Dukeuno

Don’t know what base you are in or what seat, but in DFW as an FO everything is green right now except for Thanksgiving and the Friday and Sat following it. I was able to drop most every trip in Oct and Nov and build my own relief line. ( well except for my training days)

Qotsaautopilot

Section 25.R.4.a.1

No more than 25% of the days can be red at the start of IOT.

Tranquility

And reserves can do anything in IOT?? And, what happens to said grid after IOT? No need to respond to me, I know what happens...

Name User

I started at AA post merger in 2014 and made $35/hr. I think take home was under $2k. Still doable but not super fun. Luckily I had been planning for the pay cut for years so we had no debt. And we had zero expectations of any sort of "fast" upgrade.

I remember I worked one month at my regional and made half of what I made the rest of the year at AA ($15k at my regional and about another $30k for the rest of the 11 months).

That said in todays environment I really don't know how Spirit is staffing their operation. Amazing how far the pay has increased just in the last three years here. Spirit pretty much needs to flat out double y'alls pay.

UNSUBSCRIBE

Well they wont, and the Mediator doesnt seem to GAF.

Spirit mgmt will do everything and anything before they raise our pay

TheDudeabide

I have been in 4 of our 5 bases and have seen enough green days to drop pretty much as much as you want. Holidays will be red though. As far as pay, you’ll definitely be better off getting a second job somewhere else doing just about anything. By the time you pay for a crash pad, transportation and food, you’ll be close to going in the hole

flensr

I don't need a screenshot, I lived it. Only one month in the last 12 was a total fail when it came to dropping.

So.. not wrong. I did it without any special scheduling tricks or anything.

Bid the line with the days off I wanted.
Bid reserve with days off I wanted.
Bid relief, putting days off I wanted in the notes.
Bid the rest of the lines

At IOT, drop literally everything, maybe I'll get lucky and a trip or two will drop, but usually not at IOT.
At DOT open, drop everything in the first minute, post everything on tradeboard immediately afterwards.
Come back an hour later, re-drop everything that was denied, even if red.
Come back an hour later, re-drop...
Come back 6 hours later, re-drop...
Come back the next day when drops are handled immediately, and drop anything that is green.

Keep repeating until 2 days prior, while answering the phone whenever scheduling calls to pick up more desirable trips (ie. ones that don't conflict with my kids' activities) plus move-up, plus always remember to ask if they'll drop something in exchange for the pick up. Sometimes a 4-day trip has only one red day, and scheduling might be more willing to let you trade it for something last minute. If you're really good talking to the schedulers, sometimes you can get the dropped trip pay protected, depending on how badly they want you to pick up what they called you for. I didn't have to try to work the scheduler aspect very hard, mostly it just worked out dropping on flica and picking up either from open time or when they called.

I did it, it worked all year except one month. Managed to get to almost every family activity, and in almost every single month I was able to drop at least 2 trips, often more, and replace them with more convenient trips or just stay home with the fam. I started doing more yard work and dropped my gardening service, saved $150/month that way with 1/10th the effort it takes to earn $150 flying first year.

Now... yea, it worked, at my base. YMMV. Should everyone do it? Good question, probably depends on how much they can make at their second job and how badly they need currency to not suck.

Which brings up the real issue, the problem BusterBust brought up with the threat of being a total clueless turd in the right seat. I think I managed that problem fairly well without a single lecture from my CA, and my first PC also went fine. But there were also trips that I started by going back over a bunch of my old training material too, just to refresh my brain. I also know that there are some pilots who probably need to fly a lot more to be safe, and those pilots may not know what they don't know. I could be one of those pilots, if only someone would tell me

If it's a real problem, maybe the company might consider paying people enough to get them to show up to work. And that means much much more than merely the hourly pay rates.

flensr

And for those who hate anyone saying anything good about the company... The post above explains a coping mechanism that worked for me to deal with what sucks about first year at spirit, not a commentary about how awesome it is to be able to drop trips.

Dropping trips does not equal QOL. Getting paid an industry standard wage to fly a well-planned schedule IS one part of good QOL that spirit doesn't have, and dropping/picking up trips is one way to cope with that.

BigZ

Considering it doesn't look like the 1st year FO would get anywhere close to timing out, how does Spirit treat the outside contract flying?
Asking for a friend

UNSUBSCRIBE

Need written approval from CPO


Good luck, lol