How are things over at USAir?

[PHXFLYR]

As an *eastie*, I see your point. My personal opinion is to create a new culture all around..to include a completely different call sign. The public doesn't care what it is.Why not vote in a new one and get on with the rest of the hurdles.

Sounds intriguining. However let me play devils advocate here and ask you this question. If your "personal opinion" is to create "a new culture all around",why keep the USAirways name? Mention it to any road warrior you know and you're met with them rolling their eyes and a tale of traveling through PHL a time or two. I say keep the Cactus call sign, especially if we're stuck with the less than stellar name. Only seems fair and like you said,the public doesn't care.




PHXFLYR

 

[sean67]

Sounds intriguining. However let me play devils advocate here and ask you this question. If your "personal opinion" is to create "a new culture all around",why keep the USAirways name? Mention it to any road warrior you know and you're met with them rolling their eyes and a tale of traveling through PHL a time or two. I say keep the Cactus call sign, especially if we're stuck with the less than stellar name. Only seems fair and like you said,the public doesn't care.




PHXFLYR

Sorry kid...I don't debate with 5th grade mentalities. Does your Mommy know that you're on the internet?

 

[BeCareful!]

I agree with the idea of a new call sign. Cactus is sort of irrelavent....it's a small part of the operation. US Air isn't the name of the airline anymore.....so that could go away.

How about "Windfall" ??

Or: "Juniority" ??

 

[NEDude]

So I guess I either missed it or it isn't clear yet - does anyone know where new-hires will go? East/West, E190/737/A320? Are all E190s on the east? What are the chances a new-hire get the 737 or A320? Will PHL be junir for the east?

Thanks

 

[PositiveRate]

No one really knows. The official word from the company is that hiring is for the E190 on the East only. There will be West openings soon that will need to be filled by someone...whether that ends up being furloughees or new hires, that's anyone's guess.

There should be more clarity in a month or two, but right now things are still uncertain on a lot of fronts.

 

[vetrider]

I agree with the idea of a new call sign. Cactus is sort of irrelavent....it's a small part of the operation. US Air isn't the name of the airline anymore.....so that could go away.

How about "Windfall" ??

Or: "Juniority" ??

Ah ha ha ha ha, Windaall, I get it, ha ha ha ha.

 

[Ezekial19:79]

since tooslow's interview is in CLT I assume it's for a East position and being conducted by East employees...

If/when the West needs pilots, will interviews be conducted in PHX by West employees?

 

[Soulfly]

EZ, the answer is probably.......
Nothing official at this point......

Good luck, were all going to need it.

 

[m80drvr]

For the most part I agree with the guys that say the west is a good place to work but for a feew things. If you are looking for a career position this might not be the place for you. We, the west have not hired a pilot in 3 years. I'm starting my 4th year of reserve FO in a few months. That is not a career position, it is a crappy flying job. Truth be told it is better than the regionals but with no movement, and the low pay (I make 33 dollars an hour less than I did Year 3 at my former carrier) you may want to look elsewhere. If the eastholes are successful in getting doug to run separate ops, you will probably see most if not all of the new planes and routes go east, while the west stays the same size or shrinks. As it is right now the west is not ever hiring to replace their retirements. They are shrinking every month. Whenever we retire enough guys we park a 737.

It takes about three months to get a newhire online and up to this point their are no pilots slated to go west. The stagnation will continue unfortunately.

But again it's probably better than a regional. I would suggest that you get your 1000 pic before you come here. Both the east and west have many pilots that don't have the time to go to another carrier.

 

[vetrider]

They are shrinking every month. Whenever we retire enough guys we park a 737.

Aint that the sad truth.

 

[weasel_lips]

So I guess I either missed it or it isn't clear yet - does anyone know where new-hires will go? East/West, E190/737/A320? Are all E190s on the east? What are the chances a new-hire get the 737 or A320? Will PHL be junir for the east?

Thanks

New hires on the east side will go to the 190,737, and Airbus. (this from a company CBS message)

 

[Doug Parker]

Hey Weasil Tits,

Say it with me.......CACTUS, CACTUS, CACTUS

Not Cactus's

 

[JetMonkey]

Are you a "Jetlinkiner"? We need more over here.

:beer:

Best of luck to ya.

 

[PHXFLYR]

Sorry kid...I don't debate with 5th grade mentalities. Does your Mommy know that you're on the internet?

