Don't they have to offer those vacated positions to all pilots before they can put new hires in there? Wouldnt that be a violation of seniority? Ie- a ewr 320 wants ORD but there are no vacancy bids to get him there but a new hire can go there right from indoc? I thought new hires could only fill unfolded vacancy bid slots?:). I am new but just curious

You are correct they must go unfilled in a vacancy for new hires to get them. This is why EWR is so outrageously overstaffed on the 737 320 and soon to be 76T. Every time an open position comes up anywhere but EWR current pilots fill it and new hires can't get away. This is all because Management had the brilliant idea of parking an entire fleet and reshuffling all the flying without displacing the pilots. Now they have a mess that is going to be extremely expensive and will take years to fix.

So why arent they letting all the 320/737 guys who want to bid out of ewr do so? Seems there are a lot of guys who want out of ewr.

I actually believe it or not that they have played this right. The 757s getting parked this year leave after the summer time. Thats when all the movement will start. The best way to manage this is to avoid secondary bumps at all costs. If you look at who is taking the 737 CA awards it is by far mostly guys coming off the 76T FO position. Around the end of July my guess is the bid will come out for the start of base balancing for the next summer schedule. Hopefully the CA positions go to guys coming off the 756/76T reducing the amount of bumps needed. Same will go on with the bus. The guys taking bus CA slots will more than likely come from the bus FO or 76T/756. In a perfect world you do all your upgrades and transition training Sep-May and new hires Jun-Aug.

Its not that they aren't "letting" them out its that they can't GET out. IAD is starting to go more junior and IAH is hit and miss but all other bases still can't even be touched by the guys getting recalled. Therefore new hires don't move.

This is exactly what the company planned for and it didn't work. The problem is that at this level (No longer a regional) very few people are looking for the first upgrade. A DEN guy is not going to commute to reserve as a guppy CA when he is a line holder and living in base. And I can't imagine anyone commuting on a transcend from LAX and SFO to be a CA in EWR.

So as they pull down DEN SFO and LAX 76T the pilots won't leave until they can hold guppy out west.

Also lets say they post 100 CA vacancies in SFO on the 737 and cut the 76T flying in half, the majority of those CA spots will be filled by current 76T CAs. Without the need for more 76T captains to backfill where does that leave the FOs? Sitting in base not getting used. No matter how you look at it when you park 130 airplanes you WILL have to bump.....so lets get on with it already and stop wasting money with 50+ TDYs a month.

Its not that yours or the companies plan is bad, It just only works when we are growing unfortunately we are shrinking.

TDYs are dirt cheap compared to paying out guarantee all winter long. The bumps are coming this fall not saying they will not happen. By waiting till the fall they will reduce if not eliminate most secondary bumps. They should do a bump on the west coast 76T then do the vacancy bid once they know where guys are going.

The results for the latest vacancy bid just posted. 92/737, and 42/76T slots unfilled.

Here come my bump. Thank you. That seat lock was sure short.:)

I don't think you are going to get bumped anytime soon as an EWR 76T FO. They have increased the manning to 200 and this vacancy bid left 48 slots open for new hires. But then again, who knows what could happen around here.