America West here I come!

[Clyde]

Got hired by America West today along with 6 other really great guys. What a stand up interview process...couldn't have asked for anything more professional or friendly. Looking forward to a long career here.

Cactus A-320 Cactus 73 Pondscum Whisky Driver and Skippy 767, thanks for all your help and support.

PR

PR,
Congratulations! I hope you do very well.

 

[Wiskey Driver]

6 1/2 years.

PHXFLYR

I think it may be at the 5yr range now don't you??

WD.

 

[aviatrix]

0 turbine PIC, how did that happen? Sign me up!!!

Yup! AWA's mins are 2500 total, 1000 turbine, and an ATP. (At least that was the last I had knowledge of)
Great company with lots of future potential!

 

[AutoBus]

I think it may be at the 5yr range now don't you??

WD.

It's not in the 5 year range, 6 1/2 is far more realistic

 

[PHXFLYR]

AWA ...great company with future potential......




PHXFLYR

 

[MK82Man]

PR -- great news, you will like it here alot. Same to you 905TW. As a new hire in training, here are some thoughts after week 1:

-Great People, I'll say it again, Great People, folks will make you feel very welcome. Everyone is committed to you succeeding in training.
-Take a look at Airlinepilotpay.com and you'll be real surprised. AWA is better than JetBlue and AirTran and I'd look for better benefits in the future. Reviewing the banter about upgrade times, folks were telling us to expect 5 years or less based on new hire numbers and growth rate predictions …… who knows.
-Pass program is better than anyone I know. You will get 40 flexi passes a year. Easy enough for you and the family to go Space Available (in highest priority category) First Class once a quarter for nada … nothing. Mexico and Canada, etc. Costa Rica. Don’t know much about travel on our code share partners of British Air or Hawaiian
-There was supposed to be some big announcement on Friday at 1300, but it got cancelled. Rumors are wild about getting ATAs 757s. Who knows what that means?
-More international service to come
-Hiring another 40 this year and 200+ next year
-Company committed to 10% growth
-Previous class of 12 (11 Oct start date) was 8 AB and 4 757s. The class in front of that had some 737s. We all got ABs to Vegas as junior assigned. Rumor is that Nov classes will be Vegas as well due to low bid numbers to Vegas. Some of the guys that started in August will be junior assigned to Vegas but they will have enough folks under them to hold the line in Vegas as a brand new hire – not bad. I’d expect some Dec trainees to be Vegas as well. No state income tax in Vegas so some AZ guys may bid it as the schedule develops …. Everyone in the company is working on "new turf" with the second hub, so I expect that to ebb and flow some.
-Great Instructors and atmosphere is just Cadillac. I jumpseated home on first Friday. Class was over at 1415 so folks could get home for weekend.
-Training is 8-12 weeks and expect about $1500 every two weeks as you get line average while in training.
-I’ll let you know how it looks after week two.
-Congrats again
-Final thought. AWA guys on this board rock. I’ve never seen one be negative or mean-spirited in any way …. I second the accolades on the guys you mentioned and express my appreciation to all AWA folks. I’m week one into the dream and can’t stop smiling.

 

[PositiveRate]

Thanks for the informative post MK82man!

Yeah, they told us that there's a really good chance we'd get vegas out of a dec 6th class, so we'll see how that goes. I'll take commuting from PHX-LAS over PHX-CVG anyday!!

Here's a question someone with more financial saavy than myself might be able to answer....if you live in AZ, but work based in LAS, how does the tax thing work. Would I have to have a crashpad and designate that as my address? Seems like a pain.

PR

 

[blzr]

Congrats on the new job! they are very hard to find these days. What will be your starting pay rate? Also, what will the rate be by the time you are elidgable for upgrade?

 

[TWA Dude]

I jumpseated home on first Friday. Class was over at 1415 so folks could get home for weekend.

Not true. On Fridays AWA trainees get the full FAA required eight hours of instruction. If you got done at 1415 it means you must've started early.

 

[N905TW]

MK82MAN,

Thanks so much for the post of your first week... it sounds like a dream, and really cannot wait to get into class, regardless of aircraft or LAS or PHX, will be thrilled either way!

What's funny is that the LAS base discussion came up after I was invited to join the company, and the 2 pilot interviewers on my day seemed to think that the December class guys probably would not be trained and ready in time for a LAS base January 31 bid effective date. They said that we would have to be done with sim AND done with IOE before that date to be assigned to the base. Maybe someone else who knows more on that topic can share the scoop...... Any idea how long training is planned for you?

Interesting that you heard rumors of an annoucement of some sort on Friday.... back here at my end (ATA Connection / Chicago Express), we were also led to believe something was going on.... which never did. Maybe we will all know what is happening in a few days. Something is definately going on though.... will just have to wait and see.

Will look forward to seeing how Week 2 goes for ya.... Good luck and happy studying!