Yeah . I can see why. They probably outwit you every time. Before I put you on my ignore list,I gotta ask you a question regarding your Air Force background. Is there any truth to the rumor that Air Force UPT pilots that were too good to washout,but too poor to get assigned to fighters were sent to fly C-130's instead?? Just something I heard from an IP bud of mine.
Oh, and by the way, Mom has been dead for 18 years now. So try to be a man for once in your life and leave her out of it , OK?


PHXFLYR

 

[gutshotdraw]

Yeah . I can see why. They probably outwit you every time.


PHXFLYR

Now THAT was funny :beer:

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

In UPT, the initial aircraft are awarded by class rank, based on what is available (usually), except for FAIPs.

So, they look at the #1 guy's choices and go down his list 'til they find an open aircraft. Then, they go to guy #2.

They use FAIPs (First Assignment Instructor Pilots) to stay and train new guys (a really stupid idea-they should just send everyone to at least one tour and then bring them back). So, some of the guys throughout the class may be involuntarily assigned a FAIP slot, and then God knows what they get after their FAIP tour.

For FWQ (Fixed-Wing Qualification) guys, at least when I went through, they were, basically, not allowed to go to fighters.

And, of course, women were previously prohibited from flying "combat" aircraft. They were, however, sometimes required to fly non-combat aircraft in a combat zone, which was illegal, and really pissed some of them off.

Additionally, a guy who is #15 out of 30 in a specific class, may have been #3, or #25, in another class.

So, a specific guy flying a C-130 may have been first in his class, or last, depending on a variety of factors. Any AF pilot you see (with the few exceptions like GW Bush) had to compete with a large group of people to just get into UPT.

I definitely respect anyone who served in the military, not to mention completed a military flying course. I do think better of GW Bush than Cheney or Rumsfeld, because at least he was in the Guard for a while.

C U!
cliff
GRB

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

There are still about 140 J4J folks being held at the regionals right now. They will not all be released until Mar of 08. So they will probably hit the line about june or july of 08, all 140 of the held are group 2 (Bus and 737) or bigger. Most seem to be CLT peeps so I would guess that it will take a while for a newhire to hold clt, will probably take a couple of years to get all the furloughs that want CLT back there since there are a lot of non furloughees that are still trying to get back to CLT.

CLT may be assigned to a newhire prior to the j4j guys getting back but they would stay at the very bottom of the list in CLT for a while as the furloughees return above them.

 

[trainer8]

Crew News 5-22-07 Customer Morale + Crew Planning

Go about halfway into the video where it is made clear absent this merger the plan was liquidation.

Yup, saw it. No argument. I agree.

But the $$$ didn't come from AWA. Parker clearly states that. All outside investment. He also says that although he repeatedly tells the west pilots that, there are still some who absolutely refuse to believe it. Seems that those he speaks of post here regularly. So much for the "we saved US Airways" crap. I'm sure someone will post that he's lying and that they know better.

As for the J4J pilots, they all return by April '08. Republic just sent a letter out to the J4J there telling them they were welcome to stay, with seat protection. Some are taking the offer.

T8

 

[weasel_lips]

There are still about 140 J4J folks being held at the regionals right now. They will not all be released until Mar of 08. So they will probably hit the line about june or july of 08, all 140 of the held are group 2 (Bus and 737) or bigger. Most seem to be CLT peeps so I would guess that it will take a while for a newhire to hold clt, will probably take a couple of years to get all the furloughs that want CLT back there since there are a lot of non furloughees that are still trying to get back to CLT.

CLT may be assigned to a newhire prior to the j4j guys getting back but they would stay at the very bottom of the list in CLT for a while as the furloughees return above them.

Despite all that, the last system bid award shows 24 unfilled slots in CLT. (5 on the 767 Domestic and 19 on the 737)

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Despite all that, the last system bid award shows 24 unfilled slots in CLT. (5 on the 767 Domestic and 19 on the 737)

The j4j guys seemed to mostly "mysteriously" miss out on the classes that had the 767 slots. Of course I doubt that it had anything to do with the pay protection that they would have been due if their class date included the slots while they were still being held.

