ebuhoner

Questions from a future AA candidate:

A fellow co-worker at my regional was telling me a lot of bad things about AA. He mentioned something about how pretty much any work you do above 80 hrs is paid to you in the form of Sick time or Vacation time instead of money (premium pay if you are working on your days off). I thought he was crazy so I decided to double check here with you guys.... You do get paid MONEY if you work on your days off and credit over 80 hrs Right??

I live in MIA, so any input from MIA based pilots is greatly appreciated!
How many hours can I average a month as a RSV and as a Line Holder?
What is the range of days off per month I could expect?
How easy would it be as a new hire to get 737 MIA vs A320 MIA.
What wide bodies fly out of MIA? 777? 330? 787? and how long after hired could I expect to bid for those?

Thank you.

Laker24

Miami is relatively junior. Unless you get stuck on the 190 you should be able to get MIA within the first year. If by wide body you mean 767 then maybe a couple years. The junior 777/787 FO's at the moment have about 15+ years of seniority. It's less on the 330 due to the unique situation that existed for LUS with the West pilots being unable to bid those positions. But now that it's open i'm sure the 330 will go senior again.

737/320 FO's get about 13-17 days off per month. You can exceed 80 hours in a month but there are some gotchas if you call sick during a month you picked up premium pay. I think they can take that credit back from you. The contract is inferior to the other major airlines.

tomgoodman

Your co-worker is probably referring to the monthly "cap", which most unions negotiate in order to preserve jobs. Before calling it a "bad thing", remember that if incumbent pilots could fly as much as they wanted, many applicants like yourself would not be hired.

ebuhoner

So does that mean that even if I get assigned 77 credit hrs in January and 16 days off for example, and I pick up a 3 day that credits 13 hours of open time on my days off, I will still only credit 80 and the remaining 10 go towards my sick/vacation time? Im I understanding this correctly?

The reason I ask is because where I work we usually get 75hrs a month but if we pick up a 2 day worth 8 hrs we are paid about 400% and those 8 hours become 32 for a grand total of 107hrs of credit in that month. This 107 hrs are paid in Money, not in sick time or vacation time....

mainlineAF

Sounds like your buddy is referring to the monthly cap we had at airways. Say the company sets an 85 hour cap. You fly 90. You got paid 85 and 5 hours went into your pay bank. Next month 85 cap again. You fly 80. You get paid 85 by taking 5 hours out of your pay bank. It was a job saver and also allowed you to get paid the same every month if you had pay bank built up. It's gone now. I don't know if LAA had something like that before.

aa73

We (LAA) used to have that cap - it was called "CPA" (credit plan account)... in other words, "bank time." If you flew over the monthly max, all that extra time went into your bank, up to a limit of 50hrs. Essentially, job protection. You could cash out as little or as much bank time every month as you wanted to supplement your paycheck. You could also drop trips for bank time. Wasn't a bad deal at all.

It's gone now...anything you fly, you get paid for.

Al Czervik

I'd pick up time at 400%

PRS Guitars

I'm jumping on the bandwagon here. I definitely prefer having dedicated LC & SC. I haven't been transitioned more than twice in a month, and have gone a month or two with no transition. With no SC, we would likely be transitioned 5 times every month. It's a pain to be transitioned because I have to commute in To sit at the airport all day. They will not release you early ( or very early) as a LC to SC convert. If you don't get used, you don't get any cr dit added, which would put you in a higher group for latter in the month. I'd rather get a trip than converted.

mainlineAF

That's all well and good. But how about the months and possibly years of dedicated short call you don't have to do when you're junior?

andrewtac

That should be changing. I hired in March, was able to hold LC starting in October. I now have 5 or 6 below me. I did convert twice in August (was JM, and had another month of SC in September). Days off have been 18, 19 and I am at 18 this month with probably at least more. I have been able to commute in and out every trip except one way (either going or coming) one time per month. I prefer dedicated LC and SC lines.