Housing allowance still $1100? Anything else--$ for kids school for example?

 

$3k/mo.

Intl ovrd all fights. $4.50/hr for f/os.

 

So can a new hire get to Guam?

 

On the bid that closed last month there were 5 awards to GUM 737 F/O. The junior one awarded was about 9800 on the seniority list. On the bid that closed last weekend (no results out yet) there were not any advertised vacancies in GUM, so any awards would only be to backfill for somebody else leaving.

So, in the short term the only way to get to GUM for a new hire would be to get a 737 F/O assignment somewhere else out of new hire and then hope for a lateral. I am not sure how much demand there is waiting for the GUM bids, but you figure that pilot 9800 has not quite 3000 pilots junior to him, so how ever many of those 3000 want to go to GUM would be ahead of you.

Even getting a 737 F/O slot as a new hire may become a challenge as the training in that fleet is shifted to accommodate more Captains and we will likely have a huge amount of 67 F/O vacancies going to new hires.

In the longer term, I think that GUM has historically gone fairly junior (legacy CAL folks can speak better to that) so, I think as all the movement settles and the legacy UA guys that are interested in going to GUM get their bids and the legacy CAL gusy interested in getting away from GUM get their bids, you will see GUM become a little easier to get to.

 

Don't forget instant advance to second year pay for new hires assigned to Guam. Plus paid moves.

B-1-b At his option, a Pilot assigned to Guam who is in his first year of employment shall receive an eighteen (18) month Base freeze and be paid using the second-year pay rate (in Status), or no Base freeze and be paid using the first-year pay rate.

 

This is a good overview I think. Guam is at once very senior (some folks would rather quit than leave) and very junior (the bottom of the list is often "non-vols" so to speak). Once things settle out it should be available to new hires again. This may be quite soon. From the monthly staffing report the February junior pilot there is 11776 (hired last fall) out of 11984 on the entire list.

 

I just returned from Guam (TDY).
Here are some of my general impressions, in no particular order:
Tumon Bay is fun; great beach, good bars.

There is a reason you get 2nd year pay immediately and the living allowance: things are pricey!

If you have kids, run away. The schools are not just bad; they are dangerous.

The base currently does a surprising amount of night flying. Not one of my trips got back before 01:30, including the turns. I was getting back to my hotel between 02:30 and 06:00.

The over night hotels are great! They better be, because in many of the cities
we RON, it's best to not carry any jewelry, phones, wallets, etc, while going for a stroll.

The Air Micronesia community is terrific. The best flight attendants in the system. They are not going to give you cockpit massages, but the truly are very friendly.

Biggest damn spiders I've ever seen!

Lots of tourist everywhere! Japanese, Korean, and the new kids on the block: hordes of Russians.

I did not see one bird. The brown tree snakes got 'em all.

The hot spot in town is the local 24 hour K-Mart (I am not kidding).

I had fun while I was there, despite the horrible duty hours. I would not want a steady diet. Once the novelty wears off, it's sure to be a bit of a grind. I can imagine that in the summer , when it's 99 degrees, with no breezes blowing, it would be oppressive.

 

What kind of spiders?

 

Just to be clear people from Guam are US citizens ...

 

They ought to put a bounty on the GD snakes and import some birds.

I can almost hear Anita Bryant....."Guam! It's not for birds anymore!"