Luv2Rotate

I think they're feeding them lies
We have 4 guys from my class along with other Q lineholders in EWR waiting for a Q slot in IAH. IF anything they'll place the more senior guys on lines and put the new hires on Reserve for the next 3-5 months.

jheath

We were all shocked too but they told us it was set in stone. Then again, I was switched back and forth from the Saab to the Q like 3 times over a week so who really knows? I actually kind of wanted EWR because the commute's a little easier. They said they were well staffed up north but short down south so that's where we're going. Everyone we've come across, all of the guys in the hotels here for PCs we've talked to, all say the same thing about getting IAH. I've heard everyone say they know people waiting to bid down there, but I don't know man, all I know is what they tell me, which I'm sure you know is the minimum. We're the first class to get all IAH. I can't imagine they'd break the precedent and put us down there if they didn't need us. MH told us in person and said we'd be on reserve (obviously) but we'll be busy.

Luv2Rotate

IF thats the case man I smell grievances filed then. Its cool for you guys to be based there but not cool to be based there above guys/gals that have standing bids for IAH.

jheath

That would be pertaining to information outside my area of knowledge. If that's true, you're entirely correct, and that's why we were all surprised. I think the problem is nobody seems to know where they need people or it keeps constantly changing. I seem to recall the number 38 being thrown out there. I don't know if that's the total number of FOs there or the number of FO vacancies (it seems too low and too high respectively) so for all I know all the people with bids are going to be getting it soon? My guess is as good as yours. I heard everything got messed up and they had to redo the most recent vacancy bid? You know how it works dude, they don't tell us anything we don't absolutely have to know and then it's at the last minute. The way things are going with the sims being backed up, it could be July before we get on the line. If they came to us tomorrow and said they were sticking us in EWR instead, I wouldn't be upset or surprised. Hell, if they came to us and said they were opening a new Q base on the moon and we were getting that...nothing would surprise me at this point.

For what it's worth I was thinking about trying to bid into Newark as soon as I could. My fear, of course, is that I'd never get back into IAH if I bid out, and I'd immediately regret the decision.

Luv2Rotate

Well shiz, welcome to the family. SNAFU, is a common term here.

jheath

Thanks, glad to be here! I should clarify that despite all of the confusion and chaos in the training department, I still think this is a great place to be right now going into the future and the other guys in my class at least are genuinely happy to be here too. I can understand though why some of you guys who have been around for longer have less patience about things like the pay or the bids getting screwed up while it's easy for a guy like me to be like, wellll it's not that bad, because I haven't been dealing with this for however many years. I'm sure my attitude may change with time, but regardless, all of the guys I've met so far have been friendly and professional and I'm looking forward to working with everyone.

FlyJSH

everybody is happy when they are hired. I actually met a US Air guy who was happy (a new hire) years ago. Don't get your hopes too high. Life sucks as the bottom one percent, but if you are patient, life is pretty good when you have some seniority.

Good luck.

2StgTurbine

I was like you for the first month of training. Then when they didn't bother to give me any training pay, only sent half the money I should have earned weeks later, gave me 12 hours notice to show up for my first day of IOE, neglected to put me in CASS making it impossible for me to get home when the flights filled up due to cancelation, messed up me next pay check, tried to get me to fly green on green after only 1 month claiming I had 122 hours (they seem to forget there is a big difference between actual flight time and credit and also FAA regs), gave me 20 minutes notice for a show when I was on reserve because they forgot Memphis is in a different time zone (which is still 40 minutes earlier than what our contract gives us), and constantly calling up scheduling to remind them to add minimum day pay and aircraft repos and then have them tell me that those parts of the contract have not gone into affect yet, that is when I lost my patience for their incompetence.

The best advice I got from a captain when I was in training was do not get the reputation of letting them push you around. I tried to play nice with them and it got me nothing. Then I got annoyed, got ALPA involved, and asked for their supervisors. That is what got me paid, made it so I only have to call once to get an aircraft repo on my schedule, and in general not get pushed around to see what they can get away with.

Luv2Rotate

Yeah, Turbine! I was on reduced rest and scheduling faxed a letter to my Captain and I, stating our showtime had been adjusted and now 2hrs later thus taking off reduced rest. Now thats fine and dandy however, The letter was faxed at 3am (showtime was 5am) and was slid under our door with explicit instructions "Do not knock! This will interrupt crew rest". We called the ALPA hotline and it was sorted out in no time. But this is the little stuff they constantly try to pull.

Oh yeah, and I was called a couple days ago at 1100 to work an 1130 flight. When I pointed out to the Screw Scheduling that EWR is 2hr callout, all I heard was crickets on the other end of the line followed by uh, okay.

Jamers

This is what I like to hear; pilots sticking up for themselves. All new hires read this post carefully. This is the real Colgan Air. The honeymoon is short here.