MIA is not that bad. As a junior guy you will be doing night turns, only 10 per period. You will not have to sit reserve if you don’t like it as reserve goes senior. The base is smaller and is away from SDF which is nice, it is more laid back. You may or may not like it. Try it and if you don’t like it, you should be able to bid out shortly.

 

Its senior for a reason..bases that suck are junior.

 

Not MIA based but here is some base info:

80 something FO’s, 20 or so are from this new hiring wave with a small handful from this year. Otherwise it spans from 94’hires on down. On the captain side most junior is an 01’ hire or about 1,500/2800 total. The rest are almost all 90’s hire guys.

 

Had a flying lines summary that got lost in a copy paste mishap. I’ll try to redo and post soon.

 

I'm guessing the 7 new hires from last year that bid OUT of MIA already didn't like it.

 

MIA current bid package flying:

50-something lines of flying
2 lines Vacation, training, other, (VTO)
15-20 lines reserve.

Detail:

Appx 15 lines of turns, locals, out and backs, whatever you call them. Either am or pm. Am’s start between 6-9am, usually a 2 hr leg to S. America, 7hr l/o then flyback. 13hr duty. PM’s are more domestic, start around 2100, 3 legs with at least 1 x a 3+hr sit at one of the big sorts back to Mia around 6am.

There are appx 15 lines of domestic week on / week off night sort flying. Usually starts with a commercial ticket into position on Sunday then your typical 2-3 leggers with a 3+hr sit at a sort. Some have CML tickets on both ends. These are domestic flights. Example: 2030 van, fly to PHL, sit 4 hrs, fly back to whatever city and layover from 7am to 8pm. Repeat all week and finish on Saturday am.

10 lines or so of fairly clean international (S. America) flying. Example sked during a 28day pay period:

8-10 day trip thru S America with weekend layover somewhere. A chunk of days off then appx 4 days of shorter pairings (mostly 2 days and turns). Repeat another 4 weeks to complete the 8 week bid.

There are another 10 lines or so of dirty international or base trip lines (mixed bag of leftovers). Example line:

5 days off, a 5 day (5D) right into a 3 day, 4 days off, 3D, 5D, 2D, 3 off, 4D, 2D, 4off, 4D, 4D, 3D, 8 off. I would guess the bottom guys are getting these types of lines.

There are 2 lines of VTO = search these threads for more info. Basically they are whatever is leftover further into the bidding process.

C and D reserves:

C reserve is 1600-0400 coverage
D reserve is 0400-1600 coverage

Reserve is a mix of 6 and 4 day blocks with equivalent days off or 7 on/off. As someone mentioned, reserve apparently goes senior in MIA.

On first glance nothing looks too terrible and I didn’t find anything you wouldn’t necessarily find in SDF but again, I’m not MIA based so take my opinion loosely. Maybe some of these ****ed off MIA dudes could elaborate more on what they dislike about MIA flying.... or if the new guys bid out, specifically why?

FTFF

 

Thanks for this information. It will be very helpful in making the decision, IF I make it out of the pool and IF MIA is an option. Two rather big if’s.

 

Thanks for the detailed info, really appreciate it.

 

One of the larger issues with MIA is that the company decided to leave quite a few spots in SA. So, in order to keep that group working, they visit SDF, RFD, PHL on a regular basis. The SA and CA flying goes senior.

 

and...
For lurkers and Original Poster. Posting all since broad comments for potential interested pilots may not have any context.
As disseminated during the T/A 2016 road shows, UPS threatened to shut down the MIA domicile and shift the flying to SDF-Z if the cost of MIA scheduling rules became too high. The 757/767 flying is very interchangeable to UPS (UPS has MIA and ONT exclusively 75/76, they also have International 75/76 that also can fly domestic (“Z” domicile located in SDF, and then SDF domestic domicile) and they seek to return to previous unfettered use of 75/76 crews regardless of domicile.
IPA had past experience with the same UPS threats, on a smaller scale, and they did what they said they would do and IPA lost some easiest and highest paid flying on the Airbus. Broken up and littered on other lines.
MIA is the Americas domicile. They do have a fair amount of domestic flying that UPS was and is willing to reduce from MIA and throw back in SDF. UPS would be fine shrinking MIA. UPS currently wants all Z crews to be able to fly to the Americas. This would further give impetus to shrink or eliminate MIA. Contractually eliminating a domicile triggers no significant contractual problems for UPS. If UPS gets a few pieces in place being fought by the IPA, would certainly be more desirable and likely. Why else have Z crews do MIA Americas flying? The fair amount of domestic flying is filler and could be done by SDF crews. So the IPA wasn't willing push things so far as to risk UPS shutting down the MIA domicile and continues to fight against reducing the size of the domicile. Of course, this invites criticism and is expected. No credit of course for those who fight today to keep it a domicile. Normal IMO.

