real time and didn’t expunge data later.

The drama went on for a couple days as flight ops wanted to keep him and UA legal wanted him gone. In the end, legal won.