OMG I wish I knew how to post a picture of Kramer in his technicolor dream coat LOL

Thin gloves, folding earmuffs and a nice black scarf get me through winter walk-arounds and avoid having to bring the grim reaper trench coat on a 3 or 4 day when you only want it from the parking lot to the terminal

ask and ye shall receive
Attachment 6577

Whats the lowest (credit/hours) you guys at UAL can drop down to? Like if you get a line with 75 credits, how many trips (hours can drop)? TIA

contractually you can drop to zero. In practice tho, it all depends on seniority and coverage.

My apologies if this has been answered before else where but i have not been lucky to find that thread.
Question: What fleet or fleets are assigned to IAH and how "easy" is it to get IAH base straight out of Class?
Thanks.

Fastest track to Den
 

Hey everyone, I should start INDOC around May and I know there’s been a handful of Den A320s for new hires but if I don’t get Den right away what would be my fastest track to Den? 737 or A320 I live about 50 min from Den and my reserve job is here too. Thanks for the help!

Check again in May. Total crapshoot right now

Based on the order books 737 is usually a save bet vut check closer to time

It does change but hands down 737

My question to you is:
-1 If given a job worth millions, do you turn that down? (guessing you are at an LCC place that has that in your contact about dropping to zero - but honestly who does that?). We at UAL cam take an “EMPTY LINE” when available and that allows you to start with ZERO pay credit, and pick up trips when you feel fit, and after 1300 Local Base Time, you can call and pick up trips out of your domicile. BUT THAT IS HARD TO COME BY NOW DAYS, with all this expansion planned.
-2 do you really want to fly airplanes for a living?
-3 do you actually have a job offer or just an interview? ( Because, just an interview - I’d watch everything said and posted)

Otherwise, with the growth plans: I’d expect everyone hired today will spend very little time on reserve (Coast Bases Only). But from personal experience on Reserve you can drop a day or two ( but you lose 4.03 credit each day). If you have money or another partner making BANK) then it’s more important to drop year 1. But if you can drop to ZERO, I’d highly doubt it in today’s UAL environment…

I definitively couldn’t drop to 0 financially lol….seems like too big a carrot for one person to eat

Are uniforms provided to new hires or is it pay deducted?

provided.
….

First set is provided. You must buy your own replacements as needed.

"Word is, first week indoc is Tuesday - Saturday. Early day Saturday. Can go home if you want (positive space). Second week is Tuesday -Friday.

mon - wed following week is at home self study. Then start your aircraft training. Four-ish weeks for fleet training (depends on type, of course). Can go home positive space on days off, which can vary wildly. It’s not going to always be sat/sun.

after that, wait for OE, which can be anywhere from 2 days to 3 months, depending on fleet."

This was from Jan, is this schedule still current?

after indoc is IFT for 2 days. They try to get you in the Monday after BI. After that you will have a couple teams meetings at home and some time for self study. Mine was a month but a few people in my class only had a couple days.

Does anyone know where to find a recent interview gouge?

Spend the money on Cage or one of the other consulting firms.

What level of detail is desired? There are some good prep companies with a lot of recent information, aviationinterviews.com has some recent write-ups accessed via a one-month subscription. I used Cage and in my opinion they were worth every dollar.

Any idea how long it takes to hold a WB in LAX?

Right now ? If you’re senior enough in class, you can get it day 1 of Indoc
Good luck with the endless global reserve .

“The returning pilot class will bid prior to the new hire class using this same bid drop.“

In Indoc, what is the returning class?

There is sometimes a "redoc" class being held at the same time as new hire "basic indoctrination" class. This class is for pilots returning from extended LTD and Mil Leave.

I live near LAX and intend on moving to the IAH area in the near future. Im curious as to which airframe is more likely to get me to IAH the fastest? Any real difference in the type of flying between the 737 vs A320 out of IAH? Current length if time on reserve? TIA.

At a particular BES, IAH included, the junior man flip flops between 320 and 737, so either airframe will get you there with a relatively short wait (maybe none, depending on what the next vacancy holds). As far as trips, junior lines look pretty much the same, with the exception that the 737 does Caribbean and South America. High credit lines with at or near min days off and more segments per day.

I get it's inadvisable to commute to global reserve, but how is it living in base?

This has likely been answered elsewhere but my simple searches turned up nothing.

If I drive to TK for indoc or initial qual does United cover parking? I saw on the doubletree page they charge $10 a day.

Thanks in advance

No, but it’s not necessary and probably more pain than it’s worth—unless driving home is quicker than flying home on your days off. The doubletree is only for BI/CQ events. Downtown hotels, normally the Sheraton, are for longer courses like your fleet qual. Shuttles are provided to/from the hotels and TK. The doubletree is just across the street, although there are shuttles there also.