Some numbers to show its popularity:
78 of the 83 MIA Captains (94%) can hold a bid anywhere in the system and chose MIA. The last few can hold almost any Captain seat in system.
30 of the 85 MIA FO's (35%) are bypassing Captain.
Compare to ONT where only 25 of 105 FO's (24%) are bypassing Captain. ANC MD11 only 6 of 112 FOs (5%) are bypassing Captain.
Numbers wise, crews in MIA excepting new hires assigned, want to be in MIA like any domicile for reasons of own choosing.
Every domicile has complaints because every domicile is designed for specific business flying segments and presents some unique scheduling impacts.

This is the rub of some MIA crews: IPA 2016 negotiations produced an almost universally reduction of 15 minutes for non-augmented crew over 8:00 hours from past contracts and FAR. In almost all cases, the time was reduced to 7:45 requiring an augmented crew.
Unfortunately, MIA has 2 exceptions and in narrow circumstances, retained 2006 contract provisions. Choice was reduce where you could or not reduce for anybody. Not an exclusive SDF issue as suggested, its an ANC, International domicile, ONT, and MIA International augmented crew issue. IPA negotiated to help the vast majority of the IPA pilots except a few trips in MIA. IPA could have passed on the majority win for all IPA international pilots. MIA Americas flying was where it was a decision to achieve a majority improvement but not a complete 100% crew improvement. It was a tough pill for the IPA. IPA achieved a 99+% win, but a few specific flights, not universal MIA flights, remained at previous international augmented/non augmented language 2006 language.(Kept 8 hours versus new 7:45 hours) .

New in 2016 contract:
“The required report time for duty periods which start and end within Europe or within Asia, shall be 1:00 hour. There cannot be an intransit stop outside of Europe or Asia during this duty period. The airports which the parties have agreed to within Europe and Asia will be published and maintained on the Flight Operations website. The same 1:00 hour report time shall apply to any international duty period touching South or Central America which is contained in a trip in the Miami domicile. There are two (2) MIA exceptions: the MIA-BOG-MIA turn trip and any international duty period with one (1) flight segment between 7:46 and 8:00 block hours.”
So, UPS kept old contract on the MIA-BOG-MIA turn trip. As an aside, UPS also got SDF IRO waivers on MD 11 SJU turns (New) which some in MIA not realize thinking only MIA was treated differently. Not achieving 15 minute reduction requiring an RO for this one trip naturally stuck in the craw of everybody. Negotiations are tough. Alternatives were saying “no” and giving UPS reason to scale back/eliminate MIA as domicile. UPS still looking to eliminate MIA crews as mentioned above.
These are the 2 new provisions in 2016 language to MIA crews:
“ All unaugmented international turns from the Miami domicile will be covered by the domestic duty limits regardless of whether the duty period is EDW, non-EDW or CRT.” This is 13 hours, Same for all international crews (13 hours) if UPS wants to exceed then this;
“ In addition to the duty limits provided in Article 13.A.1., the Company may construct turn trips up to a scheduled limit of 14:30 hours with a soft and hard maximum of 15:00 hours. In order to use this paragraph, the duty period must be scheduled so the crewmember does not report for duty prior to 0700 LDT, to provide a release from duty by 2145 LDT and must contain an intransit stop of 7:00 hours or greater”
So if have a 14:30 hour duty day turn trip, UPS must schedule a 7 hour or greater period in transit stop. Example 3:30 trip to destination, 7:00 in transit stop, and then a return to MIA for 3:30. This is to minimize UPS gain from maintaining previous 2006 contract.
The other MIA centric scheduling issue has been around since the beginning of the MIA domicile: Like many domicile centric work schedules, will find some that believe they are only one left out of improvements. It is same across all fleets. “its worse for us”. Yet, as numbers show, it is a senior domicile. Scheduling wise, UPS enjoys a different day on/day off pattern for MIA flying. All IPA pilots have same required minimum days off, but the pattern allows flying every week in some regards like a pax airline is extraordinarily difficult for the junior crew who commutes. This occurred over multiple Executive Boards and has been in place for a long time. Contract did not change in this regard on most recent contract. It’s in the 2006 contract. Two different negotiation teams and over 12 years. Some of these schedules are not very commuter friendly for junior crews. (SDF A300 not necessarily any more commuter friendly for junior crews either)

Helpful to have context for those not familiar. Often, folks are not familiar with all the threats and the negotiated solutions to maximize for all IPA pilots and minimize negatives. In the end, it was negotiated and then ratified by the membership.
Certainly not everyone will agree with the reasons for what was negotiated and ratified. 100% of the IPA pilots and Negotiations Team have disagreements with virtually every contract. Would say this is same at 100% of all airlines with contracts, so complaints and criticism is natural and expected. Would argue that keeping MIA as a domicile is a win for 100% for IPA pilots, even if not 100% satisfactory for all pilots. Never is. Hope this helps the OP.