cessna157

Oh don't let these forums scare you. Comair really isn't all that bad. Reserve can be a little slow at times. It's all what you make of it.

FLAK

Pros...decent pay for first year (monthly credits around 110 hours), very friendly training environment and a great pilot group (that is when your CA doesn’t spent the entire trip complaining, rightfully so...the old timers got hosed, and your FA complains about getting displaced out of CVG to JFK, where she spends every night sleeping with about 60 other FAs on the JFK ops room floor with “RJ” and “CRJ”, the names of the rats in there)

Cons...I Hated every single day I spent flying for that place. The management vs pilot battle made it tough, and I’m pretty sure someone high up sent a memo to all non-pilot employees in the entire Delta system to “F— with the pilots to make their life a living hell so they take concessions.” Or in my case quit and take my CL-65 type rating to SkyWest. Btw...no training agreement at ComAir. Anyway, here’s the typical day in the life of me, 20 people from the bottom (after 7 months) at the time of resignation, as a CVG CRJ FO...

Reserve life... I got called every single day I was on reserve. Not one day off in 7 months
(and after concessions you even loose a day off there, too.) Every day. In fact my record was 3 hours from the time my reserve window opened to my pager blowing up. Then you call and get put on hold for an hour. If you can check your trip online you can see what you’re doing but that doesn’t count as being notified, which is actually very nice. Show up to the airport, check in, and see your trip is different now. Now you’re sitting ready reserve for 6 hours. Spend most of that time in the trailer park smoking lounge cuz you’d rather deal with lung cancer than ComAir’s crap. About 20 minutes before your time is up you get paged...another 30 minutes on hold....you’re deadheading to ATL or JFK or DCA to sit for 4 more hours to pick up a trip to BOS. Fun. Do that, get to BOS, go to sleep, and scheduling calls you at 4am. No clue what they want because after 4 tries I rip the hotel phone out of the wall and put my cell phone on silent. Pager’s only good in the CVG area so its off anyway. Report at your assigned time morbidly curious on what’s going on. Looks like your “NEW” flight is delayed just for you, and has been for about 5 hours (welcome to Delta). So you start your next 14.5 hour duty day (ALPA contractual duty day) already 5 hours behind schedule. Plane swaps on every leg, even in odd places like PIT or CMH. Get to your next overnight – CYYZ. Sweet! CANADA! Excited to watch the National Hockey Night in Canada special you grab your suitcase and head out. “where are you going?” Asks the gate agent. “to the hotel” “but who’s taking the flight out?” “I dunno. No other crew here yet?” “no, and it’s 5 hours late” “we’re timed out...nobody told you?” “no, expletive deleted” “re-book ‘em. Thanks for choosing Delta”
Day 3...more of the same, another 14.5 hour duty day, with scheduling changes and plane swaps on every leg and every time you get into CVG you see your name lit up on the RIDS display. Go sign into Epic on one of the computers, after searching for one that 1. Works and 2. Has ink (or whatever chemical reaction prints the release.) If you’re on a 6 day stretch of reserve days, plan on being gone for 6 days. Plan on 5 overnights in a row. Plan on scheduling calling you more than your girlfriend does after a night of drinking. If you do 5 legs, plan on 5 different planes. Plan on reduced rest overnights. Too many for me to count (in only 7 months, well 5 actually flying.) And don’t let me forget to mention all of the holiday “sick” calls (over 200 sick calls last Christmas). Plan on going to some sweet places, staying in some pretty nice hotels, getting some great experience in and out of some major airports and plan on meeting some great people, too. The CVG reserve life was entirely too much for this ex 121 lineholder so I was already spoiled. I think it’s settled down a bit from what I went through (possibly because CHQ was getting a lot of Delta’s CVG flying (careful not to say “taking”)) and since ALPA told us to vote on concessions and rolled over faster than a 19 year old girl with low self esteem in the Bang Bus I think the “F- ALL PILOTS” memo has been retracted, but I don’t know. I was so miserable there I left before they cut the concession checks so I never got anything out of that anyway. They were operating in bankruptcy the whole time I was there, too. Maybe that was part of the whole experience. If you live in the Cinci or NY area you might F’n love the place! Just don’t sell yourself out trying to quench your SJS thirst. That was just my opinion of my experience of life at ComAir.