You really don’t need one there unless you’re closer driving than flying from DEN. Food, groceries, drug store, etc all easy walks or cheap Ubers/Lime bikes if you’re frightened by the neighborhood. They’ll get you to/from the airport and PS home every gap in training if you want it.

What about for getting around when not in class?
I was planning on driving out for indoc and training.
What about parking at the airport? How does that work as a United pilot?

You’re pretty busy, so there’s not much time alotted for just going out. BI is mainly a get to know your classmates time—lost of social time with them. Fleet training is pretty packed with usually increasingly early schedules, so your time between events isn’t that long.

Parking at the airport is limited to $35/month or employee parking at your domicile.

The downtown hotel is where you’ll be for fleet training. Shuttles to and from TK. Plenty of bars/restaurants an easy walk. Target down the street has groceries or there is a Whole Foods further down near Union Station. Near TK there’s also a Walmart and I think a Costco but don’t quote me on that. If you want access to stuff you don’t need a car. FWIW the downtown hotel has a whole study lounge set up and dedicated to us with rooms for each fleet, a fridge and a microwave available as well. Generally it’s been pretty easy to get a fridge in your room if you don’t already have one. Laundry expenses are paid so don’t bother dragging your suitcase and clothes back and forth. In fact a local place does a flat rate $20 pick up and drop off laundry service (bags and instructions are in the study lounge). Receipt for expense report in the bag on return. Easy. You can also use the hotel service also.

That sounds incredibly convenient. I'll consider leaving the car at home.

Be glad you guys aren’t doing trng in IAH at the Sheraton for a month. Oh boy what fun

Car will be a distractor at best and at worst cause you to spend less time with your classmates and training partners. I’ve been through 3 qual courses and never once ever “missed” having a car. Also…don’t split up with your training partner unless they live locally. Having one pilot at the Dtree and the other staying downtown is a bad recipe for prep unless your training partner is a time hardened slam clicker to begin with. Events are 6-8hrs in the building plus van time. Add to that exercise, sleep, studying and the inconvenience of eating and there isn’t much time leftover.

Second trying to stay in the same location as stick partner. I recently went through a qual course I’d gone through before on an airplane I’d flown. I had a new hire stick partner. Spoke with NH before fleet training began. Told me he was offered a choice of hotels. I told him I’m downtown, they’ve got a nice setup for us, you should take the downtown hotel. He chose the other hotel. He struggled greatly though training. We couldn’t prep together or go over anything together. I was clueless as to how or if he was studying and how to help him. Eventually they had to split us up because he had to repeat rides. Moral of the story, go to the same hotel as your stick partner.

I would also say that you don’t need a car while in training unless you can drive home. If you want to stay in the hotel during your off days and take a trip you can better share a rental car with your classmates.
I would also second the idea to stay in the same hotel as your sim partner.
To add a different perspective- I never met with my sim partner to prepare for a session or sit in the paper tiger. We just met for the occasional dinner. Nevertheless we got excellent grades for our good CRM. But we both were very experienced in Boeing aircraft though it was a new type for both of us. So everyone is different in how they prepare.

Totally agree on both points. My sim partner and I met up maybe 2-3 times, usually at TK an hour before the brief. We didn’t see each other much outside of the actual sessions. Both of us got through with no issues at all. Just depends on how you and your sim partner learn.

How’s the training overall? Do most make it through?

0 drop outs in my class. Can’t speak knowledgeably beyond that as far as rate. Training is excellent. Very professional. If you’re coming from another airline it’ll feel like a very well polished version of whatever training your other airline had. If you’re military don’t worry they understand that you aren’t going to necessarily be familiar with airline ops and they’ll teach you everything you need to know. They had the Mil guys get together at one point and I think they got a bunch of info on stuff they wouldn’t have been exposed to before.

Overall it’s building blocks. Start off with company structure and policies, manual system, etc. mostly how to find the info you need quickly and on your own. A few important things to memorize. Then you move on to fleet training. Technical side is excellent. They give you a ton of detail but don’t expect you to know the gee-whiz stuff. Memorize what they tell you to and don’t stress over how many rivets are on the airplane or what brand of tire they use. Sim training is similar building blocks. You learn maneuvers then you test on maneuvers. You learn on line ops then you test on line ops. Stay engaged, don’t burn out, but don’t blow it off either and you’ll be totally fine. I went home on the weekends. There are no surprises, the syllabus tells you exactly what to know when and what you’re doing every day. Studied maybe 1-2 hours a day outside of class. Met up with my sim partner to run callouts a few times because that’s hard to do on your own. No issues, no repeats.