Typical schedule??
 

ok dumb question of the week.....I haven't flown 121 since 117 took over. I know the answers vary wildly based on fleet and domicile. What does a typical schedule look like at United as far as days on/off? Is it like 4on/3off primarily? Just curious how often one has to go to work. Commuting by air is for the birds but if one were to drive in just trying to get a guess as to how often you would be doing that a month?

There is no typical schedule. That's like asking "what route do you fly?"

As the previous poster said it really depends. Once you have seniority you can get yourself into a sort of cadence based on your preferences, but until then it’s a total crapshoot... Just flew with a captain who drove 3:30 and he would bid for 12 days in a row, which is allowed by 117 as long as there is a 30 hour rest period somewhere (In base or on a layover). As a reserve or junior line holder though, it really could be anything. I remember getting months where it was 4 on 1 off 4 on then 6 off 2 on 3 off and so forth.

Narrow body line holder "typical" month is about 16 days of flying. Lot's of different ways to get there, 16 One Day Trips, 4 Four Day Trips, or something in between. Depending on seniority, monthly bidding gives you some say on trip length and distribution.

Yep totally varies.

I’ve had 17 days of work in a row that covered Christmas (4 4 days and a day trip)

Or on low months 3 high value 4 days with 18-19 days off.

Or 2 4 days and 2 3 days with 3-4 off in between, or anything in between.

As a reserve you'll have 12 or 13 days off per bid period (30 or 31 day bid periods that often overlap into next month). You can bid to break the 18 reserve days into 3, 4, 5, or 6 day work blocks as you wish (depends on how you commute, use a crashpad, etc.). Currently 737 and bus new hires are sitting reserve for 2 - 4 months at the junior bases (SFO, LAX, EWR and DCA), but that can change at anytime. If you switch to DEN, IAH, or ORD during a vacancy, you can expect to continue on reserve for sometime (most switch to live in domicile).

When you get above the moving monthly line for a hard line with your base and aircraft, it really comes down to how much you want to work and how you want to work. Some people don't like to commute and "waive" in base time between trips so that they can work back-to-back trips with a single commute. Some seek out 4 day trips that have max pay to minimize their number of trips. Some want commutable on front end, some want it on the backend, and some want it on both ends. The list of choices is extensive.

The kicker is every time you change aircraft, base, or upgrade, you have to consider what you want schedule wise and will your new seniority allow it. There are many WB FOs that could hold NB CA and don't wish to because of what their future schedule would look like. On the flip side is that you'll find NB CAs that took the first available upgrade to chase $$ and/or they don't mind reserve.

To put new hire schedule in perspective. I'm a 737 EWR line holder after 7 months on property. My initial March award had me at 89 hours with 13 days off in a 30 day period (5 trips). After adjusting my schedule with drops, swaps, and pickups, I'm at 83 hours with 5 trips (a 1 day at end of this month, a 3 day, and 3 x 4 day - one carries over into next period) with 15 days off. All my trips require me to commute in the day prior because of the early starts, but all my trips are commutable on the backend. This works for me and I know a lot of new hires and junior CAs that work a similar schedule.

Thanks. Very helpful information.

Check out airlinepilotlife.com. I think you’ll need to register to view the board. One of the mentors there is a UA NY based A320 Captain (was 737 FO before) and he posts his schedule every month under the schedules section. It’s a bit watered down but gives you a really good idea of a typical schedule, cities he flies to and overnights. There are a couple years worth of schedules so lots of data.

For example here is his most recent schedule post:

“For November, 2018 I had a bit of vacation, so I ended up with fourteen days off, plus four reserve days that I was not used.

1. off
2. ORF-DEN (deadhead), DEN-LGA
3. EWR-RSW, RSW-EWR
4. off
5. off
6. off
7. checkride in Denver
8. checkride in Denver
9. off
10. off
11. off
12. off
13. off
14. off
15. EWR-RDU, RDU-IAH
16. IAH-EWR (deadhead)
17. EWR-PBI, PBI-EWR
18. short call reserve, did not get used
19. long call reserve, did not get used
20. off
21. off
22. short call reserve, (Thanksgiving, did not get used)
23. long call reserve, did not get used
24. EWR-ATL, ATL-EWR, EWR-RDU
25. RDU-IAD, IAD-SAT
26. SAT-EWR, EWR-DFW
27. DFW-EWR, EWR-BOS, BOS-EWR
28. off
29. off
30. EWR-RDU, RDU-EWR, EWR-DFW”

Plan on four or maybe five times a month as a reserve, depending on how your work days line up. You WILL have (at least) two days off between every set of reserve days.

If all you're trying to do is minimize commutes, you will have more flexibility as a junior lineholder than a senior reserve. Trip trades to different days are next to impossible in the summer, but PBS does give you more bang for your seniority buck than line bidding would. Waive everything. You'll get a lot of redeyes. You'll get double duty days: a trip that ends in the morning, and a new trip that checks in that night (at least 12:45 later). But doing that will allow PBS to build you a schedule that minimizes work blocks.

Seniority, even a little, will make it easier. This month I'm working two work blocks, four trips in the first 15 days. So two drives for me. And two hotel nights in EWR. Then two weeks off. I'm 3 years in, and about 50% seniority on the EWR737. If you don't care when you work, PBS could build you a schedule with two work blocks with much less seniority than that. A schedule with 3 work blocks - with that as your only limiting criteria - should be doable for a very junior lineholder.

Are there a decent amount of day trips? Or mostly multi-day? Do they go senior? Thanks

I’m a fairly new guy to UAL, and it’s been a blessing being here!

I’ve spent most of my 10 months above the G line (meaning guaranteed a line) but I usually play the game and bid Reserve to get the days off I want. On RES you can Agressive Pick Up (APU) trips that you want and seniority based, get... So far I’ve had better luck being proactive with Reserve vs. being a junior line holder.
1.). Commuting is why I chose to be senior on Reserve (open trips are given out based on reserve seniority - just hope that a more senior reserve or line holder doesn’t drop in and take the trip you’re hoping to get)
2.) It seems that (as a junior line holder) dropping trips to swap with another trip that may be a day or two away from your original trip is pretty hard to do here. (Called scheduling to “ask as carefully as I could, what I could do to enhance my chances of getting swaps approved”....but it seems they have limited approval when moving trips beyond a day ahead of your current day - so it’s easier for them to just deny and deal with it later)
3.). The flying as a new guy is pretty good, all things considered. If you are aggressive with your schedule on reserve and understand that you’re the new pilot on a pilot list of 12,7k+ and you’re just another number on the list of thousands of pilots scheduling has to work with/play with initially...you’ll be able to make your first year livable.

No airline is perfect, but we all here at this airline seem to only want better for our future. So, if you get a chance to join this world class airline you’d better give it everything you have to make it!

PS. This is my 6th company, so I’ve seen the worst in the biz! And I still know I made the right choice by coming here!

Good luck to you! So much hiring going on here right now, a lot of guys are getting their base of choice right off the bat and even the equipment that they prefer!