From what I have seen the j4j guys are very aware of the open 767 slots and are carefully watching to see if a junior newhire is awarded those higher paying seats while a senior "held" or senior recalled j4j is given a lower paying slot. From what I was told by a union peep is that they are aware of it and watching also. To date the company seems to have been very careful to not award something to a junior guy that would trigger a "pay protection" event of a hundred or so senior folks.

Newhires and shortages in the 767 fleet could lead to such an event if the holds run the full 9 months and no senior guys are bidding the flying though. Could get interesting, something else to further muddle the pot at Airways.

As a side note, no held pilot has been given the chance to bid for any of the seats in any way shape or form. This includes base and equipment. That is the only reason that the 767 stuff shows as open in my opinion.

I saw where Republic put out the notice about reducing Airways flying due to the recalls......My question is why is Airways allowing this since a large part of the shortage is due to the Frontier flying and the transfer of Republic crews from the Airways side to the Frontier side? I would have to look at the numbers but a large portion of the 80 or so still held at Republic could have been released back to mainline if it were not for the transfer of crews to Denver.

 

[Hpilot]

Yup, saw it. No argument. I agree.

But the $$$ didn't come from AWA. Parker clearly states that. All outside investment. He also says that although he repeatedly tells the west pilots that, there are still some who absolutely refuse to believe it. Seems that those he speaks of post here regularly. So much for the "we saved US Airways" crap. I'm sure someone will post that he's lying and that they know better.

As for the J4J pilots, they all return by April '08. Republic just sent a letter out to the J4J there telling them they were welcome to stay, with seat protection. Some are taking the offer.

T8

Ahhhh, so you agree you were about to be liquidated and now you're upgrading and hiring. Meanwhile your previous management is out playing golf somewhere. Please o' most brilliant one tell me who saved your ass. It was definitely someone.

 

[PositiveRate]

The "we saved your a$s" is an extreme take on what some of our most vocal guys say.

I believe the general frustration is that we see an entitlement attitude and a blatent attempt to hoard everything "good" post-merger by our East counterparts (their leadership to be specific).
'
To us, this is sweeping the realities under the rug of where we stood pre-merger. US Airways was about to liquidate, America West faced a future of basic existance ala Frontier ...outside money came in and saved the day for both groups especially when you look longterm. The average West knows we did not 'save' the East - private equity did. We also know that we were in a relatively stronger expectation position before the merger. Regardless, all we ever asked for was a fair integration of active to active pilots. That's what we got more or less.

Meanwhile, with a righted ship, the East has demanded every last deck chair as rightfully theirs as it comes from the sinking ship they brought to the party...they conveniently ignore that the ship would be long gone had this merger not occured.

The reality is what it is....it can't be spun or re-written into oblivion.

 

[get2flyin]

The "we saved your a$s" is an extreme take on what some of our most vocal guys say.

I believe the general frustration is that we see an entitlement attitude and a blatent attempt to hoard everything "good" post-merger by our East counterparts (their leadership to be specific).
'
To us, this is sweeping the realities under the rug of where we stood pre-merger. US Airways was about to liquidate, America West faced a future of basic existance ala Frontier ...outside money came in and saved the day for both groups especially when you look longterm. The average West knows we did not 'save' the East - private equity did. We also know that we were in a relatively stronger expectation position before the merger. Regardless, all we ever asked for was a fair integration of active to active pilots. That's what we got more or less.

Meanwhile, with a righted ship, the East has demanded every last deck chair as rightfully theirs as it comes from the sinking ship they brought to the party...they conveniently ignore that the ship would be long gone had this merger not occured.

The reality is what it is....it can't be spun or re-written into oblivion.

Well said.

 

[TWA Dude]

I'm sure someone will post that he's lying and that they know better.

He wasn't lying; he was applying spin. In other words, just because he says bankruptcy was coming down the road doesn't mean it was inevitable. Nicolau commented on this very topic and he also believed it was spin. OTOH, he also believe the AWA MC overstated the likelihood of a USAirways liquidation. So be it. Neither side saved the other and it's false pride to make any such claim.

 

[cactusboy53]

Tway..That is a great outfit for your dog!! How did you get it on w/o the pooch bitting you?? My dog want's one just like it for Halloween.

 

[TWA Dude]

Wish I could say it's my dog, but alas, it's just another nifty pic floating around the internet. My doggie (a miniature dachshund) gets a lobster costume. She thinks it just another sweater so she doesn't freak out.