Ag89

Looking for ideas, just finished IOE and will be on reserve for at least the next month or two. I will need a place to stay while I’m in IAH. Any local area knowledge on a cheap hotel or other crash pad would be greatly appreciated.

Tpinks

I can 100% guarantee this is not the same at every Airline. At republic, I live in an outstation. My days can be anywhere from 1-6 legs, though I have never operated more than 4 legs on a single day. We can have odd or even number of legs any day though. Normally it's an even number of flights every day of the trip.

calmwinds

There are posters for crash pads in the crew rooms. Non Rev Inn for really cheap rooms. Most hotels that give a discount run from $40. If you stay at the airport Marriott, they have a $150 rate. I only use the airport Marriott when I get in after midnight on my last pairing and I don’t want to wait another hour for a shuttle.

Once you get a line, if you bid properly, you should only need a couple of hotel rooms per month. Reach out to MAGPBS or one of the others on the scheduling committee so you can set up a bid for a commutable (allowing for UCC) line. Don’t bid for weekends off for a year (5 years once you upgrade) unless you are willing to take reserve.

calmwinds

That really is the same with us. All pairings need to have an even number of legs in totality to get a pilot back to base. Our legs either begin at base and go to an outstation, or vice versa. This does vary sometimes when we are flying point to point.

If you have odd legs on the first day, we end up overnighting at an outstation. Otherwise, we end up overnighting at one of our bases. Since we only have 5 bases, and our pairings at each base might not encompass other bases, we tend to have odd number of legs on the first and last days of a pairing. Although, I have overnighted in IAD when I am based in IAH on my first night and that was an even leg day.

Does Republic let you fly under different colors within the same pairing? Otherwise, don’t you end up overnighting at a base of the same colors as your home base on the first night with even legs?

Santos Dumont

Because Republic does many hub to hub. Read the first sentence.

At Republic you can do EWR-DES-ORD on day one. Here at Mesa that scenario is rare since the only UA hubs we touch are IAH and IAD, and the CRJs only touch IAD. On the E-Jet, we have some IAH-XXX-IAD on day one.

calmwinds

We also have a few IAD-XXX-IAD-IAH final day in pairings.

P Owed Captain

Mesa really should have to pay for all of the shirts they ruin with the black seat belts that they never have cleaned!

Tpinks

My typical day is either Out-Hub-Out-Hub-Out or just Out-Hub-Out. Occasionally we get the rare Out-Hub-Hub-Out or Out-Hub-Out-Hub, but those are not the norm. I have overnighted in a base only a handful of times and I would say at least 1/3 of the times I have, have been due to irops.

We do not cross codeshare fly on our pairings.

calmwinds

I thought you said that your normal day was always an even number.

calmwinds

Standing bid is out:

Ejet upgrades dropped from 21 months to 13 months this month. Well ahead of the industry for Ejet upgrades. I don’t see this continuing - just an off month where potential captains were caught flat footed without their upgrade bid in.

CRJ upgrades hovered around 5 months. Still behind the street captain awards that are available for the CRJ.