togaflaps

I came from NK as well. I live in an NK base and now commute to UAL. I think I made the right choice with how much opportunity there is right now at UAL. Less than 1.5 years in and hold mon-thurs or sometimes mon-wed, commutable on both ends. I bid to fly with LCAs and get bought off trips. I'm switching to the WB and will be a line holder with mostly commutable trips. Reserve here isn't necessarily fun, but I really don't think it's as bad as people make it out to be. It needs to improve and I think it will. The retirements here haven't even started to ramp up to full potential when at NK you'll be pretty mid pack for quite a while. That was the main reason why I left.

With that being said there are things I miss about NK. I can't as easily drop my flying as I could back at NK, but it's not as hard as people make it out to be at UAL. I also miss the premium opportunities at NK. They were ridiculous over there.

BAe3100FO

I have flown with numerous former Spirit Wings folks, (1 of which just took a 13 month upgrade) and I think he’ll be great - with his prior airbus experience. No idea what life was like at Spirit, but it seems like the folks I’ve flown with that are prior Spirit that are now at United - seem pretty happy…especially with the opportunity to be widebody FO or NB CA so early in one’s career…seems like being stuck to one fleet type is pretty silly - long term! But keep telling yourself… “I’ve never wanted to fly widebodies” (because, let’s be honest - you don’t have a choice)

Swindler128

It's nice to hear as this is my question whether to jump from easy schedules to from what I gather work work work. I've heard conflicting things from various peers about any flexibility
What plane you on if I may ask?
Anyone know if you can stack rsv days as well. For ex 6 on 1 off 6 on again etc ?

Swakid8

Its not hard to stack reserve days if you have the seniority within your bid status. If PBS doesn’t award what you desire, depending on the reserve grid, you can move your days around. That’s how I manage to protect my days off on Global Reserve.

Svfr

United just spent $341 million to build 5 more gates in Atlanta that just opened 3 months ago, I don’t think they’re going to be pulling back.

JTwift

United Atlanta pilot base in 2024.

Aquaticus

We waited 2 hours to be parked by the two rampers who were working last week. 188 sob on a 73. It was torture for our passengers. They can build all the gates they want but they can't currently staff them. Everyone quit or was poached by delta. I can't imagine it is better at our outsourced competitors.

ninerdriver

Kind of. You can't stack 6 on, 1 off except for during the beginning of the month at certain times of the year when the moon is full and the rivers have already crested. On the other side of that, you can't have more than four periods of days off in a month unless you're in the same full-moon-river-crested time frame.

Swakid8

Correct, PBS will only allow the first group of days off to waived down to 1. To do it later in the month, you will need to move your days around. Need the grid to be in grid to be in your favor. But I’ve had no issues stacking my days together with RDO trades thus far.

I’ve also had PBS waive down to a single day once for me.

togaflaps

737 in a coastal base. I bid 40% after a year and a half. I just got bought off of a LCA trip and I'm at 80.2 hours and 21 days off although 2 of those hours are for CBT work. If I wanted to drop another trip I could. I have a swap in for a 3 day and it's a pretty efficient one with a handful of people asking to pick it up off me. If I didn't want to work, I really don't have to. In the summer months it's not nearly as easy. I can swap stuff around, but most people are maxed out on flying aka up to like 88 hours of credit. Some people still will pick up 2 or 3 day trips off your line if you advertise them and occasionally I'll be able to drop something. Most of the time I just swap trips from a 4 day to a 3 day or something like that. In July and August, thats lucky to do. It definitely isn't as easy as it is at NK. It however isn't as bad as what people make it out to be. YMMV depending on the fleet and the base. It also gets noticeably better as you get more and more senior.