Sr. Barco

Can anyone tell me what the schedules are like out of ONT? I hear reserve guys never fly. Is that true? Anyone live in the So Cal area and make the drive? Feel free to PM me with any other pertinent info about the company etc. Thank you so much in advance.

S.B.

Archie Bunker

Barco,

In ONT, we fly domestic, Pac Rim, and to Hawaii. Pac Rim and Hawaii flights usually go pretty senior, while the domestic trips are usually left for the rest of us. As for reserve, I've seen that quite a few senior guys bid "A" reserve (which is on call from midnight to noon)....they don't seem to fly all that much.

I am a new hire here (hired in Jan), and I was able to hold a line on my very first bid in the domicile. There are many lines that have trips that begin and end with commercial deadhead legs, so I start the trip flying out of my hometown (San Diego), instead of ONT. If the cost of my ticket costs less flying out of SAN, then I put the remainder into my "travel bank." If a later flight costs more out of SAN than ONT, the company makes up the difference out of my travel bank.

Concerning reserve.....callout is 1+45. I stood reserve following IOE for a couple of weeks (prior to my first bid), and it was pretty good. I was on for 15 days, then off for 13. Never in my prior life as a legacy airline pilot did I have 13 days off in a row. If you live fairly close to ONT, then reserve would be awesome. Since I live close to downtown SD, I'm kinda pushing the envelope on the 1+45 callout time. Personally, I prefer the predictability of a line vs reserve. Any other questions?

Freightpuppy

Not to be anal Arch, but it's actually 62.5% of the remainder. Big difference IMO.

Swedish Blender

Right now the #1 FO bids HNL and he's been here since 1988. He just likes the 98 hour layover. A snapshot as of this minute shows a couple Jan 07 hires holding HNL and the Pac Rim. I don't expect that to be the case since there are about 40 pilots left to bid including me and I'm don't know what to bid afclueless after Freightpuppy took what I wanted. We'll find out after the bids come out Wednesday.

Freightpuppy

Why do you guys wait till the last minute is my question.

Swedish Blender

I just edited it but it's because you took my first choice. I've got 2 football games, a fishing trip, the IPA golf outing, and a partridge in a pear tree to get off for.

Freightpuppy

Dang! You rat! Teee heee

Wait! I think you are junior to me so I don't care when you bid.

de727ups

I've been doing A reserve for most of this year. I'm working a solid week next week cause I had some vacation and have been away. Otherwise, I was going to have to pick up a trip out of open time to stay current.

A side Capts don't work much. F/O has been understaffed compared to Capts, but it's got a lot better in the last couple of months. Anyhow, if you're a new hire and want to be in LA a lot, reserve is a pretty good gig. Especially on the A side as they tend to staff it much higher.

Pac Rim is very senior and HNL flying would suck for commuting, the way they build the lines. So, I'd stay away from HNL unless you live in the area.

The cool thing about ONT is there seems to be something for everyone. I'll go as far to say as if you're in the top third of the list, you'll find something that is pretty darned easy, even if your a lazy slob like me. And there is nothing, NOTHING, like being able to stay out of SDF.

Precontact

I think alot of this is going to depend on how much PACRIM flying we get and when they bring the 747-400s to the lower 48. Who can predict this business for the next 20 years?

REGHI

Slightly OT, but the Snapshot is increasingly inaccurate as more pilots simply input 1 - 99 so 'they' can see what they can bid. This causes the whole thing to be watered down and kinda screws the more junior folks.