Archie Bunker

After nearly 8 years commuting to ANC, I'm finally giving it up. Since I only live about an hour from ONT, that's where I'm going.

Most of my commutes were one leggers out of ONT on company aircraft, but I had to do plenty of two leggers on Alaska over the years through SEA, due to weekend flights and the UPS jumpseats being full. There is only one UPS flight out of ONT heading to ANC. It leaves at 2am, and it is down to 4 jumpseats (MD-11) because they put an IRO on that leg 4 days out of the week.

I'm tired of losing a day commuting up, and sometimes losing another day getting home. I'm looking forward to driving to work, and not sweating making a flight, or my sign in.

The only real bummer is having to come off the whale, and go back to the 75/76.

alohastyle22

I recently joined the pool myself. I heard the same rumor concerning the 80/200 from another source. I just talked to a friend who received an opportunity to interview in May so it appears interviews are on going with phone calls potentially still going out. Another friend who has been swimming for awhile was called and told that they expect classes in the spring.

FTFF

Don't know the percentage but there a ton of guys that commute at UPS from every city in the U.S. and from all over the world. Being junior would be especially unpleasant if you have a difficult commute but not bad at all of you have an easy one like PHL & EWR and/or ATL to SDF for example. There are quite a few newbies commuting from the west with relative ease as well. As far as ANC, it's relatively senior so you really shouldn't have to worry about it if you don't want it.

For the most part we don't have any bases that make for an easy commute on the pax carriers so utilizing company jumpseats tends to be the preferred method. Check out:

http://inside.ipapilot.org/tools/jumpseats/index.php

This is our Jumpseat schedule and you can see what a potential commute would be like. Times are in Zulu, sorry. The general motif is that flights leave from outstations early evening for Louisville and other hubs (sorts) arriving there sometime around midnight and fly back out around 3am. They do this Tuesday am thru Saturday am with nothing on Sunday and Monday; exceptions exist. Lots of trips start at 2-3am in a sort city so you can Jumpseat in if you can be adequately rested. Quite a few trips end around midnight making a commute out on company easy. Otherwise they commercial you to an outstation or back home from one to start or end a trip leaving only a small percentage of trips which are not commuter friendly. Being junior, you will probably get awarded lines that are not commuter friendly or more accurately, not commuter easy but certainly doable. The angry-man from earlier on in the thread probably has a difficult commute with an unfriendly line. Being one of the new hires in the latest round of hiring I agree that anyone looking to come here should consider the commute you will endure being junior and whether or not you are willing to relocate at least temporarily before committing to coming here.

No rumors about new hire classes. General consensus is that once a TA is produced or a contract signed is when we will hear about classes, if any. Rumor for a TA presentation to the pilots is sometime in the spring. It would seem that they keep interviewing solely to maintain the pool as few are waiting around for a call from UPS and taking other offers as they come. If you give us a specific city you want to commute from we can give you a better idea what it would be like.

Best of luck to you in you job search!!

Boeingluvr

Yes, and would most likely be commuting from the Baltimore area. If given the opportuity, which would be the best fleet to commute on being junior. Moving to one of the domiciles is probably not possible.

My goal would be to minimize commutes and stay out as long as possible while getting blocks of days off. Fantasy, I know.

Tia

Whaledrivr

As a 20 year employee @ UPSS, under the current conditions @ other airlines why would anyone want to work here?

*Hiring=Zero
*Aircraft orders=Zero
*Five year contract=now in year 10 & no end in sight
*Displacement bid just closed
*Retirements=40/yr

Compare this to other airlines that are hiring 50-100/month, hundreds of aircraft orders, TA or at least negotiationing in good faith, huge vacancy bids & 400-600 retirements/yr.

Not to mention the dispicable NURP ( non union replacement pilot) situation we have here, unlike ALL other airlines. NURPs have no "management" abilities other than flying our open time, thus ilimiting the necessary hiring.

Tanker-driver

Whaledrivr, the OP did not ask whether he should come here. He asked about the commute. I get it. A lot of guys are bitter. That doesn't mean this place doesn't have something to offer and everyone's situation is different. I don't think you'd give up your A plan or cave on PBS anytime soon. Yet that's the reality at pretty much every major. Sure we have our issues and everyone must weigh the positives and negatives for themselves, but I think telling any prospective new-hire should automatically shun the idea of working here is a bit disingenuous.

FTFF

You think this hiring market is just a free for all where all you need is a few thousand hours and a nice smile to get picked up wherever you want? AA is basically shut out allowing only separating military and flows, DAL is looking for military, flows, and/or very rigid personality profiles, UAL and FedEx more of the same, UPS is no less competitive but focuses more on experience and internal recs. Furthermore, compared to my new hire peers and every other legacy, I'm making way more $, flying way more interesting schitt, and have equal or better QOL in most cases. You'd do well to pull your head out of your ass a little bit...

FTFF

Respectfully, of course.

gsphuntr

Nailed it! FTMFW!

Boeingluvr

A fairly high up manager type recently told me that I'd probably only hold base type lines on the Airbus but those would be pretty easy to commute from. Pushing me pretty hard to consider management since I have a lot of experience running my own companies and RJ captain for almost four years. They seem to get a bad rap on here but this guy was very generous with his time and very helpful. Definely not the big bad guys that some on here make them out to be.