buddies8

had to read it twice (because i am slow) that cracked me up, how right you are, but then there will be a disposal charge.

Ultralight

Beech 1900 style!

lakehouse

I picked Eagle because it has the most in common with a major airline, and I still think that feels true.

You train at the AA training center. You get the same pass travel boarding priority as a mainline AA pilot. We use the same computer and many other systems as AA. The list goes on and on, but I think Eagle currently is the regional that has the most in common with their mainline partner. I think if this pilot shortage on the regional level is actually coming true, AMR will use this to leverage going forward and the pilots at AE will get lucky. I think Delta might be getting ready to do something similar with PNCL.

embraer

+1 to everything except the Delta/Pinnacle thing. Anything Delta touches at the regional level is toxic these days.

But everything else is very true. I know this is hard for those on the outside to understand/accept but Eagle and American operate in close conjunction. We have seperate seniority lists but in all other areas we are one company.

Indeed, we are all part of AMR and as Rick mentioned that relationship is seen in various areas throughout the company.

SongMan

-how much do you get paid during the training?
-do you have flight benefit to use to visit home during the weekend while at training?
-8 weeks (if 8 weeks) of training count towards your first year? What I'm saying is if the training is 2 months, it it only 10 more month before 2nd year pay kicks in? Or Does the 1st year pay start after the training?
-if I want to commute to Oakland or possibly San Francisco, which base would be ideal? DFW, MIA, ORD, or NY?

Thanks

lakehouse

See above bold. Good Luck!

SongMan

Thanks!

Regards to flight benefit, what is CASS?
So my family gets full flight benefit when I start class? I would have thought it would be after you are done with training and pass the check ride.

SongMan

More questions.

-When going to interview, do they pay for your flight?

-While at training, do you share room or get your own? How about food, do you buy your own?

Thanks for taking the time to answer this newbies questions.

lakehouse

Yes they fly you out for the interview, it is a positive space ticket, however if the flights REALLY oversold they will bump you over a full fare paying passenger, but that becomes the hiring departments problem. However you do have to buy your hotel room. Just do what everyone does and recommends, and stay at the candle wood like the interview email recommends.

In training you share a room the first few weeks, then when you get to the simulator portion you get your own. Food is your responsibility, as they are giving you $1.80/hr (24/7)in per diem to cover this.

CASS is cockpit jumpseat on most airlines, and major cargo airlines. It lets you sit in the cockpit, or in the cabin if a seat is open.

You get your AA non REV travel benefits at the end of the first week of training (called indoc). They are for your parents/step parents (you get one mom/step mom and one dad/step dad). You get one spouse, and if your NOT married, you can enroll anyone you want in that spot (this is another awesome part about AMR, most airlines do not have this) Basically you can have a girl friend or fiance and still have them in your passes (you pay a bit more in taxes but not really anything else). Then you can enroll dependent children. That is all you get. They all get the same boarding priority its called "D2". AMR does not use seniority for assigning boarding priority of all those who are listed under D2, they use time of check in. you can check in 24 hours prior online.

You do not get "buddy passes" for friends and any other family, until you have been here for 2 years.

RyanP

It would have to be DFW or ORD to even be somewhat realistic.. but both will be miserable. Especially on reserve. Your life would suck. That is 3.5 hours to DFW or 4 hours to ORD, jammed in an extremely uncomfortable jumpseat or crammed in the back. It may not sound that bad now, but try doing it twice a week, especially after adding 12 hours of a work day to it and another couple hours running around the airport waiting for commuting flights. it makes for many 18-20 hour days, and you constantly feel like crap. Plus those flight are generally overbooked anyway and difficult to commute on.

Going from the west coast 2 time zones east to your domicile sucks, BAD. Trust me I've done it for a while. You need to leave your house at like 4am just to make an afternoon departure at your domicile. Morning departures are impossible to make with the time zone changes unless you take the red-eye with no sleep, or go the day before. Then you will fly until very late typically the first day. But being new, you will never even be able to get late afternoon departures anyway. So you will pretty much always have to fly out the day before your trip or reserve starts and you will be LUCKY if you can get on a flight home the day you finish. Unikely on reserve. So you will be losing 1-2 days off a week, pretty much guaranteed. (when you only have 2 or 3 to begin with).

Also, MANY of the flights end up laying over in the east coast time zone from those domiciles. ORD being worse.
Seriously, this is something to think about that many people don't consider.. you are use to west coast time. You are going to get plenty of short overnights here with a 5am east coast van time at the hotel. That is a 1:00 AM wake up call for you to be loading up in the van at 5 according to your body clock.. you will never be able to get any good sleep as a commuter from the west coast going east. Basically you need to be able to fall asleep for the night at like 5pm "your time" to feel decent, (which is virtually impossible for most people). Pretty much all of us doing it have serious problems with sleep and it's miserable.. and I'm senior and get get pretty much whatever trip I want with mostly later showtimes. If I was junior trying to do this, getting all the crappy trips, I can't even imagine how horrendous that would be. There is a bunch of commuters from the west now with LAX closing and they all hate it. It's just too far, and the multiple time zones not working in your favor make it much worse.

My advice for someone new and junior from the west. Move to your base, or at least move closer.. or go to Skywest. I would not recommend that commute on my worst enemy. If you are from California, you would probably like ORD, NYC, or MIA living a lot better than DFW.