Let me ask a hypothetical, which I’ve asked before but nobody has really answered.

Supposing someone found their way to Delta or AA without ever getting any TPIC, and has just finished their probationary period……..but they just have to live in Denver…so it’s UA or bust.

Does this individual not get a call because a lack of TPIC?

Does the fact you are on property at a legacy not count for anything?


I’m just curious

 

Ha, my experience has been the opposite! So many of my former peers are getting interviews at legacies (mostly UA) right now with 0 TPIC. It’s feeling like 2022-2023 again.

 

Nobody has really answered it, because nobody really knows. And if they did the answer changes.

it counts for something but not everything

 

Three years ago, I met a 24 year old at a LCC who bragged that he'd be number 8 on the seniority list at his LCC when he retires. He'd made the move over after just a couple hundred hours at a regional. Today, he's likely still at that LCC, possibly still on reserve with no forecast seniority movement for at least a couple years. Had he stayed at his regional, he'd be a CA today and reaching competitive TPIC numbers for the legacy of his choice.

Honestly, staying at your AA WO regional is probably a good move. The fastest route to your destination is a straight line. Previous conventional wisdom of switching to the first potential "if the music stops where do you want to be stuck for the rest of your career" airline no longer holds with projected retirements and/or growth at the legacies. Today, TPIC trumps getting well less than min guarantee of block time each month at an LCC/ULCC.

If that LCC or ULCC is super healthy financially and you live in base (is there such an airline today)? Maybe consider that LCC/ULCC move. If anything, history has shown us the only constant in this industry is change.

 

No one truly knows why someone gets the call and others don’t. There has always been a few people that were FOs at a regional with no tpic that got the call. I think being at mainline or a ulcc with a mainline aircraft type and time adds significant points, whether that is more or less than tpic I have no idea. My concern when I was in a similar situation was if I got furloughed , would I be competitive amongst my furloughed peers, and having tpic in that scenario would be helpful.

Personally I think tpic should be weighted higher because being where the buck stops adds a lot to who you are as a pilot, having time in type on a aircraft that you might not fly at mainline only shows that you can pass mainline style training…but is the regional training really different?the old saying was we hire future captains not FOs ( reality is, there are 30 year wbfo that will never upgrade &#129315

 

In the past several years HR at all of the legacies have enjoyed stealing pilots from each other. If you fall into this category, get your application reviewed for the target airline and continue to hit the job fairs.

 

AQP and Non AQP................ Ugh you bet yo Ascot is different. Some regionals are AQP some are not. I believe all legacies are. Spirit is DEFINITELY NOT AQP. Furthermore the Spirit A320 type is MUCH MUCH harder than United's. But the fact that you passed a non AQP training really doesn't score you any points, in fact it seems that greater points are given if you have come from an airline with an AQP program......not necesarily for training reasons just because.


Regional TPIC is very very admirable. You are dealing with substandard dispatch, longer duty days, cash strapped MX departments that have planes that likely have more MEL's, mentoring First officers who are likely flying their first jet, and often flying late at night not on STARS or into non towered airports very late. Historically up until this year about......I think your average mainline recruiter says to themselves. "Well thats great and all managing all those threats but we don't really do that here...so that skillset isn't really needed"......where as a Spirit or Frontier FO does do all the stuff that we do here. Im not saying I agree with it, but I think thats their logic. Anyway I'm from the days where even the LCC's required you to have TPIC.

But back to my original question, the reason why I asked it is: is it the 737/A320 type that scores you points or is it what the paint job says?

Does a recruiter score a Regional Guy with TPIC over someone with no TPIC already at a legacy...........if Not that effectively this means it's what's on the paint job that matters......and that ain't right.

 

Recruiters don’t make hiring decisions in a vacuum, and neither do hiring managers. Put two applications on the table and one may have a higher overall score than the other, but as long as both meet whatever the minimum score is, a company has the ability to prioritize taking the applicant that fits the company’s agenda (say one is an FO from a major whose management publicly declared they are “at war” with the said airline and another applicant is from a Wholly Owned regional of a major that the company isn’t going head to head with at the moment).

Unfortunately the reality is that RJ pilots are a dime a dozen so one that doesn’t do anything more than fly the line at their regional isn’t going to stand out compared to applicants with different backgrounds, or applicants that go the distance to get face time in front of a legacy hiring department. A hiring department is going to do their best to hire who they deem right for their company at that point in time even if the general applicant and line flying population thinks “that ain’t right”.

 

This isn't true anymore. The last time I went to buy a dozen regional pilots it was 36 cents. Mostly because of inflation I'm guessing.

 

it became readily apparent in the recent short period of very rapid hiring that the legacies were quite happy slow-rolling the hiring from their own regionals to keep those regional CAs generating feed right where they were while hiring ULCC FOs and their legacy competitors regional people (senior FOs as well as CAs) as well as military without a single hour of 121 time (or any multi engine that wasn’t centerline thrust).

It’s never been about right or wrong, It’s not personal, it’s just business, as the Godfather said.