The Chow

Had a funny response and if that was his/her life I feel their pain. However, as much as some of us sit on these forums and complain we are really just blowing hot air. Mine is mostly from being bored. I haven't been flying much the last 2 months. Only about 13 hours total. And living in NY or CVG isn't as much fun for a commuter as it would be if I actually lived there.

On the pro side; I thought the training department was excellent. Ground school was little on the slow side but the instructors and examiners really seemed to care. Furthermore, I have flown with some very smart and understanding captains.

Bottom Line: don't let this thread scrare you. If you have other offers look for QOL, possibly something with a domicile where you live. If not, as this is my first airline experience, it's really not that bad.

And everyone should realize that schedulers have a thankless job.

FWIW

p1ayn

employed at Comair for close to 7 years. This being my third airline. Without going into all the details and pro's vs con's, based on my personal exp...I would NOT advise coming here. PLENTY of opportunity out there right now with better options. Be patient and wait for another to call.

Pantera

Comair is going to be a very interesting place in the next year. With the numbers of pilots quiting and many are just going sideways. 9 out of ten captains I fly with are looking to get out and have resumes out there waiting for a call to bigger and better things. How Comair can get away without doing any upgrade classes right now is going to bite them in the ass later.

Seems like Comair is trying to follow the Mesa business plan and most of us pilots can see how well that is working.

Comair also seems to want the senior pilots to quit but they are bunked in like ticks on a hound dog and the only pilots that seem to be leaving are the cheaper captains with lessor seniority that don't mind the move back to the bottom of the list and being on reserve at a legacy.


This of course is just speculation on my part and it is probably worth about as much as the polish on my shoes. (you should see my shoes)

Big Foot

Comair is no different then any other regional. These boards are more or less a venting post to debrief the BS at any airline. I like comair and hate them at the same time. Just take you situation and find a regional that fits you best.

Spooledup

I would have to disagree with p1ayn. If you don't have another job offer, why not take it? If you get hired somewhere else, then you've lost nothing, and you may like it at Comair. There is no guarantee that you'll get hired at another carrier. (I know this is unlikely - especially in today's environment, but why take the chance?)

I've been at Comair for almost 12 years now. It's the only airline I've been employed by. While I don't doubt that FLAK's experience is true, I can say that you probably won't have it that bad. You will most likely be based in JFK for a while. You will be on reserve for a while and you won't like it. I've seen other airlines that have much better reserve systems. The pay here is average for the regionals. I am trying to get hired elsewhere as well.

On the optimistic side, we are going to be sold in the next year according to our management, Delta, and the airline analysts. No one is going to buy Comair without a growth plan in place (we don't have one now). The buyer will work out a deal with Delta that will specify a certain number of airframes over a set amount of time and we will start to grow again. We had 40+ people leave last month and that number is expected to grow. Training is top notch (according to people that have trained at other airlines) and is expected to do 2-4 classes of 14 or more a month starting in January. (I would expect that this would be based on finding people to show up for the classes!) Rumor has it that they are talking about upping the bonus to $5k to match some other carriers - ask about that when you call them back. With all that said, I would expect you to be able to move up fairly quickly and get off reserve faster than normal and if it keeps up, upgrades would be quicker as well - hopefully down around the 2 year point.

I couldn't blame you for going somewhere else if upgrade time was significantly less, but Comair is generally a good place to work, 99% of the people are great, and when our contract comes up in 4 more years, expect us to rise to the top of the pay scale again when we can negotiate without the clouds of bankruptcy hanging over our heads.

PM me with any other questions you may have. I'd be happy to try and answer them.

andy171773

DL needs to get their oversized man piece out of Comairs tail-pipe. That's 90% of the problem. Comair gets sold, we get new routes, growth begins again, and people are happy.

But instead, we're OWNED by DL and they're paying for other carriers to fly for them. Go figure.

Comair is positioned to do big things, it's just a matter of loosening the noose.

down2mins

I agree. It's not that bad. (Not that I have much to compare it to...) JFK was fun...I'm CVG now for family/home reasons, but definitely enjoyed it up there. Yes, I liked JFK. Whether or not you fly a lot seems hit or miss. I'm at 28 for the month with a bunch of readys and a 4 day still on my schedule. Looks like everyone from my class who stayed in JFK has somewhat of a buildup line. I also agree about the training...very in depth and a good pace. Sims are probably one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, but was I ever ready when I was done. It is what you make of it, but I'd give it a shot if you've got nothing else.

CHayes1126

Can you give me a gouge for your interview? Ive got one this wednesday at Comair!