{"id":233,"date":"2016-09-17T22:16:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T02:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/?p=233"},"modified":"2016-09-17T22:16:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T02:16:45","slug":"working-for-a-low-cost-airline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/working-for-a-low-cost-airline\/","title":{"rendered":"Working For A Low Cost Airline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted on the SOAR Message Board<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a FO with USA 3000 airlines. October will be my 2yr anniversary Let me shed a little light on this operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

99% of our flights are out-and-backs. Does an out and back from ORD to\u00a0St. Lucia sound fun to you? (11:50 block..15hrs on duty) We bring 3 pilots\u00a0since its over 8 hours. But most of the time we can’t make it back non-stop. Gotta\u00a0stop in Nassau for fuel so now that puts us over 12 hours which means, they\u00a0will staff it with 4 pilots. The company DOES NOT block seats in the backfor us. Many times you will find yourself sleeping on the cockpit floor (no\u00a0kidding). Our schedules are a nightmare. 15 days off…yes…..days off\u00a0grouped together…NO… You will find many times in your schedule where\u00a0you will work 3 days, 1 off, work 1, 1 off. If you commute, plan on not\u00a0getting home for 14+ days. Our Chief pilot has been begging our COO to\u00a0run 2 more classes right now and he said NO. They will use captains to\u00a0cover FO trips. He have pilots leaving left and right.<\/span><\/p>\n

We do a lot of international flights (Flag rules). No limit for time on duty 3 man crew…no 32\/7…I flew 38 hours in 5 days! Every one stands reserve Usually, on average, 3 reserve days a bid period. Bid periods are not\u00a0month to month, its every 28 days. I am scheduled for 105 hours of flying in\u00a0this bid period. Yes I will probably time out for the month (100hrs). We\u00a0use PBS (preferential bidding system). The company never beta tested it\u00a0before it went live so many bugs. Its suppose to be automatic but after\u00a0the bids close, the company takes over a week to manipulate our\u00a0schedules to suit them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, are probably asking.’You guys have a union?’. Yes.. Teamsters Been negotiating\u00a0for almost 3 yrs and just entered in mediation 2 months\u00a0ago. The COO wont sign off on the scheduling section because he will not\u00a0eliminate the single day off crap. Pay is coming up next.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, yes we are gonna hire 50 pilots in the fall, to be terminated in April This is only for winter flying cuz we are getting 3 extra planes for the\u00a0winter. They let you know you are a seasonal pilot so when they let you\u00a0go in April, they are not obligated to pay unemployment to you If we keep losing pilots like we have, then come spring when those 3\u00a0planes leave, there is a chance you will stay on (as in my case almost\u00a02 years ago).<\/span><\/p>\n

The good thing out of this mess is….all new hires get typed on the A320.. Bad thing…. The training needs work. They give you a IBM thinkpad l\u00a0aptop during training. Your manuals are on that. Very difficult to study\u00a0off a laptop. Almost a self study program.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image Credit:\u00a0 Stuart Miles \u2013\u00a0 freedigitalphotos.net<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on the SOAR Message Board I am a FO with USA 3000 airlines. October will be my 2yr anniversary Let me shed a little light on this operation. 99% of our flights are out-and-backs. Does an out and back from ORD to\u00a0St. Lucia sound fun to you? (11:50 block..15hrs on duty) We bring 3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fearofflying.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}