Andy

One of the draws for me to Skywest is the lack of a union. I've had my fill of ALPO to last me quite a while, thank you. As for your comment about screwing others over for money, my more senior union 'brothers' have done that to me much more efficiently than any airline management could ever do so save that garbage for the uninitiated.
This thread had nothing to do with unions; please post your rabid union crap on an appropriate thread. No need to pollute this one with your inane drivel.

Awesome info; thanks much!

How is seniority determined within a class? For UAL furloughees, do they go off of UAL seniority or do they stick to a pure Skywest formula?

Last question on domiciles - how senior is TUS for the junior reserve FO? Thanks in advance; almost all of the responses have been extremely helpful.

BHopper88

I remember my first day in Fresno to do the few days of FTD, got to the hotel room and on the tv (History Channel) GANGLAND was showing the Fresno Bulldogs. It was like a welcome video for Fresno... Clovis is a nice area thou..

BHopper88

In the new hire class seniority is done by the last 4 digits of your social. From what I understand the UAL furloughs keep their nonrev perks while at skywest. And then you would get delta perks.

Just remember for those that commute some of the agents in SFO/LAX have been known to "lie" or send the planes with empty seats and leave rev and nonrevs behind if it gets close to not being ontime.

Cant help on the RJ, but unless there is growth on the RJ, or the rumors about USairways flying comes about, you will be on reserve at every base but will have the greatest movement in FAT, plus you can always bounce around and "try" out FAT and if you dont like it go to LAX, PSP, or even SLC... PDX is the hardest to get into... I have known a few RSVs that have had a new base every month trying things out... (went FAT, to LAX, to SFO, then back to FAT)

Andy

BHopper, thanks much for the info. So is my 0xxx good or bad? Senior or junior in the class? (I've opted for 27 Sep date due to unable to make 8 Sep date). I'm not too concerned about seniority unless there are no classes that follow me - I've done double commutes and hate them.

I've commuted before and know the agents' games. LAX and SLC offer direct flights to/from TUS, which is much more important to me than anything else.
For me, it's all about the commute. I don't want to work on days off; I just want to have a job so that I can contribute to a 401k and IRA. I'll be drawing a military retirement check and my wife's an active duty nurse so the pay's not an important factor for me.

A couple more questions - what's the max percentage of pay you can put into your 401k? Any restrictions on length of service? At what points do the matches kick in and increase?

TonyWilliams

You are senior. My 7xxx was 35 out of about 40.

Utah

Andy, TUS will probably take a while to hold. You'll have a one year seat lock on the EMB and then there are a number of pilots wanting to transfer there right now.

TUS isn't a very large domicile which probably won't grow much from its current size. Just 35 or so crews.

Company only mathches 2% on the 401K the first 5 years. I believe you can start after 90 days and are 100% vested from the start on the match. I'm not sure on the max amount.

BHopper88

One nice thing I dont think someone has mentioned is that there is no junior manning... so if you answer your phone on a day off you are not required to do the trip... there is not a GOTCHA on your day off kinda thing with CS...

For the 401k, If I am not mistaken it kicked in at 90 days of service and the company match for the first 4 years is 4%.

If this helps here is an idea of staffing for the last month on the bro at the various bases:

FAT EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 55
Target Lineholders 60
Reserve Lines 8

SBA EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 3
Target Lineholders 4
Reserve Lines 1

SLC EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 34
Target Lineholders 39
Reserve Lines 3

PSP EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 16
Target Lineholders 19
Reserve Lines 4

PDX EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 12
Target Lineholders 14
Reserve Lines 4

LAX EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 9
Target Lineholders 11
Reserve Lines 3

SBP EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 6
Target Lineholders 8
Reserve Lines 1

SFO EM2 FO
Guaranteed Lines 0
Target Lineholders 0
Reserve Lines 1

Andy

Huge help, guys. It sounds like I'd be able to get LAX on reserve even if no classes were hired after me for quite a while.

Bhopper, from what I've read, company match varies from 2% to 6%. And Utah's post indicates that it stays at 2% for 5 years. Since I'll be 50, I'd like to be able to contribute ~60% of my salary but it's more likely to be a max of ~25%.

GATAM06

FYI, you don't get the 401k match until after one year of service. You can contribute after 90 days but just no company match until one year. You can also contribute as much of your pay as you want up to the IRS limits.

nigelcobalt

401k match is 2% through year 5, then 4% through year 10 I believe, then 6% from then on. The most you can contribute is according to the IRS yearly maximum. For 2010 the IRS max contribution is $16,500. If you are over 50, then you can contribute $5,500 more per year, so a total of $22,000. Sadly that could be all of your salary. I was hired with a guy who was a designated examiner, and he was raking it in at the time. He showed me his paystub at the end of our first year, and he had deferred 100% of his skywest income to his 401k. That was crazy.