BoilerUP

Junior CA award for 21-102 is ONT 757 with a DOH of June 2016.

CardboardCutout

Also, guys in training are getting 74SDF, which I would take to mean "everyone who wants it", which I would further take to suggest that it may be available out of training in the future.

C2078

No new hires have been assigned 74 SDF. If you mean recent hires got 74 SDF in the system bid that closed yesterday, then yes. There is s reason 74 SDF has gone so junior, the lines absolutely suck!!!

CardboardCutout

Yeah I was insufficiently clear there. Guys who are still in initial training have been awarded sdf 74.

Slim_Pickens

Would you mind expounding on this?

Ray Kinsella

it’s not so much the lines suck as much as Asia has become intolerable for many. Pilots are literally locked in their hotel rooms for 18-72 hour layovers. Food is delivered and they are prohibited from leaving the room. And that’s if they are lucky enough to make it through the risk of false positive Covid tests. Imagine doing a 12 hour leg to HKG and then being held at the airport for another 4-5 hours awaiting test results. All of this under the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.

Riverside

Looking the the bid packet. Unless you live in base, not many friendly commuting lines. Also like above mentioned, domestic legs with report times in the middle of the night.

FTv3

I looked. Report times between 2-5am are pretty standard in SDF regardless of domestic or intl. fleets. Looks like the only afternoon shows are for some HNL flights, PM turns, and the rare stuffer trips.

Whether or not the lines are commuter friendly is a matter of perspective / semantics. If you live close to a UPS gateway E of the Rockies then I’m not seeing the big deal, seems like any other SDF fleet with a commute 2-3 times a PP (4week). If you have to do a 2 legger on the pax carriers then yeah, your not gunna find many big block trips with big blocks off. There was only 1 line that had a single commute in 1 PP and 2 in the other. Everything else was 2/2 or more. Not much reserve and the reserve blocks that do exist seemed to be in blocks of 5-7 days.

Example - I saw one line that had a trip every week in first PP: W-F of SDF (3:39am show) CGN SDF (finish around midnight F night). I could make that work pretty easily, though it would be annoying AF doing it every week. Others, not so much.

The crappyer lines, that obviously go junior, aren’t very commuter friendly from any perspective but I argue that is the same on all fleets.

ALL that being said, I agree, for what it is the SDF 74 lines are messy and could be cleaned up for a more commuter friendly experience. Fleet is still new and base continuing to grow so maybe things will stabilize. Take home is that you can’t consider the 74 in SDF as a long haul international fleet with big long trips and big blocks off. It’s essentially domestic with intl flying. What you don’t have that most domestic fleets have is the clean week on week off stuff.

Slim_Pickens

Thanks for the clarification.

As a new hire starting class in a couple of months, and a 1 to 2 leg commuter from the southeast, what’s the best bet for week on/off (or longer) to compensate for the self imposed QOL hit I’m taking for being a commuter? Before this thread, I thought 76Z or 74SDF would be best?

tnkrdrvr

First question: are you asking for the long run or for picking as a new hire? You will only have one of those on your options list dependent on if you draw the heavy day or light twin day. In the long run, once in the door it will be easier to research what would work best for you. For right now, my advice if you are SDF or bust is to go for MDs if you draw on heavy day and 75s for light twin day. Worst case, on heavy day, you draw 74 ANC and have to wait until December to bid down to SDF. Worst case, on light twin day, you draw 75 ONT and have to wait until December to bid SDF. Obviously, the company can move system bids around at will, but this has been the trend for the last few years. Shorter domestic trips are easier to trade or drop on the trip board. This enables a lot of newer guys to stack their trips together and reduce their number of commutes or build week on week off. This doesn’t always work, but most guys seem “happy” with their ability to massage their schedules. Keep in mind we don’t have as much schedule manipulation control as some other companies, so it can be a chore sometimes.

Second question: are you deciding whether or not to be a commuter or is that already a done deal for you? Regardless of fleet assignment, the QOL hit for commuting is always highest your first couple of years. Lots of people move to the SDF region for those first few years and then some stay and some decide to make the commuter trade off. Reserve at UPS is a good deal, if you live in domicile.