Aero1900

Yes, a few people hired in late 2013 have been awarded upgrade and start training in October. Exactly 2 year upgrade, junior captains are going to Orlando. The October upgrade class will be the last one for the year. 2016 will see 8 upgrades a month.

Orlando will grow to 200 pilots, 100 crews

sulkair

Jug... CA upgrades reached into the 10/14/2013 class with the last award which came out about a month ago (mid August)

Yes, you would be a CA now

ULLI

Wonder how long the by passing will continue?

Aero1900

I think the upgrade bypassing FOs in Denver will keep on bypassing. They are dedicated to Denver and won't leave or sacrifice their quality of life to be a commuter. I believe junior captain spots will be junior for a long time to come.

Denver isn't and most likely won't grow, so all the future captain vacancies will be in Chicago and Orlando, and thus will go junior

Jughead135

Wow! Thanks for the info, and congrats to those new captains!

Unlikely, since as a commuter I need higher seniority than hourly rate--I'd've rather continued to commute to DEN as an FO (particularly as a relatively senior one) than to MCO as a CA (especially as a very junior one). Your point is well taken, though--it's amazing to learn of two-year upgrades at a major airline, in a position I myself occupied...!!

Seriously, congrats to all the upgrades, and continued good luck to all F9 bubbas!!

sulkair

By the way Jughead - I hope you know I'm only kidding around. I absolutely know you're working with markedly better benefits and pay commensurate with your responsibilities. In all sincerity congrats on your move, and it's good to see you drop in from time to time.

madmax757

I was thinking that too Aero, but if we open the LAS base I believe you will see senior Denver FO's willing to make a pretty easy commute to LAS. So a senior Denver FO will become a pretty senior LAS captain IMO.

With regards to a LAS base, BB was sighted there about a month ago - (not sure what he was doing - negotiating gates maybe?) and we start 4 new cities pairs end of October. Las to MKE, SFO,MIA,IAH.

I live in LAS and when I commute home on the last F9 flight, there are usually 2 crews deadheading to fly red eyes out of LAS.

Unless you specifically know something to the contrary, I hear a lot of LAS base opening rumors in the next 6 months.

Jughead135

Oh, absolutely no worries! I should've thrown a or two in there!

My main point was, I fully understand why there are so many (from what I read here) guys bypassing upgrades--if I lived in Denver (as the majority do) and could choose to stay a super-senior FO in-domicile, I wouldn't even consider upgrading to go to Orlando. As a commuter, I'd consider it, sure--but I seriously doubt I'd consider the (difficult for me) commute as worth the extra captain pay....

I definitely wasn't trying to express any sour grapes or regrets. When I get asked "How was Frontier?" (which is just about 100% of the time whenever the conversation gets around to "So, where were you before here?"), I answer--honestly--that I have nothing bad to say about my time at F9. For career and compensation reasons, I continue to believe I made the right decision to leave--but it was FAR from a no-brainer....

Arty13

Doesn't that roughly coincide with the announcement of more flying out of LAS? As you allude to, it may be a piece of the puzzle indicating a coming base. Or, taken alone, couldn't it just as easily be simply in connection to the new routes?

Aero1900

I'm telling you, LAS is not opening in less than a year from now. it might not even open as a pilot base. Could be FA only