Hey everyone, I have an interview with United coming up soon. I was wondering how the QOL would be if you live relatively close to EWR. I’m about 45 min or so driving distance so I definitely prefer it. How is the trip mix on the 737? Is it easy to get 2 day trips or even a few turns a month if you want them with a little seniority? Thanks!

 

I live 28 mins away from the employee lot in a great small town. I moved here last year from Florida as the commute absolutely sucked and it has made a huge difference for me.

Full disclosure, only been here 4 years, never been based anywhere else and I’ve only flown the 737, but from my experience and what I’ve been told by many others, the 737 trip mix here is the best in the system. Awesome trips, great variety, with a bit of seniority turns are very attainable. My biggest stressor is flying back into EWR and hoping for something other than a sh!t sandwich, although I feel like it’s far better since the mega-meltdown in June/July.

I can hold a decent line on the WB now but I literally get everything I want on my bid and tons of time off, QOL is my driver so I’ll stay here for at least a couple more years. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

EWR 756 has the best trips in the system if you don't mind that kind of all night flying to Europe. You do have to put up with EWR ops and rampers though.

 

How long do you think it would take to hold a line on the 756 doing a bunch of London trips?

 

LHR is very junior in EWR, you’ll probably get a whole bunch of them on reserve. During September bid people with 6-7 months on property were getting LHR overnights as line holders.

 

Thank you for your reply! Hoping to get on and commute out of LHR and bid trips to overnight at home.

 

thank you for the response. It sounds like a good place to be if you live in the area. How easy is it to drop or swap trips there?

 

Dropping trips really only exists theoretically. Trading trips is possible and obviously easier to get the desired result the more senior you are. All trading here is seniority based with the exception of pickups (not swapping) after 1045 the day before a trip that is open departs.

 

While seniority helps for trip drops, how you bid in PBS is a big factor as well. Senior guys get awarded better trips out the gate… and thus don’t drop as much of what they are awarded. PBS ‘over awards’ trips during monthly schedule preferencing. So when monthly trip trading opens on the 24th, the Seniority Trip Trade system allows a modest amount of trip dropping out the gate to grease the trade skids. Trick is, the STT system is more likely to let 1-2 day trips drop into open time than 3-4 day trips. So if you are super junior but bid for blah 1-2 day trips, odds are you’ll have decent success dropping them when trading opens. But four day domestic trips hang on like boogers. Another reason to bid shorter trips is that it is easy to trade a 1-2 day trip for a longer one (seniority permitting). YMMV.

 

I agree with most of this. I’ve had good luck trading and dropping 1-3 day trips, especially if they are high yield.